My brother was drove my car to school on friday, left the lights on, had to jump it, wasn't able to get it to close all the way, I haven't been able to get it close all the way either...

The pull latch thing is pushed in, so it should engage when the hood is closed, however, no matter how hard it's slammed it just won;t engage properly. It has the degree of motion to close all the way, but it just won;t stay down...

Any ideas?

 

probably a bad spring in the latch.. try oiling it

 

Can you get any picture? I had the same problem, but I fixed it, somehow. Sometimes the cable is stuck, so it wont engage all the way.

Get your friend or brother to close the hood, while he's closing the hood, you go inside the car, and the thing you pull to open the hood, you pull it while he's closing the hood. If it closes all the way, then the cable needs oilling, or the spring may need oilling, or even you slammed it too hard, and it bent something.

 

did somebody leave a tool under their

 

First thing I thought of... Once upon a time after swapping a dead bulb out, I left the old one in the engine bay face up, I was like wtf why isn't this closing. Luckily it didn't shatter, but it managed to put a tiny dent in my hood =/

 

+1 Just use WD-40 on the spring and use a screw driver to push the spring down.

Had this problem on my old Accord, and it was because of all the crap that got stuck in the spring. WD-40 will help clean it out and lube it up.

 

common

 

Pull the hood release lever again, the latch may have closed on your attempt to close the hood.