My hood release lever in the cab went limp, and I think it's broken somewhere. I had to take my grille apart to release the hood latches in order to troubleshoot. One of the latches in particular was very corroded and now doubt gave too much resistance. I greased all the mechanisms very well.
Warning to everyone - routinely lubricate your latch releases so this doesn't happen to you! It seems to be a Jag issue on this model.
I ordered a new cable and am researching how to install. I can't find instructions in the Jaguar repair manual or anything online, as to the route of the cable and how to access and replace it. Any guidance or reference material would be greatly appreciated before I start following the path and taking things apart. Thanks!

 

I did find this description on the forum, which is helpful: https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...-cable-153012/.

 

I bought a new cable for about $50 and installed it today. It took about two hours (the Jaguar book says 2.5 hours) - sorry, didn't take pics. The cable's path is fairly simple and not so hard to reach. The cable runs under the air intake housing, so the housing, duct, and tube had to come off to get to it. The cable runs between the engine and wheel well (driver's side) and into the cab through the firewall in the same compartment as the brake fluid reservoir, accessible through the driver side opening in the cowl grille. To get at the cable grommet in the firewall, I had to remove the drain tube in the brake reservoir compartment. To expose the portion of the cable in the cab running to the interior release lever, I also needed to remove the scuff plate and a panel trim piece. Inside the cab, there was an 8" rubber sheathing on the cable that I cut off in order to be able to just pull the cable through the hole in the firewall and out of the cab.

I started with the new cable by feeding it through the hole in the firewall from the engine compartment into the cab. It took patience and repeated attempts to secure the grommet in the hole; I used a thin blade screwdriver and worked the side of the grommet into the hole starting at the bottom and then up the sides. Given the cramped quarters and nature of the job, it was a tight fit and took some patience and repeated efforts to get the grommet secured. I then worked the cable from the firewall back to the release mechanisms on the front of the car.

The next most difficult task was working with two riveted cable holders. One of the holders is under the air intake duct. I drilled out the rivet to release the old cable and replaced it with a similar piece found at the hardware store and then secured with a self-tapping metal screw. The second riveted holder is on the frame separating the engine and front grille near the driver side headlight. I bent the holder outward in order to get the old cable from under it and then used another of the same attachment piece to secure the new cable near the same location.

The last step was running the cable and fasteners into the release mechanisms. Works fine now. The Jag shop wanted 2.5 hours at $180/hour.

 

I, too, had to replace a hood cable on the 2003 XJ I once had. I made sure that my mechanic dribbled some thin oil down it before fitting and never had any more problems. The black plastic cable covering tends to split and allow in water/salt which rusts it out so it seizes. Funnily enough the latches themselves were pretty good and had actually been lubed over the years. I have bought a motorcycle cable lubricator which forces oil down the cable under hydraulic pressure of the oil. I used this last time on my MG Midget hood cable.