Hood cable failure point / how to open hood manually upon cable failure

Today's issue: hood cable failure after messing with the HID bulbs in the headlights.

These pictures show a common location for hood cable failure. In my case, the clamp at the end of the cable sleeve broke the plastic outer sleeving behind it and slid up the metal inner sleeve, which reduced its ability to provide resistance to actually pull the cable.

These videos and pictures show how to pop open the hood latches manually upon cable failure.

These pictures show how to replace the rear hood Bowden cable and hood lever bracket.
 

i must say..

you are becoming the MOST important member on here

thanks BUDDY

Keif,

i got a question!

remember my belt was making noise, i didnt know about if my aftermarket warranty was gonna cover it!

so my cousin changed my belt and he said that the noise went away BUT my water pump pulley has some movement

my question is, IS THAT NORMAL, to have travel in any pulleys and on my water pump pulley?

and dont forget that i dont know a lot about engine parts or replacing them...

A very small bit of movement is normal with some milles, but much more and it's time to keep a closer eye on the pump (actually the bearings, but same difference). As our cars start to get up in mileage, it's good at every opportunity to spin the various pulleys (to listen for noisy bearings) and wiggle them like you did (to check for play / looseness).

Any ol' mechanic should be able to wiggle the fan and let you know if the pump has too much play, but generally everything should feel pretty tight when you wiggle the top of the fan lightly toward the front and back of the car. Sorry, I know that was pretty vague...so...generally the fan shouldn't move more than maybe a few millimeters. Hope this helps a little.

Originally Posted by Seven11

i must say..

you are becoming the MOST important member on here

thanks BUDDY

He definitely is, I wish I didn't lemon my 7. Keif im sure you've heard it from previous members but I got to say you are G8 value to the forum. Welcome aboard man.

Originally Posted by momo's_se\/en

He definitely is, I wish I didn't lemon my 7. Keif im sure you've heard it from previous members but I got to say you are G8 value to the forum. Welcome aboard man.

come on, brother, u dont have to lie, we are all friends here

i would have loved to lemon my 7

and about the water pump pulley

my cousin is saying there is like a 15 degrees of movement?

is my aftermarket warranty gonna tell me that its fine and thats the way its supposed to be and my dealer gonna charge me like 200 to 300 dollars for check up?

i just dont know

Thanks guys, I really appreciate it, and let me know what dealerships you lemon your cars to so I can go buy em off their back lot cheap and fix em up...might as well find SOME way to make money off this obsession of mine, right?!! lol

Regarding the pump...was he saying 15 degrees meaning that the water pump itself was going bad or just the fan clutch? (i.e. maybe he was talking about the fan cutch allowing the fan to spin 15 degrees versus wiggling front-to-back 15 degrees) That being said, IF he does say your water pump is going, opt to do it sooner versus later (i.e. upon failure) -- it sounds like these engines don't react well to overheating at all. If during your coolant pipe blowout you ran the water pump dry for a bit, bearing issues are almost guaranteed and you'll likely replace the water pump soon, so let's hope that's not the case.

Nostalgic story... Back in high school I had an E3 (the 3.0s version, but same body style as a Bavaria) and I ran the water pump to failure. The bearings were trashed when it finally failed and allowed the water pump pulley to **** down and send the fan into the radiator, ripping up both and leaving me stranded on a country road 2 1/2 hours west of Philly. What is 2 1/2 hours west of Philly, you ask...f'ing NOTHING...at all. My dad drove the 2 1/2 hours to come get me, only to laugh when he got there and say "Wow, I didn't think you'd actually make it this far!" Wtf!...thanks for telling me you knew of a problem!@!! And, so instead of spending all day with some hot girl I met on the internet (she sent pics, I was stoked...lol), I instead spent about 15 minutes with her with my dad there. ...and she actually did turn out to be blisteringly hot...what a bummer. lol
 

Great post Keif! Keep them coming and thanks for sharing....

