The hood release switch (roughly near the brake pedal) does not release the hood any more. Does anyone know how to get the hood open in this case? Thanks.

 

Take a close look at the release mechanism. When you pull the release inside the car, does the mechanism pull on the cable?

 

Your Accord is too new for me, but you might want to look thru the grill opening and see if you can get to the bolts that hold it onto the core support. On the 98 to 02's it's held on by 3 bolts thare accessible thru the grill. Another thing might be that the cable end has pulled thru the handle part (my son's Civic had that happen).

 

Thanks for the reply. I just took a look at the latch release mechanism inside the driver's side cabin near the brake pedal. The wire is still attached to the pulling mechanism. When I pull on the item, there is tension and I do hear movement from the hood latch area, but it is not the usual release "click" sound that is supposed to happen.

 

I just tried something that was suggested on another honda forum: "Two-man method: One person grabs the hood release while the other pushes down on the hood." This worked. I had to jump onto the hood to shock it, but it worked. So, the reason that the hood was stuck was that the car lighly rear ended another car and there is a little front end damage. I suspect that the hood latch is now not aligned due to the accident. Is a hood latch alignement process easy to do?

 

Hard to say if "adjustment" will correct the issue, don't know/didn't know all of the story as to why it was having issues.

Clean and lube the latch while you have it open. Just me but I would mark the latch and hood (if you have to go there) with a marker so that at any point everything can be put back to "start" if things go south while adjusting.

 

Agreed. It could even be the hoop that's welded to the hood that might have shifted too, causing some of the alignment problem. Just something to think about. Also, you could try turning the rubber hood bumpers down a turn, and see if that makes it easier for the latch to release.

 

So, after making an attempt to re-align the latch mechanism, it appears that alignment was not needed. the hood hoop was shifted a little and rubs a little against the latch assembly, but it's functional. the hood was probably stuck before. now, everything seems to work ok. Thank you all for your help. it has truly been helpful. happy new year.

 

Glad you found the problem. Most of the time we're left hanging in the breeze without a resolution.