Hood release cable replacement...any tips?

[mpunklil]

I recently as of yesterday had the unfortunate experience of my hood release cable popping off of the latch...not the lever inside. I had no luck opening it from the bottom, so I ripped out the grill to get it all apart. Seriously a pain in the ass...and I'm using light words to describe it! Anyways, I want to swap out the entire cable. I don't trust the remaining plastic that attaches to the latch since it is quite brittle. Has anybody done this? Tips please. Yes I did a search, and yes I got inundated with irrelevant threads. Thanks!!

[Greedo]

I did it on my A4. It's not really all that difficult. From what I recall, you'll need to remove the left front fender liner as the cable feeds through the engine bay, into the fender and through the firewall. Just follow the old cable and you'll see where it all goes.

The hardest part was getting the hood open. Those acorn nuts are a bitch to work with and take what seems like forever to get off.

I ordered the cable and release lever (mine broke) from Europaparts.com.

PS: Mine all started by coming out of the release itself (under the hood). What I eventually noticed was that the release was seizing up - you may have the same problem. Be sure to lube that thing thoroughly so you don't encounter the same problem all over again in a few months (like I did).

[mpunklil]

I just had the fender liner out a few weeks ago for full suspension, so no biggy. Im actually happy it goes through there, because I ran it visually up to the fender and saw it dissapper...had me worried I was going to need to pull the abs and crap. The A4 should be no different than the S4 as far as that goes. Mine was simply just a bad f-n day: Audio processor shit its pants, which I had mounted where that "map storage bin" is in the driver knee bolster. Apparently when I was messing with that panel, it pulled the hood release lever and it snapped back. I heard something pop, but didn't think anything of it since the lever wasn't broken. I later on drained down my battery attempted to tune that processor, and thats when I realized the hood release crapped out on me. Luckily I was able to charge my battery through the power distribution block I have in the back, and even more lucky it didnt snap while on a road trip...THAT would f-n suck!!!

Anyways, did you lube the exterior of the cable before you pulled it? Lube on the way in? Or was the hole all whored out? I enjoyed those questions as much as you did, I'm quite sure about that lol.

[Greedo]

You can never use enough lube. Sometimes it's too tight.

I didn't lube mine, which is probably why it's a whore (or not) and wouldn't release which resulted in me removing the grille and doing it all over again.

[BCsniper]

I don't think I remember having to remove the fender lining when I replaced mine on my old S4. The hardest part of it I had with it was getting the new cable through the rubber seal that it goes through to get into the cabin of the car. Sounds easy but it was a pain in the ass for me, and now I can't really even remember why (...it's been about a year and a half)

[Greedo]

You didn't lube it. Obviously.

[mpunklil]

I don't think I remember having to remove the fender lining when I replaced mine on my old S4. The hardest part of it I had with it was getting the new cable through the rubber seal that it goes through to get into the cabin of the car. Sounds easy but it was a pain in the ass for me, and now I can't really even remember why (...it's been about a year and a half)

This is the part I was talking about lubing. I know to lube the cable, mine was lubed...the lever got slapped back and the shock of that broke off the mount tab. New cable came yesterday, the plastic is in MUCH better shape and not all brittle. I will probably grease up that grommet before I ram my cable through it.

[SlideWays]

I will probably grease up that grommet before I ram my cable through it.

Giggity.

Did you guys have any signs of failure before it went? My latch has a really high (IMO) pull-force needed and I'm afraid it will give up the ghost soon and leave me stuck with this seemingly awesome job. Don't want to prematurely replace, so just wondering if there are warning signs/hints?

[mpunklil]

Giggity.

Did you guys have any signs of failure before it went? My latch has a really high (IMO) pull-force needed and I'm afraid it will give up the ghost soon and leave me stuck with this seemingly awesome job. Don't want to prematurely replace, so just wondering if there are warning signs/hints?

I would venture to say "that is your sign". I noticed that the plastic on the part that mounts to the latch was a little more of a dark grey than a black...sign of the plastic drying out/degrading. Took me about 1 hour to swap it out, and I was just cruising along. Jack up the car just enough to pull the driver wheel off, pull out the fender liner, remove the windshield washer reservoirs (top and bottom), pull out old cable...reinstall in reverse. It's a thousand times easier to replace it than it is to break the grill and remove the hood nuts. 3 hours of fuckin with the hood is much worse than 1 hour of fuckin with putting a new cable in. Wish I had known this was an issue BEFORE it broke, just like you do. Pop the 30 bucks and save yourself hell.

[04 S4]

mine broke while we were workin on it at one point...so I ziptied it in place...no more worries for now ;)