I should have pictures later tonight showing whatever is involved with pulling the old cable out and putting the new one in. ...hopefully. If not, then I probably broke something else. lol
 

that sounds like too much movement to me seven11 ! no car i've ever worked on where everything is in servicable condition has the much play in it ! i'd seriously think about getting it sorted if i were you !

my warranty covers the water pump and ALL the things that it needs,

pulleys, bolts, gaskets.

making an appointment

Originally Posted by Seven11

come on, brother, u dont have to lie, we are all friends here

i would have loved to lemon my 7

LOL, I honestly miss my 7 and being in the 7 forum. I might get in another one when my lease is up my son is getting taller every day and he be hitting the back seat already in the 5. But will see how things tend to be by the time my lease is up.

u can get a great deal on the 06-08 750's

So yeah, I broke something else. New hood cable = good. Old bracket for lever = bad. All done now though.

Advice for anyone replacing the section of the hood cable / Bowden cable running through the firewall to the bracket and lever inside the car: replace the bracket holding the lever at the same time as the cable, no matter how good your bracket looks. The plastic retainer piece on the bracket that holds back the cable's sheath and provides resistance for the lever gets old and will break through -- making you unable to open your hood with the lever since the bracket no longer provides resistance.

Parts replaced: (see diagram here)

• Bowden cable, rear (part #9 / 51237197474 / $14.05)
• Bracket (part #12 / 51237023992 / $11.53)

Prices listed above are without tax, purchased from dealership using BMWCCA discount.
 

Hood cable and hood lever bracket replacement pictures are up (see original post). The area inside the car where the cable hits the firewall is pretty cramped, so sorry about the crappy pictures. I tried doing most of this without taking things out of the way; it just plain didn't work. Take a few minutes to take out the things the things I did in the pictures and you'll save your knuckles plenty of scraping.
 

Just adding keywords...
manual manually by hand common location pop open hood latch latches catch catches lever levers bracket release Bowden cable failure

Thread to use as a supplement to the pictures linked to above --> here.

Great thread however as I live in Ireland the cable is on the RHS and there are too many obstructions for your hand. Resolved it be removing lever and sacing used to pliers to pull the wire through the cable and the hood popped.

Soory Keif, but this thread doesn't work for 750Li. Seems to work for 745's.

Originally Posted by oconnormelia

Great thread however as I live in Ireland the cable is on the RHS and there are too many obstructions for your hand. Resolved it be removing lever and sacing used to pliers to pull the wire through the cable and the hood popped.

Funnily enough I did this job on Tuesday. I hadn't got to the point that the bonnet wouldn't open due to the cable breaking. It had, however, pulled through the sleeving on the lever end so I took the cover off and removed the cable from the mechanism and pulled it with pliers.

Changing the cable was pretty straight forward. I fed it in to the join through the outer firewall from where the microfilter is and then fed the other end through the inner firewall. The cable is stiff enough to get through to where it needs to be without removing anything in the car other than the kick panel where the lever is and the plastic panel under the dash.

Sadly mine is not broken from the inside the car. I took it apart like Keif's post says and the cable looks fine as well as the cable sleeve. The handle and mechanism is in great shape as well. I did take the cable out of the mechanism and pulled it with a pair of pliers. It glided smoothly, but did not pop the hood. I think that it is bad under the hood where it goes bad like in Keif's post. Taking it to Indy next week.

Good news, Indy got it open. He removed the resevoir but still could not reach the lock. He was able to grab the cable going to the lock and pulling it with pliers. He said it is much harder than 745. It will cost more too because of the extra time. My problem was at the typical failure point that Keif stresses in his post. The one under the hood. I think that that area should require some type of lubrication. Now I think that I am going to have all three cables replaced.

More metal parts (instead of plastic) and full metal sleeving at the cable ends would be nice. As you can see from my different sets of pictures, it's already broken in several places on mine. I should have replaced all those cables the first time around.

Sent from my ADR6400L using Bimmer App

Hi guys,

I am new around here and unfortunately I need your help. My hood cable just snapped and I can't open the hood. I've tried Kief's (Thanks Keif for the DIY) procedure but I was unable to locate the latches.
Are there 2 latches, one for each side?
Are there any differences between LHD and RHD cars?
Can any of you help me with a picture (see attach) with the hood open so I can see where are the latches?



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Regards,