i have broke 2 hood release levers and i refuse to buy another until i know if i can adjust it. you can feel the tension is super tight. any one else have this issue?

 

The mounting screws when loosened, allow the latch to be moved a small amount. In addition, the rubber buffers that the hood sits on can be adjusted up and down. When I first got my car, the hood would regularly pop-up on one side. so I adjusted the buffer on that side.

However your problem sounds as if it lies in the latch cable itself. I should mention that later on I snapped off the end of the cable as it had got more and more difficult to unlatch the hood. What it needed was a new latch cable, as they are notorious for rusting up. Jaguar never lubed them on the production line, can you beat that ! My mechanic lubed the cable, and also the latches, plus he re-routed the cable so it had larger radius bends. I have had no trouble since, and that was 4 years ago.

 

Often, given that I drive older vehicles for Virginia tax reasons. Just not (yet) on the XJ.

Fraser's mechanic nailed most of it. The rest of it being that those curves must be at least somewhat constrained. Cable-ties, clips, etc.

Otherwise .. when force is applied, at least a portion of the 'movement budget' is eaten-up just changing the path of the curve in the outer jacket and not enough remains to move the latch.

Same thing applies to ignorant lawn-mowers if you want to experiment on the cheap and in plain view.



And then there is the latch itself.

If/as/when steel, and rusted, WD-40 - a lousy lubricant but fair-decent at flushing stuff - applied whilst working the latch manually 'many times' - until rusty oil ceases to come out... then a shot of white lithium grease - which IS a fair-decent lube for such things - and one is usually good for the next five or ten years.

 

Bonnet (hood) height can be adjusted up or down by using the striker adjustment. On the bonnet itself, the striker has a nut that can be turned to raise or lower the striker.