My hood lock cable stopped working and I can't open the hood.
I saw a video for a gen 2. I removed a black plastic cover under the engine and tried to access the latch from underneath, but no success. I can't even see the latch from underneath.
Should I remove the black plastic that attaches to the white painted bumper?

Thanks for any advice.

iv done this and you need to remove the engine splash shield or at least un pop the front. when done get a torch and look up between the bumper and radiator towards front of hood . you then need to get a very long and i mean very long screwdriver and insert it up towards the hood lock . find the hood release lever in the lock and push it vertically whilst someone else pushes down on the hood, this will release the hood as the lock will be pushed fully in and the person pushing down will feel the hood pop. as i said i have done this and it works. keep us updated.

 

. when done get a torch and look up between the bumper and radiator towards front of hood .

This can not sound very good to most people here. I know this person means get a FLASH LIGHT in UK talk. A torch in the USA means a flaming device used to heat or burn something.

SO PLEASE DO NOT USE A TORCH AS A FLASH LIGHT.

 

Where did it break? Any chance it broke at the hood release inside the car? If so, you can get some pliers/vice grips and just pull really hard to see if it will release.

 

Thanks! I saw a video of someone doing that too. I checked the cable end inside the car and it's not broken there. I unhooked the cable from the lever and pull as hard as I dared but it didn't release. I was afraid to pull too hard and break something else.

When I pull the cable from the inside the car, the cable then comes back in, so I guess the cable may not be broken and the spring at the lock is pulling it back, so it maybe something different than the cable.

 

I went and looked at our '09 after you posted. I guess the only way is as reply #2 says.
I even tried to remove the Honda emblem on the grille, figuring that would give access to the latch - nope.
At least I know why I'm so anal about lubricating the hood release
Good luck!

 

@Mariano
Did you get this figured out?

 

^^ LOL. Thanks for the advice. No I was not going to put a torch close to the engine.

@Mariano
Did you get this figured out?

Didn't have time yet. Hopefully tomorrow.

 

UPDATE: I tried getting between the radiator and the bumper, but same thing. I can't even see the latch. And from this side, I can't get my hand up there. The space is too narrow between the rad and the bumper, even for my skinny hands and arms.

I will try to remove the front bumper. Never done it before. I did remove the rear when I installed the trailer hitch.
In the videos about removing the front bumper, it always starts by opening the hood and removing the plastic trim on top of the radiator. However, it looks like I may able to loosen everything from the bottom and then force the bumper out.

 

Might force it out enough without breaking stuff.

 

Good luck with this, I'm watching with interest.
Looking at our '09, I'm sure you can pry out the black plastic 'cup' on the grille that holds the Honda emblem, giving you a better chance at releasing the latch. But it is tight and I didn't want to break anything.

 

Did you happen to watch any of these videos?

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=crv+hood+stuck

 

Yes, thank you! I think I watched all of them. The ones that unlock the latch from underneath are about a GEN2 (or GEN1, not sure)

Will update with results.

 

And please make sure to let the rest of us know how to do this when you get it sorted out.

 

I opened it! I was lucky. Just when I was about to pull out the front fender and most likely break something, I asked my wife to pull from the release lever inside the car while I pulled the hood upwards and after some wiggling and pulling it opened.

One of the two springs in the latch was broken. It was dry and rusty. It's weird the second spring looks good. Maybe a different material. I definitely should have greased the latch.
The springs that operates the cable was good. The broken one was the one that release the lock.

I don't know if would have been able to pull out the bumper without opening the hood. There are two push pins that hold the black plastic cover against the top painted trim in the bumper.

The cable was in good condition. I added some lube to it. The fact that the inside release lever came back by itself doesn't say anything about the condition of the cable or the spring in the latch because the inside lever has a spring itself, so the inside release lever will always come back as long as its spring is good.

I will try to get a new spring that fits so I can get it to work today. Then will see if I get the OEM springs or get a whole new latch. The latch looks good though. No rust on it, and not much play in the levers.

 

Good news! Thanks for the update

 

You can probably buy one of those springs at Ace Hardware.

You can see from this Amazon listing how it goes:

 

^^ Exactly. The one in your picture seems to be for a Gen4 (2012-2016). I found a similar picture on eBay. Anyways, it was very easy to figure out the position of the broken spring.

AT Home Depot I found a spring that looks identical to the broken one for $5 Now it's all re mounted and working.
It looks like Honda doesn't sell the springs. A new OEM latch costs a bit over 100 and there are some aftermarket for around 20.

Here is the latch with the HomeDepot spring (shiny and wider one):

 

Looks like you did a nice job cleaning it up as well as fixing it.

 

Nice Job with the spring and solving your problem

 

Its goofy that is $5 at home depot. Tractor supply likely less.

So where does the release cable connect to? So if a person does have a broke cable how to open?

 

Its goofy that is $5 at home depot. Tractor supply likely less.

LOL $5 was actually for a box with four springs. I would have paid even more.

 

In the end, I didn't find out how to release the latch because I didn't have to, because my cable was good.

The cable gets into the latch from the left side of the car and connects to the lever that has the smaller spring. When you pull from the cable, the lever in the latch releases the lock, which is loaded by the second spring and lets the hood pop.

This picture shows the cable still connected to the latch:

The latch is shown from behind, so the cable is on the left of the car and the red arrow is the right side of the car.
The hooks on top are the ones that lock the hood, so that's upwards.
Half of the broken spring is still there.

In case of a broken cable, I'd say you should manage to slide in something from the right side of the car into the latch and push the lever at the end of the small spring (red arrow). If both springs are ok, that should release the latch.

 

I suppose if a person wanted to and was a bit paranoid about the cable ever breaking the thing to do would to have a wire or what ever connected to where the cable is so you could reach it
and pull it to open the hood. It just would not be fun to have to destroy parts just to open the hood if the cable ever breaks.

And stupid me ! You already had a photo of it on page 1.

 

Thank you for your detailed photos. I had a different problem but your photos were just what I needed. My daughter's battery died so the neither the key fob nor the trunk latch would work. Only then did we realize that there's something wrong with her door lock keyway as well, and we had no way to get into the cabin to pop the hood and jump start the car. I watched several videos but couldn't figure out exactly how to release the hood from under the engine. Your photo with the cable still attached was just what I needed to figure out where to apply screwdriver pressure. We popped the hood, jumped the car, and we're back in working order. Thanks!

Now I just need to figure out what to do about the door lock.

 

Hi @chouser, would you mind telling me where you applied pressure? Did you stick the screwdriver through the front, into the horizontal gap under the hood, or did you come up through the bottom of the car with a very long screwdriver?

I've just discovered that in recent CR-Vs, the lock now has an electronic actuator – there is no longer a mechanical linkage. So if your 12v battery dies, as can quite easily happen, the metal emergency key won't unlock the driver's door. Insane! It's putting me right off Hondas.

The only way around this would be some way of getting the hood open to recharge the battery, as you seem to have managed to do.

 

Did you insert the screwdriver from underneath the car?!?

 

I couldn't find how to. From underneath, I couldn't see the latch at all.

 

Be aware that this thread is about Gen 3 CR-V, (2007-2011 in US). A 2023 must be very different.

 

Ah right, apologies, I missed that. Moved my rant to the right forum.