My 2002 Explorer's hood wouldn't open, and unlike just about every other question I've had with this vehicle, I couldn't find a helpful thread on this forum... at least not about the 3rd gen trucks. Here's some info that I hope will help someone else.
"Stuck hood release" can mean a lot of things - broken cable, stretched cable, pinched cable, frozen latch, etc. If you've ever fixed this kind of problem before on another vehicle, you know that the procedure is similar on every car - find somewhere you can access the cable, either near the release handle or near the latch itself, and find some way to pull on it - worst case scenario is cut the cable and grab it with vise grips.
On my 2002 Explorer, when I pulled the hood release handle, I felt some resistance, but the hood wouldn't pop. I tried the easy route - asking someone to push/pull on the hood while I worked the cable, but that didn't help. Then I removed the hood release lever (torx screw) and the plastic panel around the lever, and went after the cable with vise grips. I was able to pull the cable a little farther this way, but still no open hood.
At this point, the "been there, done that" memories kick in, and you start to wonder if you're going to have to break something to get the hood open, and if so, hopefully it won't be an expensive part. Fortunately, I was able to get it open without breaking anything.
At the front of the truck, the plastic Ford eggcrate grill is held in at the top (which you can't access) with four plastic pop rivets (the type that expand with a plastic screw down the middle), and along the bottom plastic curve with several plastic tabs. I put my fingers in the grill openings and carefully pulled up, releasing the plastic tabs along the bottom. I used my shop light to wedge that gap across the bottom open (still scratched my wrists and forearms quite a bit, but it helps), and reached in with a trim pad/pop rivet tool.
Behind the grill is a plastic surround that hides the radiator core support and hood latch from sight (and from thieves). This shroud is held in with four plastic "fur tree" type rivets, one at each top corner near the headlights, and two more at each bottom corner below the top of the bumper cover.
At this point, you only need to undo the two pop rivets at the top corners. I removed them with my trim pad tool (takes a bit of wiggling with this type of pop rivet). At the bottom center of the grill area, the plastic surround wraps around the core support. I pulled the surround up and out so it was resting in the gap between the grille and the bumper cover (using a rag so I wouldn't scratch the paint). Now I was able to pull the plastic surround down away from the hood latch itself. I could see two hex heads on either side of the latch.
Using a 1/4" drive with a long (18") extension and an 8mm socket, I went in through the grill and removed the two bolts. Now the hood would lift up 3" or so (but it was still being held down by the release cable and latch assembly). This created enough room to use a phillips screwdriver bit (with my fingertips) on the four pop rivets that held the top of the Ford eggcrate grill in.
With the Ford grill removed, I could see the two remaining fur tree pop rivets holding the plastic surround in at the corners below the bumper cover. These rivets were installed from the bottom up, and since I didn't have an easy way to access the heads from the bottom side, I just wiggled the surround up off the rivets.
With the grill and surround removed, I could easily shine my light up onto the bottom side of the hood. Going back to the 1/4" drive and 8mm socket, with a slightly shorter extension this time, I went up through the grill area to remove the two bolts that hold the hood release "loop" (the part that the hood latch grabs) from the hood. I could have done this with a short socket directly on the 1/4" drive, and skipped the effort of removing the grill+surround until the last step, but this method was easier on the knuckles in my opinion.
And that's it - now my hood is up, without damaging even a single pop rivet. In my case, I'm very glad I did it this way, since halfway through I realized that my culprit was a seized latch. If I had cut the still-good cable and started tugging on it with vise grips, I wouldn't have gotten anywhere, and I'd have to replace the cable.
If this happens to you, save the swearing for some other project - this one is a 10 minute job.
--Matt
"Stuck hood release" can mean a lot of things - broken cable, stretched cable, pinched cable, frozen latch, etc. If you've ever fixed this kind of problem before on another vehicle, you know that the procedure is similar on every car - find somewhere you can access the cable, either near the release handle or near the latch itself, and find some way to pull on it - worst case scenario is cut the cable and grab it with vise grips.
On my 2002 Explorer, when I pulled the hood release handle, I felt some resistance, but the hood wouldn't pop. I tried the easy route - asking someone to push/pull on the hood while I worked the cable, but that didn't help. Then I removed the hood release lever (torx screw) and the plastic panel around the lever, and went after the cable with vise grips. I was able to pull the cable a little farther this way, but still no open hood.
At this point, the "been there, done that" memories kick in, and you start to wonder if you're going to have to break something to get the hood open, and if so, hopefully it won't be an expensive part. Fortunately, I was able to get it open without breaking anything.
At the front of the truck, the plastic Ford eggcrate grill is held in at the top (which you can't access) with four plastic pop rivets (the type that expand with a plastic screw down the middle), and along the bottom plastic curve with several plastic tabs. I put my fingers in the grill openings and carefully pulled up, releasing the plastic tabs along the bottom. I used my shop light to wedge that gap across the bottom open (still scratched my wrists and forearms quite a bit, but it helps), and reached in with a trim pad/pop rivet tool.
Behind the grill is a plastic surround that hides the radiator core support and hood latch from sight (and from thieves). This shroud is held in with four plastic "fur tree" type rivets, one at each top corner near the headlights, and two more at each bottom corner below the top of the bumper cover.
At this point, you only need to undo the two pop rivets at the top corners. I removed them with my trim pad tool (takes a bit of wiggling with this type of pop rivet). At the bottom center of the grill area, the plastic surround wraps around the core support. I pulled the surround up and out so it was resting in the gap between the grille and the bumper cover (using a rag so I wouldn't scratch the paint). Now I was able to pull the plastic surround down away from the hood latch itself. I could see two hex heads on either side of the latch.
Using a 1/4" drive with a long (18") extension and an 8mm socket, I went in through the grill and removed the two bolts. Now the hood would lift up 3" or so (but it was still being held down by the release cable and latch assembly). This created enough room to use a phillips screwdriver bit (with my fingertips) on the four pop rivets that held the top of the Ford eggcrate grill in.
With the Ford grill removed, I could see the two remaining fur tree pop rivets holding the plastic surround in at the corners below the bumper cover. These rivets were installed from the bottom up, and since I didn't have an easy way to access the heads from the bottom side, I just wiggled the surround up off the rivets.
With the grill and surround removed, I could easily shine my light up onto the bottom side of the hood. Going back to the 1/4" drive and 8mm socket, with a slightly shorter extension this time, I went up through the grill area to remove the two bolts that hold the hood release "loop" (the part that the hood latch grabs) from the hood. I could have done this with a short socket directly on the 1/4" drive, and skipped the effort of removing the grill+surround until the last step, but this method was easier on the knuckles in my opinion.
And that's it - now my hood is up, without damaging even a single pop rivet. In my case, I'm very glad I did it this way, since halfway through I realized that my culprit was a seized latch. If I had cut the still-good cable and started tugging on it with vise grips, I wouldn't have gotten anywhere, and I'd have to replace the cable.
If this happens to you, save the swearing for some other project - this one is a 10 minute job.
--Matt
