98 S70 Stuck hood, broken hood "thing"

Post by **theWIFES_S70** » 24 Nov 2015, 16:56

Hey all, was wondering if I could get some advice from you all.

The hood on my wife's S70 is "broken." The hood closes and locks down. But when you pull the cable release from inside the car, the hood clicks open from the right and the middle hood releases, but the left (or driver's side) doesn't release. So I read up on how to open the hood (have someone else hold it while you pull the lever or use a wedge of cardboard to apply pressure on the hood while you pull the release cable) and I can usually open the hood. However, I think the previous owner used to open the hood by yanking on the hood as hard as he could.

This is what it looks like...

So my question is, how do I fix this? Anyone have any experiences getting someone to weld this? (And if so, where does one go to have something like this welded?) Or is the only solution to get another hood somewhere? (Those are expensive, no?) Please tell me I can use something simple like JBWeld! Thanks everyone!

Post by **dosbricks** » 24 Nov 2015, 18:02

Look in the Yellow Pages under welding, or better yet, auto body repair. Get someone who can heat sink it so the paint isn't toasted where this structural part meets the hood skin. Also lubricate and adjust that latch.

Post by **cn90** » 24 Nov 2015, 20:06

Go to muffler shop, they weld it for $10-15...

Post by **jimmy57** » 25 Nov 2015, 09:17

Wetted towel on hood outer surface and MIG weld the inside in 1/2 long sections with a couple of minutes cool time between 1/2 welds.

NO NO NO to JB Weld. If you do that it will not work and then welding may not adhere and you'll need a hood.

Post by **theWIFES_S70** » 25 Nov 2015, 19:36

Thanks everyone. I'll search around for a muffler shop and see what they say. I doubt they'll do it for $10-15. (No one does anything for $10-15 around here!) I'll post an update when I get it!

brunocerous · Post by **brunocerous** » 25 Nov 2015, 20:27

I think Harbor Freight Tools has their MIG welder on sale for Black Friday. Just sayin'.

Ou2mame · Post by **Ou2mame** » 26 Nov 2015, 00:11

Time for an angle grinder and some good pins lol

Post by **theWIFES_S70** » 21 Jul 2016, 14:21

RESOLVED!

So I finally got this taken care of. (Yes, only a year later...) The welds are ugly... But at least the paint wasn't burned in any way on the top of the hood. And, the hood closes with certainty now! Except it still doesn't open easily... The driver's side gets stuck and you need two people to open it. Is this a community building feature built into our P80s?

I suppose I need a new cable and need to adjust it no? Here are the final pictures.

Post by **JRL** » 21 Jul 2016, 14:46

It needs to be adjusted before you buy a new cable.
The ghetto trick is as follows:
The hood needs upwards pressure to pop open so get some of those large (at least 1" in diameter) furniture leg stick on's.
Stick a couple on top of each other (2-4 depending on how think they are), then stick it on the radiator support where it's closest to the hood. That should give it just enough force for the hood to pop open when the cable is pulled!

(This is a common thing that happens and it happens to ALL P80s over time. It's just a very poor design as are many Volvo designs!

Post by **MrAl** » 21 Jul 2016, 14:50

Hi there,

Very interesting. I am happy to see this thread here as i had questions about my hood too when i first got my car over a year ago and still have to wonder about the hood and how it opens.

Mine would stick every other time i went to open the hood, so i lubricated the hood latches real good and it works better but still is far from perfect. In fact, to get it open easier i leave one side not latched, but i would rather get it working right.

I also wondered how we would get these hoods open if the cable ever snapped. No really good solutions came up to date that i know of.

I think i see what the real problem is but not sure yet. My old Hyundai had a hood release cable and i never had a problem with that, other than one time oiling when i first got the car, and i had that car for 20 years.
What's the difference? The Hyundai had a big coil spring under the hood that would push up on the hood all the time, so when you pulled the cable release the spring would push the hood up and that's how it opened, then you could pull the hood up the rest of the way as usual. So the big spring was the big difference, and i thought about maybe installing one on the Volvo. For the Volvo it would have to be mounted somewhere near the front of the car, and maybe one spring on each side or something. That would push the hood up when the cable is pulled with enough force to open the hood every time.

Now that i see this thread i'll have to take another look at this. I would also have to wonder though how could those hood 'catches' (the metal things in your pictures) get broken like that. Is that what happens if the latch doesnt release and you pull up really hard on the hood? Seems it would take some kind of tool to break that metal.