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

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cable hood latch manual release
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184K views 73 replies 38 participants last post by  FlylowTX  
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#1 · (Edited)
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.
 
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#5 ·
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. :thumbup:
 
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#3 ·
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...
 
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#4 ·
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.
 
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#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
 
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#8 · (Edited)
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
 
 
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#10 ·
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
 
 
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#15 ·
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.
 
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#16 ·
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.
 
 
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#17 ·
Just adding keywords...
manual manually by hand common location pop open hood latch latches catch catches lever levers bracket release Bowden cable failure
 
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#18 ·
Thread to use as a supplement to the pictures linked to above --> here.
 
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#21 ·
oconnormelia said:
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.
Click to expand...
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.
 
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#20 ·
Soory Keif, but this thread doesn't work for 750Li. Seems to work for 745's.
 
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#22 ·
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.
 
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#23 ·
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.
 
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#24 ·
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
 
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#25 ·
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?



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Regards,
 
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#26 ·
Two latches, one for each side. You should see the cable leading into the latch on the side of the car that the hood release lever is on. Unsure about any differences due to it being RHD. Will try to take a picture in a bit.
 
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#68 ·
Hi Keif, I've read through the thread and I cannot find the info for opening the hood when the lever "inside" the car will not prop up the hood. Can I remove the lever and brackets inside the car on the drivers side floorboard to get to the cable?

Thanks for your time.
 
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#28 ·
Finally I've succeeded to open the hood. For the RHD e65's, the latches are the other way around. For the latch on the left you have to pull the cable from left to right and the same for the one on the right. The problem with mine was the bracket inside. The housing of the cable got through that plastic of the bracket and it wasn't making any tension while pulling the lever. All the cables were in good shape but I've decided to change the whole system except for the latches as I don't want to go through this again.
Thank you again Keif for the pictures.


Regards,
OoZz
 
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#29 ·
Thanks Keif for a very nice procedure. Unfortunatly it didn't work very well for my 740d. Seems the engine compartment is completely rearranged for my V8 diesel compared to your V8 gasoline engine.

I tried getting to the latches from below on both sides of the car but there was always lots of things blocking my access. I spent 6 hours on saturday trying to remove stuff from below to reach the latches without success.

The reason my hood is stuck is because I decided to charge the battery overnight and placed the small charger just behind the attachment point for the shock absorber on the passenger side of the engine compartment. Then placed the extension cable a little to the right of the passenger side latch and down and out below the kidneys and closed the hood. After that it won't open.
I'm guessing the extension cable is putting pressure between the car frame and the hood so that for some reason the latch won't open.

Pretty much scratching my head now trying to come up with a solution... :-/
Only thing I can think of is to follow your procedure to get to the cable that's connected to the release handle inside the car and just pull it hard with some pliers.
 
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#30 ·
To get access to the latches I had to take both front wheels off and then the plastic covers. I've started with the latch on the left because mine is RHD. Took off the left wheel, unscrew the plastic underneath the wing but the windscreen washer bottle was in the way. Took it off and then I was able to see the latch and the cable. I've pulled the cable to the right strongly and the bonnet popped up on one side. Then I've put everything back together, did the same on the other side and success. I've replaced the whole system for a piece of mind.
I suggest you start with the right latch because your handle is on the left. The cable firstly goes to the latch on the left and from there another cable to the one on the right.
Took me a bit over 30 min. Hopefully this will help.

Regards,
OoZz
 
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