Mustang Hood Won’t Shut

It’s 2 o’clock on Friday afternoon and the dispatcher hands you a repair order for a 1998 Mustang V6 containing a list of easy jobs: replace the front brakes, rotate and balance the tires, tune up and an engine oil change. “Great,” you think to yourself. “This ticket should fill the remainder of the day and I should be able to clean up and get home on time for a change.”

By 4:15 p.m. you’ve completed all of the work noted on the repair order and get ready for a test drive. But, when you try to close the hood, it won’t stay shut. You lift the hood open about two feet and let it drop. Still, the hood pops open defiantly. It just won’t latch no matter what trick use. Don’t panic. This tech tip may help salvage your now frustrating Friday afternoon.

A hood latch support bracket that is improperly adjusted on 1994-2000 Mustangs may cause the problem you’re experiencing. The repair is to simply adjust the hood latch support bracket. Here is the service procedure:

1. Loosen the bolt that attaches the pencil bracket to the bottom of the radiator support (Figure 1).

2. Inspect for hood latch to striker interference by gently pushing the hood down to see if the it is forced sideways in either direction.

3. If there is interference between the hood latch and striker, loosen the three (3) fasteners in the hood latch support bracket. (Figure 2).

4. Move the hood latch support bracket approximately 1/8 inch in the opposite direction of the interference and tighten the top fastener.

5. Perform Step 2 to see if the interference condition has been eliminated; if not, repeat Step 4 until the hood latch freely engages the striker.

6. Tighten the three hood latch support bracket fasteners to 9 ft. lbs. (12 Nm) (Figure 2).

7. Place a pair of channel lock pliers on the front side of the hood latch support bracket and force upward until the bracket is bent approximately 4 degrees (bend bottom of bracket forward). Do this by bending the bracket on both sides of the latch.

8. Check the hood closing effort to ensure that condition has been eliminated. If the hood is still difficult to close, repeat Step 7.

9. Tighten the fastener that attaches the pencil bracket to the bottom of the radiator support to 9 ft. lbs. (12 Nm) (Figure 1).