Time required: ~10 minutes or less
Skills required: knot tying, fine motor skills
Tools needed: flashlight, needlenose pliers
Parts needed: 2x ~2ft long pieces of wire
Backstory: I was cruising along one day when my car (2009 e92 335i) let me know that I needed to add a quart of oil - I keep an extra in my trunk as I'm sure most of you do. Well, imagine my surprise when I pulled the hood release and only the driver's side latch popped
. No amount of pulling or pushing on the passenger side could get the latch to pop. I Googled for a solution but the only thing I could find that might be helpful was a YouTube video of a guy using a long bent flat head to pop the latch from behind the kidney grille. If you have the ability to blindly actuate the latches like that guy did, kudos, otherwise the latches are essentially sealed off. So I put the car on a lift and proceeded to disassemble the front end to find a solution. After two hours of fruitless effort, I put the car back together and decided to try again another day. However, before heading home I tried the hood release one more time and it worked!
Realizing that I could have this problem again, I needed to figure out an alternate way to releasing the latches. Before I closed the hood, I sprayed the latches down with silicone lube just in case that had been the issue (it wasn't - I need to replace the cable).
1. I decided to position a backup wire to actuate the latches in the event that the hood release cable failed again (it did a few days later). Below is a picture of the passenger's side latch and the hood release cable with ball end.
2. Obtain two pieces of wire, ~2ft long. I had leftover wire from another project so I used that. You will need to tie an knot at one end of each wire - I chose to do an overhand knot but I imagine any compact knot will do.
3. Use pliers to tighten the knot.
4. Route the backup wire.
5. Ensure that the backup wire moves freely.
6. Position the knotted end on top of the hood release cable.
7. After the wire has been routed and positioned properly, you can tie a loop at one end. Engage the latch using a screwdriver and then pull on the backup wire to ensure that it works.
8. After you have successfully tested the backup wire, positioned the looped end so that it dangles near the wheel well liner.
Note: This is a picture of the driver's side.
9. Relatively easy access from the wheel well. Wrap the loop with something bright for better visibility if you didn't use white wire. Blue painter's tape maybe.
10. Enjoy your piece of mind
