S70 Hood Release Cable Broke Off

[bmdubya1198]

So... we're back on this. After trying to open the hood to replace a headlight, I pulled the hood release cable from the turn signal (haven't bothered replacing the cable yet) and it pulled all the way out. We're going to replace the release cable soon, but in the meantime, is there any other way to open the hood without dismantling the whole front end? After messing around under the bumper, I was able to unlatch the passenger side latch, but the driver side won't release. Now, I can't even close the latch, so I need to get the hood opened as soon as possible.

[MrAl]

Hi,

First, sorry to hear this happened to your car.
I asked about this already and didnt get any solutions. I had a feeling this could happen so if it happened to my car i didnt want to be stuck without an answer, but i think maybe nobody has a solution yet.

But one thing, if your mechanism is the same as mine (someone can confirm this perhaps, 1998 v70) then one latch is enough to hold the hood down while driving, and there is also a secondary safety catch that will catch if the two main latches let loose. If that happens though you might want to slow down and get off road as soon as possible.
So you could drive like that at least, and take it somewhere where they might know how to get it open and replace the cable.

Hopefully someone here will have a solution though. I thought about installing a secondary cable system just in case, but unfortunately this has to be installed when the hood is opened already.

Strangely the Hyundai i owned before my Volvo had the same type release, more or less, and that was a 1988 (very old), yet the cable was never replaced and it never broke.

[bmdubya1198]

Hi,

First, sorry to hear this happened to your car.
I asked about this already and didnt get any solutions. I had a feeling this could happen so if it happened to my car i didnt want to be stuck without an answer, but i think maybe nobody has a solution yet.

But one thing, if your mechanism is the same as mine (someone can confirm this perhaps, 1998 v70) then one latch is enough to hold the hood down while driving, and there is also a secondary safety catch that will catch if the two main latches let loose. If that happens though you might want to slow down and get off road as soon as possible.
So you could drive like that at least, and take it somewhere where they might know how to get it open and replace the cable.

Hopefully someone here will have a solution though. I thought about installing a secondary cable system just in case, but unfortunately this has to be installed when the hood is opened already.

Strangely the Hyundai i owned before my Volvo had the same type release, more or less, and that was a 1988 (very old), yet the cable was never replaced and it never broke.

This is my cousin's car, and he said that the latch is holding down the hood, he just doesn't feel too safe driving it like that. If nobody here knows, we might just take off the bumper/fender and see what we can do from there.

[JimBee]

Mine are 850's so not sure if your S70 is the same. There's no easy solution that I've found, but there is a pull lever on the latch that the cable hooks into. It's on the under side. If the S70 is similar to my 850, you can pull the corner marker light out (the housing that holds the signal lamp) It's held in by a spring. You might need to demo the spring, grab it with a long nose pliers when you've pulled the housing out a bit. You can get another spring at a junk yard and you might actually break the lug on the plastgic back of the lamp housing. That get's you part way there. If you have a helper with a few skills, somebody can get underneath (drive up on a curb or jack and block it up) with the other shining a light in by the fender where you removed the corner light. You'll need to trip the lever on the latch. That will be easier to do if you press down on the hood right over the latch, while using a tool of some sort (whatever will work) to trip the lever.
a member on this site, Matty Moo, found a solution to this recently. If you can't get it, you might try pm'ng him. Good luck.
ps: if he's going to keep the car, he can get a cable from the junk yard that goes across the front, cut it in half and rig emergency cable pulls from the latch to a point below in front of the radiator to release the latches.

[bmdubya1198]

Mine are 850's so not sure if your S70 is the same. There's no easy solution that I've found, but there is a pull lever on the latch that the cable hooks into. It's on the under side. If the S70 is similar to my 850, you can pull the corner marker light out (the housing that holds the signal lamp) It's held in by a spring. You might need to demo the spring, grab it with a long nose pliers when you've pulled the housing out a bit. You can get another spring at a junk yard and you might actually break the lug on the plastgic back of the lamp housing. That get's you part way there. If you have a helper with a few skills, somebody can get underneath (drive up on a curb or jack and block it up) with the other shining a light in by the fender where you removed the corner light. You'll need to trip the lever on the latch. That will be easier to do if you press down on the hood right over the latch, while using a tool of some sort (whatever will work) to trip the lever.
a member on this site, Matty Moo, found a solution to this recently. If you can't get it, you might try pm'ng him. Good luck.
ps: if he's going to keep the car, he can get a cable from the junk yard that goes across the front, cut it in half and rig emergency cable pulls from the latch to a point below in front of the radiator to release the latches.

I'll take a look at that later today. I'll let you know what happens!

[MrAl]

Hello again,

If you find a good solution i'd very much like to know what it is too, thanks.

[bmdubya1198]

Took a look at it today and I can't find any way to unlatch the latch. I'll have to look more into this.

[erikv11]

Luckily this hasn;t happened to me yet but it is common, I have read about it solved in two different ways:

(1) pull the corner light, reach in and release the lever. You have to do it for both sides.
(2) reach up from underneath and release the lever. You have to do it for both sides.

Here is a good post about it, I am sure there are many others: http://volvospeed.com/vs_forum/topic/29 ... od-closed/

[MrAl]

Hi,

That is VERY interesting. I'll have to look into that myself to see how it is done hopefully before it ever happens.

How hard is it to install a new cable, like an exact replacement? This was the main suggestion i got from the forum, and i was holding off but now i dont think i want to hold off anymore.

I also looked at the latch again just a couple days ago. I saw that the mechanism that moves is little tiny lever, and it holds both the pull cable and the drivers-side-to-passenger-side cable too, so when the lever is tilted, i think it releases both latches.
I also saw a free end which looked like maybe another secondary cable could be connected. I actually have a brand new choke cable from another car which has never been used, so i was thinking of using that as a secondary cable just in case. But even a regular steel cable (like maybe 1/8 inch diameter) would work, if you were willing to chance someone trying to open your hood without needing to gain access to the inside where the real hood release is located. If the steel cable were hanging down (or perhaps run toward the side light, then down) with a loop on the end, if the hood did not release normally you could reach under and pull the emergency cable, and that would tilt the lever and release both latches. Just an idea though.

Another idea, which would be interesting, would be to replace the two hood 'catches' with square type "U" bolts, that run up through the hood and using fancy cap nuts to hold them onto the hood. In the event of failure, the U bolts would be unbolted and the hood would open. Of course this means some modification and cutting off the original 'catches' (the two pieces of metal that come down from the hood and slip into the latches on the car body).

The latch mechanisms they use for these cars seem somewhat poor. The back door (wagon) latch is made using the same basic construction and materials, and that one is a little hard to open sometimes too. Very strange.

[abscate]

Another idea, which would be interesting, would be to replace the two hood 'catches' with square type "U" bolts, that run up through the hood and using fancy cap nuts to hold them onto the hood. In the event of failure, the U bolts would be unbolted and the hood would open.

I'm trying to envision four cap bolts sticking through the hood of my sloping curvy seductive P2 body and it just isn't doing it for me...

I think the secret here is lubricating these hood releases when they start getting stiff and replacing the cable if that doesn't move freely.