hood release

[shaggylive]

I recently inherited a 2002 cruiser. I noticed the hood release lever was difficult to pull, and was afraid i'd break it. well, sub-zero temps here and it snapped. cable and plastic lever on the interior.
I've spent hours searching, but it's a difficult set of keywords. anyone know where to get a replacement (besides dealer) or better yet is there an aftermarket (better) one available?

[Hooligan]

Salvage yard or dealer. I know of no other aftermarket available. Shaggylive, welcome to the Forum!!!

[shaggylive]

thanks for the reply. you would think with the poor oem design that someone would have an aftermarket available. oh, well, JY diving I go...

[CREWZIN]

It couldn't be too poor of a design. I've been on this and other PT forums for 8 years and your the first that I've ever heard of a broken hood release.

[Hooligan]

I had the same problem on a minivan I had. The problem was due to not enough lubrication between the shaft and the cover, so I was told. It was covered under dealer warranty.

[shaggylive]

I suppose I should have thought of that (lubricant). it was hard to open when I got it, but I just thought it was because it was such a tiny lever. I'm sure there was some ice up at the hood latch, combined with the sub-zero temps when it broke, I was asking for trouble.. oh well, live and learn. hope it's not too much of a pain to pull/replace.
btw, it's an 02 with 40k, so it did alot of sitting around when it was young. i've almost got it up to 44k in a month, speaking of which it needs an oil change.... grrr.

[garciaag]

i to broke my cable today and thought older car might as well get a new one for the extra 20.00 ill spend but i see crewzin said this was the first experiance with this issue...got me thinking if i should save the 20 and just maintain the hood release cable from the junk yard. how hard of a job is this to do? the dealer will sell me the whole cable with the release handle so i was wondering if i can just snip the handle and then pull the new cable through. then there is the issue of opening my hood! any ideas? thanks in advance!

[CREWZIN]

garciaag,

Here's your answer.....

If you look in the grill you should actually see the hood latch mechanism and the cable coming out of it. Now the cable has two parts which I'll call the wire and the sleeve. (The wire runs inside the sleeve) Take a long screwdriver and pry the sleeve away from the piece holding it in place. The wire should still be connected to whatever it's connected to. Now just pull the cable with a pliers or channel lock and it'll open.

Now this is on a 2001 P.T. Cruiser, non-special edition. I'm not sure if this same procedure will work on newer models or Limited and Touring editions.

[garciaag]

yup thats what i used to do but the wire and sleeve are completely off just hanging free. so thats not going to work!

[CREWZIN]

Not good. I just took a good hard look at the main latch and it's pretty well hidden by the secondary latch, otherwise you may be able to pry it open with a big long screwdriver. Sorry, don't know what else to suggest.