Spent a couple hours changing out the 101k mile spark plugs on the big BMW today. For such a huge car the 4.8L V8 sure is stuffed in there, and the COP setup added to the challenge in the tight spots. The old plugs looked remarkably good for the miles, not excessively worn, nice light grey color. Anyway, I noticed when I popped the hood that I had to pull the handle all the way to get it to release, so I made the mistake of trying to adjust the cable length at the connection under the hood. Big mistake. There was a fair amount of dust/dirt hidden under the engine plastics so I left the plastics off and dropped the hood to head to the local DIY car wash to clean it off. Got there, pull the hood release and nada. I can tell the cable is moving but it's not releasing the hood. Grrrr. Either the cables are stretched or, more likely, the outer sheath is slipping at one of the connections causing the movement not to be translated to the hood releases. I know how to get at the cable and how to get at the releases to get the hood up if needed but this is probably going to the shop to get fixed.
At least it isn't jag that would require a torch to the hood to open it?
pigeon
Dork
4/15/11 10:35 p.m.
Nah, I can pull the undertrays off and reach the latches, it's just a pain in the ass. If I decide not to let the dealer handle it I only intend to do that trick once.
Take the latches off and install hood pins.
can't you pull the Kidney grills out to get at the latches?
lol the s10 I picked up has a bit of cable looped to the latch and sticks out the grill... I have no intention of removing it unless I do hood pins at some point...
I recall having to jump the battery on an astro van once without being able to pop the hood... that was FUN :-/...
On Mercedes the cable would stretch so much that you ran out of adjustment on the sheath. Run the adjustment all the way back in then take a sparkplug ferrule (thats that thing you unscrewed from the plug wire side of the plug) Clamp it in the bench vise and cut a slot in it length wise. Place it over the cable betweene the sheath and the latch, squeeze the slot closed with your pliars and presto. All the adjustment is back in the cable. 
If you look carefully... you can stick a long screwdriver in the mechanism thru the kidney grill and give it a quarter turn to pop it.
