I hit a deer with my 1999 civic si. All it did was put a small dent on the hood. The hood opened fine after the accident. Just recently, I haven't been able to get the hood to open. I believe my hood release cable must have snapped. The only way I know of to get to it is to take off the front bumper. Once I get in there, is there any way to repair the cable or is that something I will have to buy? Anyone that has some information on this, that would be great! I need to change my oil!!

 

i thought civics dont have hood release cables....to my knowledge it is just a hook where it holds the hood!!

i guess i might be wrong but i have not seen a hood release cable on my 97 civic!!

 

If the cable is broken you wil need to replace it. What does it feel like when you pull on the release when in the car? If it is broken it is a question of where it broke. I don't have that year of civic so I'm not that familiar with how much space there is to get to the cable from underneath, perhaps someone else can check their vehicle. I did run into one where the owner thought it was broken but it was only the pull handle and we were able to open it using vice grips on the wire.

Good luck.

 

there has to be a cable, how else would the release in the car trigger the hood to open? When I pull on the release you can see it moving the silver metal latch that opens the hood, but it just moves it a little and it doesn't pull it up all the way like it should. I guess there is no easy way to fix this, I'm going to have to rip the front bumper off and see what the problem is. I'm in desperate need of changing my oil. I wonder if I have to buy a cable from honda parts or if it is something i can just pick up anywhere?

 

Most likely you'll have to get the cable at Honda as I'm sure they are pretty specific. Of course you can always call a couple of your local auto parts stores to see if they carry them.

 

Some cars (dunno if any hondas but neither here nor there) have a button that activates a motor that pops the hood latch, similar to how the trunk release works on many cars.

You should be able to get on the ground and use a vice grip to pull the cable so that the hood opens. Using a flashlight helps.
If the space is too tight for the vice grip you could try your hand (wear a glove)
If you get ahold of the cable under the car and pulling really hard doesn't get the hood open it could be the latch itself or something to do with the alignment of the latch and the hook as a result of the accident.

Good luck.

Edit: Several years ago had a very minor front end bump into a pickup with my '90 Prelude after I was smashed in the side by a van that ran a stop sign. Despite only a small dent in the middle front of the hood and a missing license plate the hood wouldn't open I never got a chance to fix it, the car was totalled so I just let 'em take it as it was.
All I lost was about $20 worth of "goodies" under the hood and it was parked in deep snow so it wasn't worth the trouble (to me).

 

In case you are still trying to get it open, I was just working on my washer fluid tank and did see the cable from the drivers side wheel well ( inner fender partially removed), so yours might also be accessible from there to try and pull to get it to open.

 

thanks a lot for your help guys! I'm gonna go out there today and take a look at it. I'll let you know how it ended up!

 

This happened on my 99 a few years back. We just took it to the dealer, it was about $70 to replace it.

 

i just saw a full hood release cable assembly (OEM w/ release "handle") for about $60 on ebay

FYI i broke off my handle somehow (i think it was just the FL heat) and replaced the handle with a ball-pull (the kind you'd see used to hold a tarp to a frame). it works real well and has no chance of ever breaking as i drilled through the alloy part of the release handle