Hi guys ... i really need your help ... today i opened my hood to check the oil and stuff but when i was closing it, it wont close. The cable behind the lever that we pull to open the hood under the steering column is loose. Seems to me that the latch under hood doesnt wanna grab the hood even when i try to kind of close it hard. Should i just replace the latch or can the cable be causing the problem?

Thanks

 

Sounds like there's something up with your hood latch. Have someone pull on the hood release lever and try to lift up the hood and see if it releases.

 

the hood is already open ... it wont close ...

 

can someone please post a close up picture of the latch when the hood is open .... i just wanna see whether my latch is open or not ....

thanks in advanced

 

Very dangerous.
I thought I had fixed the problem (Shut like normal) then while on the expressway it poped back up. Thank God not all the way up. I brought it to the dealer and they repaced the entire hood latch assembly, springs, cable housing box etc. $198.00. total..it was worth the piece of mind.

The Lex tech said that this seemed to be a problem with the 98-00 GS models. Mainly here in the Chicago area (Rust, corrossion)...something with the springs/catch unit ($64.00) being right up front.

The hood lowers down but it does not catch...

 

I also had/have this problem. Pop the hood and when you close it, it doesn't catch on the latch. Since I'm a couple of hours from a dealer I tried a quick fix. I noticed the hood wasn't quite getting down far enough to push fully through the spring catch. I lubed up the spring catch and tried to looseed the catch bolts and raise it just a bit. Now it works fine. It may start again, but it buys me time to replace the spring assembly.

Btw, I also noticed that when the hood wouldn't catch correctly I could drive the car with the hood being held by the emergency catch/hook. After a mile or so I could jump out and push the hood down and it would latch correctly. Leeding me to believe the cable is also part of the problem on mine. I guess the car movement put some pressure on the cable and took up the slack. (btw, mine's a 98)

 

I also have the same problem on a 99 GS300. I took the latch assembly all apart (as much as I could) and oiled it down. I can see that there is a spring connected to the cable that releases the catch for the hood. At first, I thought the spring or level was getting caught but now I beleive it is the cable. I can sit in the car and "flick" at the hood release lever and it will eventually, free itself. So now, I need to deside if I want to have Lexus or Toyota replace the cable. I wonder what it will cost???

 

i had this happen on my 98.
i used a ton of zip ties to hold it for a day or 2 and got the latch assembly replaced by my body shop. It was like $50 total.

They tried everything to fix it...mine was the latch just freezing.....

 

I also live in Chicago, but mine is a 2001 weird,that all these people reply but mine seems like the same situation as yours, not corrosion. The problem must have been before I bought it because there is a hand like dent on the front of my hood, like some one shut it too hard..I have taken the whole assembly apart and wasn't able to see the pin that releases, I was always able to mess with it for a half hour and get it to release then shut. But I got stuck at the jiffy lube a couple weeks ago and we couldn't get it shut, I warned them it might happen but we couldn't get it for nothin, what I believe it is is the cable is stretched too far to give tension to release the pin on the latch back, I reached under the radiator core support and yanked hard on the whole cable and got it to release and shut, I am sure I will have to have mine relplaced but it seems like a pain to have a new cable put in all the way through the fender......good luck, just try and find the cable underneath and pull a couple times......if not wrap a bungie cord from the inside and the bottom of your fender to hold it until you get it fixed....

 

thanks a lot for all the replies guys .... i took the latch out and turns out that the spring in there is bad and is not pulling the cable so i would have to replace the latch assembly .... i ordered it already today and should be here tomorrow ...... thanks ......

 

I tried for half an hour, it just won't shut, even trying to force the cable from inside.

exactly how do I find the cable from under the hood? the latch just won't close, I used a screw driver to push it down to enact the action, and it won't latch. so frustrating

i also took the two bolts off from on front, but didn't know what else needed removing to get the latch out to look, and now it is dark