Yes. Fuss with the cable and/or some unspecified combination of shoving and lifting.

I have had problems with the hoods on all 3 of my cars. 2 out of 3 were alignment or looseness of the catchbar in the hood itself. Cleaned up the catches with PB Blaster and made sure the catchbars were hitting the catch properly. And they all work fine.

Once you do get it open, be sure to wd-40 the mechanism that catches the hood latch and locks it in. I had the same problem you did and after a treatment with some lubrication it opens every time now.

WD-40 is not a lubricant, and should not be used as such long-term. WD-40 is a solvent that evaporates quickly and has very few lubricative properties.

It was designed and intended to be WATER DISPLACING (hence the name) and is not an oil or lubricant.

yes a can of aerosole white grease would be MUCH better. (sold in Canadian Tire)

Emily:
Once you get it open, you may discover the cable needs to be tightened. If it has become severed :( I have an idea to share that I used on my old Pontiac Tempest:

Take a guitar string, it has a metal ball end. (The D-String is perfect size) and insert the ball end into the release mechanism, center.

Fish the other end of the guitar string thru the grill, and tie a loop so it doesn't get sucked into the engine. Pull on the guitar string to open your hood, and forget about the latch inside the car.

Hope it works out for you.

Adam

FINALLY!
I GOT IT OPEN!!



no just kidding... won't be able to try out suggestions till Friday probably...
got school work, no garage.... just a back alley parking spot w no light...

There must be a way to crawl under it and pop the mechanism with a screw driver.
Keep in mind once you get it open, you must rig up a way to open it again easily in the future.

Adam

you would be very surprised, my car had this problem ones and we had it ont he hoist and everything looking/playing with it for hous and couldnt get it... I ventually got it open with one Magic pul of the handle AFTER we had given up on it for the evening

It turned out I had forgotten to reattach on of the clips on the cable(mid way) that keeps it running strait, thuse allowing it to be slack and not pull the release enough. Im shure to can still get it from INSIDE the car.

Been there. One of my cars is parked a lot and it gets stuck often. One time it was so bad the usual Fonzy smacks didn’t work.

What finally ended up working was grabbing the front lip with both hands and shimmying it side to side while someone pulls on the release cable.

I am laughing my head off here. I found this forum while doing a Google search. Just had the problem of not getting the hood open on my '95 Bonnyville at the gas station. I have only had the car for two weeks. I incorporated the help of two bystanders to no avail. Then three hours later on the freeway with a friend I happened to notice the hood was lose and flapping while I looked for a place to pull over. Still took two of us to get it open-didn't have time to take a closer look-got it shut. I happen to have guitar strings here, and I have aerosole white grease on my shopping list. :o