I was driving behind a 98 Altima on an overpass to I95 Noth when all of a sudden his hood flew open hitting his windshield and roof. The kid was startled but was able to pull of to the side. Lucky for him he wasn't at the curve yet and lucky for me, I wasn't tailgating. Now, my question, in my 99SE, I have a Courtesy FTSB and it rubs against the hood. You can't slam the hood down, you have to close it until it locks and then push down for the second lock. Courtesy says that its normal and shouldn't cause a problem. Now that I saw this happen to this kid before my eyes, I'm worried. Is this something that could happen to me, or is it just that Altima's are sucky cars.
ps. This also happened to one of my friends a few years ago while he was driving his 86 rustang.

 

No way an FSTB could cause that. Either a faulty latch (or didn't close it all the way) or he had a painted CF hood that was not properly bolted down.
-Cyrus

 

Odd. You should be able to slam the hood down.

 

had that happen to me once in my '88 ford taurus... i forgot to slam the hood shut.

anyways.. i have a courtesy fstb on my 5th gen and i have no problems with the hood at all..

kafene.

 

I had this same problem. My very first FSTB was from Courtesy. After I installed it, I ran into the same issues with my hood closing as you describe. The bar just arches too far upwards. Maybe this fittment issue is a 99 specific thing, I don't know. Anyway, I got rid of it and bought a Vibrant bar to remedy the problem. It fit much better....and was cheaper. You can try rotating the Courtesy bar forwards as a temp. solution to the problem, but doing this makes it look awkward.

Courtesy told you that this condition was NORMAL?? Ugh...that's bad. I just don't think they realize that some 4th gens just don't take to their bar very well. There needs to be less of an arch to it. Oh well...

 

It wasn't a CF hood. The guy was completely stock.

As for the FTSB, I'll try not to worry about it too much. If anything I guess I could get the $tillen one.
Its a shame the 99 is just an oddball of a car.

 

true...i believe its a 99 specific problem. i have a 99 and my FSTB rubs a little against the hood.

 

No, it's not just you guys. I have the new Courtesy bar on my 2K2. The right side corner (when you're lookin at your engine) rubs up on the hoodliner. I may try to adjust it a little bit

 

Mine rubs a bit too, but his problem was a bad latch, or he didn't close it all the way.

 

The worst is having to keep telling mechanics not to slam the hood. Bring it down gently and push it into place.