2005 Passat dead battery hood saftey release

[Sirby]

Hi,
My brother had a 2005 Passat TDI 4 dr sedan. The battery is dead and my brother has since passed away. He loved that car and spent many hours working on it himself.

With the dead battery, how do I release the hood's safety latch ?

After watching a few Utube vids :

I now see, that because of some minor (?) Front end damage.
There is a hole were the safety latch toggle handle would be.
Other Vids show cables you can pull. I see none, just the radiator after removing the VW grill emblem.

I have the key fob. I released the hood and felt underneath it for the safety latch. But could not find one.

I am trying to get a fair market value for his estate and for pickup n sale.

 

[oilhammer]

Sorry about your loss.

The hood release is completely mechanical, it doesn't care about the battery condition. The primary release inside the car should let the hood pop up a bit and push the secondary release tab out, which you PULL on at the hood as you lift. Sounds like your dealing with a crashed car, so something is obviously amiss, you may have to break the grill out to get in there, or??? Really hard to say.

 

[Mozambiquer]

Hi,
My brother had a 2005 Passat TDI 4 dr sedan. The battery is dead and my brother has since passed away. He loved that car and spent many hours working on it himself.

With the dead battery, how do I release the hood's safety latch ?

After watching a few Utube vids :

I now see, that because of some minor (?) Front end damage.
There is a hole were the safety latch toggle handle would be.
Other Vids show cables you can pull. I see none, just the radiator after removing the VW grill emblem.

I have the key fob. I released the hood and felt underneath it for the safety latch. But could not find one.

I am trying to get a fair market value for his estate and for pickup n sale.

I dealt with that on a car I had with minor front damage. I was able to get in there and use my fingers (yeah, I have long thin fingers) and I was able to release it that way.
You can also use a hook or pick and pull the latch release to get it loose.

 

[Nevada_TDI]

Long nose pliers are always an option.

 

[BobnOH]

My old Jetta broke a nub on the latch, we could not get it from the top. We had to reach up from the bottom and actuate the latch. Hopefully just your tee handle broke off and you can reach it from the top.

 

[Sirby]

Thx,
for all the great suggestions.

The Long Screwdriver trick mentioned on here and the Utube vid, worked.

Now I have to get to the battery compartment.

I saw the Utube video.
Except the super short clip, did not show how to remove the plastic cover without damaging it ?