broken hood cable - opening hood?

Hello all, I thought I would ask here. Anyone know how to open the hood when the hood release cable is broken?

I have a 2002 TDI Wagon, I reached to the hood release handle and nothing. Handle has a lot of play in it but no give on the hood.

Any ideas how to release the hood?

Thanks for your help.

I haven't tried it on a golf but on other cars I've managed to get to it from underneath, you have to try and get to where the cable goes in, tricky but doable on a lot of cars.

yeah, lay underneath and reach your hand up and push the latch over. I had to do it once because I forgot to re-connect the cable.

good luck is all i gotta say. the guys grille was already broken and it took 3 hands and a prybar to do it

If you're careful you can wiggle the vw emblem out to gain access to the release mechanism.

I have this problem on an 03 Jetta.

VW emblem is out.

Inside release cable seems stretched.

Going through threads to try and find a pic or decent instructions.

Anyone have a favorite?

I see some folks apparently reach up behind the radiator, this is a 1.8t so I don't know about space (like there is lots of space in a MKIV engine compartment).

Car is on a lift. I'm still somewhat physically challanged especially working overhead. But I can get a nice clean view through where hte emblem used to be. I can see where the plastic secondary release is but I figure I should leave that alone or I'll break it.

Dave, you need to reach in there with a screwdriver to manually pry over where the cable end attaches.

Found this pic in a thread http://pics.tdiclub.com/data/500/latch_from_the_top.pdf

Ended up easiest to reach up behind rad and fans and push the lever where the ball on the end of the cable is. Didn't take much force.

I rerouted the cable the wrong way again (inside the drivers side headlight cover on the back) and while the handle won't return like it should atleast it releases now again. All the clips holding the cable to the fender are in place. I just got this car so who knows what has gone on with this cable.