Hello all!

2008 Santa Fe.....for some unknown reason the hood release has failed. I pulled the kick panel by the parking brake and pulled on the cable itself with a pair of pliers to no avail. I don't think the cable is busted as it would not keep pulling out, but there is definitely a "hard stop" when pulling on the cable with pliers. I have seen some threads that talk about the hood release cable housing not being connected to the retaining clips on the passenger side headlight bucket - but nothing concrete on how to remedy the situation. Also read another blog that said take the car to a body shop, have them remove the front bumper clip, and then a contortionist gets up in there to somehow (magically) release the hood. The only other thing I have to add is that about 3 months ago, I had the car at the garage to change an AC pump as it was a pain in the a** to do at home (normally I do all my own mechanical work....but I'm not a mechanic by trade), and during this process he had to change the condenser as well. I can only assume that he did not reconnect everything completely or something of that nature. And yes, I would normally take the car back to that garage, but it is 180+ miles away from me (I had the A/C repaired when we were out of state on a short vaca).

Anyway, any other ideas for hood release that does not include removing the front bumper clip?

Thanks crew.....Randy