Hood flys up while driving

This has been a problem for a few years now. It started with me not shutting it fully to where it only hit the first catch. Driving it flew up bending the hood and cracking the windshield (35 mph). I knew immediately it was my fault as I then remembered not pushing the hood fully closed and I was only a mile from the house. It also weakened the support that the hood strut attaches to from the force of it flying up. When I replaced the hood and strut it never closed as easily as before, you had to make sure to push harder to engage the second click where it was positively closed and locked not just hitting the first spot where it was only catching by the release lever. I would always pull up on the hood to verify it was closed and locked after this. It happened again a year after this 20 miles from home (55mph). I thought possibly I could have hit the inside lever to open the hood by mistake a few miles earlier while at a car wash even though I was pretty sure I didn't. Repaired everything again. Then last night after driving over 100 miles going 45 mph and the hood slings up again. Bent hood, luckily strut held enough to not break the windshield. I am 100% sure this time that the inside release was not touched, have no idea why it did this. Anyway I have another hood ordered but this time I am thinking about putting hood locks on it. Not sure which type but I remember doing this on a couple muscle cars I had many years ago. I am more worried about the safety factor rather than looks at this point as I do a lot of interstate driving. Has this happened to anyone else or any ideas on hood locks? I am getting used to quickly sliding down and looking through the gap between the dash and the hood when this occurs to stop but this is not safe and I don't want to keep pushing my luck on this.

That is crazy, if it was me I would ditch the locking mechanism under the hood, you can probably get a complete unit at any pick an pull for cheap.

Thanks for the reply. Yes I am already looking into that but I am a lil gun shy now so I am thinking about a more positive lock down such as hood locks. I am going to have to paint the new hood anyway so if I find a lock that will work I am leaning that way now.

JohnnyCanuck.Comox said:

That is crazy, if it was me I would ditch the locking mechanism under the hood, you can probably get a complete unit at any pick an pull for cheap.

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Agreed. The hood latch is obviously defective or broken in some way. Replace it with a known good unit and it should be fine.

The first catch you referred to in your first post was not installed/adjusted properly. Its function is to keep the hood down if the cable latch fails or the hood is not closed fully.

Make sure you fix it too.

I think replacing the whole mechanism would probably be just fine. However after 3 strikes I think I might be giving serious consideration to hood locks also. Think of all the looks you'll get as people see them and wonder what you have under the hood and what kind of driver you are.

Or find someone with better skills to deal with it . . . zero for three attempts is what I see as the primary problem . . . why keep putting yourself at risk for something that should be trivial if done correctly?

The first time it happened I knew it was my fault, as soon as it happened I remembered I did not push the hood all the way down. The 2nd time I thought I could have possibly hit the lever by the pedal as I was cleaning out trash at a car wash (even though I did not remember doing so). This time I know it has to be in the latch as the other times were within short distances of leaving a place and I was on the road over 100 miles this time. Its not that I don't know how to install a hood latch, I can only see now that is what the problem is. There does seem to be a bit of sloppiness in it. So I am going to order a new latch and maybe even some hood locks if I see a nice set. My temporary solution is in the pic. Hey the hood is trash anyway and this way I don't have to let the car sit while waiting on parts to arrive and painting the hood.

Please resize that picture.

Post Haste.

TDI_Michael said:

The first time it happened I knew it was my fault, as soon as it happened I remembered I did not push the hood all the way down. The 2nd time I thought I could have possibly hit the lever by the pedal as I was cleaning out trash at a car wash (even though I did not remember doing so). This time I know it has to be in the latch as the other times were within short distances of leaving a place and I was on the road over 100 miles this time. Its not that I don't know how to install a hood latch, I can only see now that is what the problem is. There does seem to be a bit of sloppiness in it. So I am going to order a new latch and maybe even some hood locks if I see a nice set. My temporary solution is in the pic. Hey the hood is trash anyway and this way I don't have to let the car sit while waiting on parts to arrive and painting the hood.

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Again, if the mechanism is installed correctly you don't have to push it all the way down; the lever you have to actuate from the front when you lift the hood should keep it down.

You should be able to pull the lever under the dash at 80 mph without the hood flying up.

Your hood latch is messed up. The secondary latch isn't working. You know, the one where you have to pull the little tab that sticks out from the grill.

I can pull the latch inside the car going down the interstate and my hood will not fly up, that's because the secondary latch catches it.

You need a new hood latch

I don't think that zip tie would make me feel very secure.

The hood on my Golf was not locked in place, but like KLXD stated above, the hood did not pop up when I was doing 60 on the highway. Don't know how I discovered it, but I pulled over immediately and shut the hood all the way. On another car I had owned I was not so lucky and the hood popped up and buckled. I was on my way to the salvage yard when this happened and came back home with a replacement hood. The windshield also needed replacing. This was totally my fault.

You're asking for that hood to bust your windshield, holding it down with a single zip tie.

I ordered a new hood latch to go with the new hood. Great point about the secondary latch, I will order one of those as well. Wish I would have seen that combo pack at fixmyvw before I ordered. The hood is latched now I just don't trust it after seeing the looseness of the hood lock mechanism. The zip tie/ latch held for the 60+ miles I drove today but you bring up a good point so I am going to swap out the zip tie with a cable until everything comes in.

If you're missing the secondary (primary?) that splains a lot.

No need to reinvent the wheel, just fix what is broken. Millions if not billions of cars have the same latch setup and have never had a problem unless something in the latch is broken or if the hood is not closed enough to catch the first latch.

The latch has both catches on it. Key is alignment of the thing, yours must have got knocked out at some point. Check to see the release cable works also.

I received my new hood latch and changed it out today. It looks like the spring was broken, I guess that explains the sloppiness in the way it felt. The pic below shows the new one compared to the old one. By the way what does the microswitch that is attached to the lock do? Bentley did not explain it only said remove / replace when installing lock. Thanks again for all the help.
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The microswitch is for the alarm system.

TDI_Michael said:

I received my new hood latch and changed it out today. It looks like the spring was broken, I guess that explains the sloppiness in the way it felt. The pic below shows the new one compared to the old one. By the way what does the microswitch that is attached to the lock do? Bentley did not explain it only said remove / replace when installing lock. Thanks again for all the help.

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GJ on getting it fixed, must feel good.