Replacing hood release cable on 94 civic

[Godfrey Muganda]

Hi all,
How do I go about replacing the hood release cable when I can open the hood?

The hood release cable was not working reliably on my 94 civic when I bought
it about a year ago.
I could usually get it to release after jiggling the end of the cable (it
had come loose from the handle
under the dash) for several minutes. Today I went out to change my oil.
About an 30 minutes of jiggling
proved futile in getting the hood to release, but I did manage to fray the
cable badly with the pliers I was using.

Seems now I have to replace the cable, but how do I do that if I cant open
the hood?

All advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Godfrey

 

[Caroline]

Can you explain what you mean by "jiggling"? Do you mean that, before today,
you have to pull the cable really hard, without using the handle (which had
become unattached from the cable)?

The hood release on 1990s Honda Civics is notorious for failing in one way or
another.

My 1991 Civic LX's hood release cable kept stretching just a few years after I
purchased it new. The result was the handle couldn't extend the cable far enough
to pop the hood. For years I instead pushed the cable stopper into its holder
(all in the driver's footwell), grasped the end of the cable with a pair of
pliers, and pulled until the hood popped. If you do this, then watch the hood as
you pull. A number of times I missed the "pop" sound and kept pulling
needlessly. As you know, the hood rises a little when the hood release mechanism
works correctly...

I have since developed another solution to the problem.

Also, I understand there are ways of dissassembling the bumper so you can get at
the hood release mechanism.

But let's first see whether you have a cable on which you can pull, first.

If you're in a hurry, Google the alt.autos.honda and rec.autos.makers.honda
newsgroups for more discussion of this problem.