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Well i got lucky. While working in the vicinity of the hood latch i noticed a strage thing. Only 4 strands of the inner release cable were unbroken and still attached to the L shaped connector to the hood latch. I figured one or two more pulls and broken and misery. I took the grill out and began to remove the L hook and all 4 strands broke. They were all broke where they entered the L hook. After a lot of looking i finally decided to drill and tap for a 10-32 screw and use a crimp on number 10 eyelet for the cable. Of course the inner cable was no loger twisted nicely so that was a challege to get it all into the eyelet butt portion. The latch is plenty thick for threading and i had just enough inner cable to crimp the eyelet strongly. After some fine tuning it works great. I have also ordered the last remaining jaguar cable i think on earth from jagbits. Just in case. Here are a couple pics of repair
i got real lucky. I have also ordered a 26 inch thin screwdriver in case i ever need to come thru the grill for manual release and will put a jamnut on for safety. Probably should be called a Z hook
Last edited by scottjh9; Jul 16, 2025 at 08:45 PM.
Good find. This makes me think: I should - while mine is still OK - open the bonnet (hood) and then find a way to see, how I could manipulate the latch from underneath with e.g. a huge screwdriver, while I can see what I am doing so that I would know what to do, if the bonnet would not open one day....
Good find. This makes me think: I should - while mine is still OK - open the bonnet (hood) and then find a way to see, how I could manipulate the latch from underneath with e.g. a huge screwdriver, while I can see what I am doing so that I would know what to do, if the bonnet would not open one day....
I checked that out while I was doing all the other work and I figured that length of screwdriver and a real thin one could go through the grill and not cost too much damage. But I think I will put a notch in the blade end so that it is easier to fit onto the lever of the latch release. That the flashlight and I think it is all good to go. As I looked at the Z shaped connector and how the inner cable went into it, I could see how overtime it would break. Also, in seeing that the only one I could find available was from Jag bits I think that many cables have broken over the years for these s types and they are all the same cable from from 2000 to 2008.
Check out this thread for more details on how to release a hood with a broken cable. Specifically, please see post #33 for details I added on how to determine which cable has broken, as there are two latches. My write-up was for an early model, but some of the details will still be applicable for later models with the mesh grill:
Hood release cable disaster averted
