OZ951

I finally got around to doing the hood catch repair on my 996 this past weekend. The trouble with mine was that the hood didn't pop up after being released. I was a initially confused about what the problem was once I got it all apart because the spring was seated in the locking catch. I ended up bending one end of the spring back to 90 degrees (labelled pics at the bottom of my web page) and that fixed the problem nicely. I also added a few pics and notes to supplement the Renntech DIY. As a bonus I now have a working luggage area light.

redridge

good job.... thanks for sharing!

tooloud10

Thanks--I was going to post this very question one of these days. My trunk hasn't worked in weeks and I've had to pry it up to get my groceries out of there several times now. I was just waiting for the time that I couldn't get it open and I'd have rotting food in my 996!

gota911

For the short term you could use one of these.

fpb111

When the spring starts to climb out of the hole like that look for a reason. Maybe the hole in the plate is elongated/damaged giving the spring less support on the end?

OZ951

Given that this is not an uncommon problem I suspect it's just not a great design or perhaps not the best materials. I shall be interested to see how long before the problem re-emerges.

SH || NC

If the hood is not popping up when you pop your truck, don't forget that you can adjust the rubber bumpers to be a little taller, just not too tall where you can damage the hood and or latch mechanism.

tooloud10

2-3 years, if my experience means anything.

redridge

Im thinking that the seal and the hood tension gives the "pop" rather than that spring.....

Pac996

I'd think so too. But there was an old car I had where lubing the internal mechanism freed it up so that the hood would pop up out of the catch. Could of just been the messing with the thing feed it up to work for a while. The spring in the state shown in the picture looks binded to the top section of spring which might of been what was causing the hood latch not to function correctly. Glad he got it working again.

OZ951

That sounds reasonable but when I popped the hood it released every time but looking at it it still looked flush and I had to dig the tips of my fingers into the gap to lift it to the normal release position - i.e. the seal wasn't enough to lift the hood.

I have attached another pic from my website which I took while I was experimenting with the catch and before I attempted to repair it. It shows the locking catch released but it has failed to return to the upright position where it should be. This pic/fault is consistent with the symptom I was having ie released but still sitting flush.