How do you open the hood of a 1992 Buick LeSabre with a seized Hood-Latch?

Answer 1

AnswerUnfortunately, the process is not easy. Be prepared to snap a few of the fasteners. First, pull off the front grille (Torx heads - T15 on mine). then use some kind of penetrating oil on ALL the bolt heads and threads. A couple of things could be causing the binding. In my case, the hood part of the latch had completely bound itself to the release mechanism. The release was working but the hood failed to "pop".

So it could be one of several things. I ended up gently prying (long taper punch) the latch from the release, taking everything apart, cleaning and greasing anything that moved. Problem solved

SECOND OPINION

I had the same problem on a 1993 Buick Lesabre. I could not pop the hood using convention methods(handle on driver side). I have good news . . . in my case it isn't nearly as difficult as I had researched. It turns out all I had to do was take a flat screwdriver underneath the car to reach the latch from behind the radiator. First take the grill off. Once you get the grill off you will be able to see from the front where the latch is. It will be nearly centered from the front of the hood about 10 inches back and 1 inch below the top of the hood. If you look carefully you will see a hole in the middle of the hood latch device. In my case I could not pop the latch from this hole from the front(although I hear it may be possible). Once you find the latch from the front grill side, go up underneath the car and reach up from behind the radiator with your flathead screwdriver and try to feel for the latch with it. You may need to be VERY patient because you will not be able to see what you're doing. Don't drop your screwdriver.

After I popped the hood, I found that the latch had simply become dislocated and was an easy fix. The whole fix took about an hour. About 30 minutes to find the latch from underneath the car and about 30 minutes fix it.

My 1993 Buick LeSabre hood now pops easily by gently pulling the handle on the driver's side.

Tried "Second Opinion"

Thank you for the second opinion. I tried it and had the hood popped in about 15 minutes. At first I thought I didn't need to take the grill off, but it really helped to see where the hole in the latch was. I reached up there and felt it with my fingers, then took the screwdriver and popped the latch in about 1 minute.

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I just had this same thing happen to me. What happened in my case was the plastic tab that holds the cable to the latch broke, so there was no tension. I have a couple of extra observations that may help as well. From the front, you can see the hole as stated, which is actually the latch in the closed position. You can forget getting in that way...as far as I am concerned it is impossible. If you don't know what the latch looks like, or how it functions, it is a tremendous help if you go to eBay and check one out. You'll see the lever and You will then realize that you must push the lever to the left if you are under the car looking at the radiator. Take a minute and push the screwdriver around the top and then look from the front to get a bearing on where you are. You will be able to see the screwdriver as long as it's about 6 inches long. This will help you get at least a good general idea of where the latch is. The previous poster said he could touch it with his fingers and so could I, so maybe check that out as well. As stated, just slide the screwdriver side to side, and eventually you will hit it and it will pop up without much help. I've owned clunkers all my life, so broken hood cables aren't new to me! I got really frustrated with this, and have never had this much trouble getting one open. Be patient and don't throw your tools across the yard....you'll get it! Good luck.