Heard a loud ping, and now the engine lid won't open

Posted by: @samxerxesn

Hey all, on my way to work I heard a loud metallic ping behind me, and when I pulled into the parking lot I couldn't get the engine lid open, so either the engine lid mechanism snapped somewhere or I'm extremely unlucky. What steps should I take to fix this? I've heard that you can unbolt the lid mechanism from the rear grill, and I've also heard that if this happens on a pre-facelift that you should replace the cable, latch, and puller mechanism with a newer part because they aren't prone to failure like the old part number. Thanks for the advice.

You don't need to replace the lever inside the car.

You probably won't need to replace the cable.

The rest of what you've heard/read is correct.

I'm guessing the loud ping has nothing to do with the engine lid not opening . That cable isn't under tension till you pull the lever , there is a spring in the latch that could break I guess but doubt it . To get in I push in the little grill above the license plate , reach my arm in and pull the cable . 

Here, try this. Pull the interior release lever and hold it. Then let someone else try to open the engine lid. If that works or doesn't work then you have a better idea of where to look. I keep a small piece of foam in my glove box and wedge that under the pull lever then my engine lid pulls right up.

If pulling the lever and then having someone lift still doesn’t work you can get a long screwdriver and feed it through the small grill opening and trip the latch.  I had to do that when my cable had too much slack to open.