DIY: How to Open Your Hood without a Cable on an RSX

So I was installing my Honda badge the other day and everything was going fine.  I was excited to subtly improve the look of my RSX and I was certainly excited to install new parts!

Being the lazy person that I am, I took off the top clips for the bumper's grill, pulled the bumper forward, loosened the hood latch, disconnected the hood latch cable, and installed my emblem.

Little did I know that I forgot to install the cable to the hood latch and my worst nightmare took place next: four hours of opening a hood without a cable.

So, to save you guys time, I decided to make a little DIY to show you how to open your hood without busting your asses!

Before I get started, here're a couple of shots of where my car currently stands.

I recently added some stickers to my Work Emotion CR-Kai's.  They're nothing crazy but I thought they were a nice subtle touch.  Also I took off my factory pin-striping.

And a couple of pics of the Honda Badges....don't hate on my fogged tails!

Disclaimer: I'm not responsible for any unfortunate circumstances which may occur as a result of following these instructions.

Things you'll need:

1. Jack-- ...to lift your car...
2. Jack-stands (four-- two to hold the car up, two for --->safety<---a b="" must="">
3. Drop light-- you will NEED light!!!
4. Bicycle cable (at least 14")-- to pop hood
5. LOTS of patience

Here's how the hood latch looks-- know your enemy.  Know it well.

The picture shown above is an unmarked picture for your own reference.  The picture below shows a couple of key areas and comments.

Note the first-most label that says "rear latching mechanism" and is pointing to the short stubby latch.  When your hood is closed, you will not be able to see very well into this latching assembly.  However, if you look carefully you may be able to see this latch.  This latch is what you want to move.  It is what is holding the hood tightly.

Don't get too excited yet though because you won't be able to get it from the front even if you can see it.  You will most likely only be able to move the front latching mechanism as shown in the figure.  This will do nothing.

Be careful if you choose to go through the small space in the front because the two bolts at the top of the latch tend to rip the sheet metal off of the bulkhead shown in the picture.

Here's a top view:

Another top view is shown below:

You will notice in the above picture that there are two cables here.  The first cable is the bicycle cable I used to pop the hood and the second with the plastic sleeve is actually the OEM cable which I did not connect.  Here is a better picture:

Whenever installing your latch, always be sure to reinstall the cable with the sleeve that is in better focus in the second picture.

The method I recommend involves going under the car without undoing any clips and fishing a bicycle cable through a hole.  The reason for using a bicycle cable is because your hood latch works very similarly to your old bicycle brakes.  

The rear latching mechanism is actually pulled in a similar way by the OEM cable.  The two pictures below show what I am talking about, but less clearly.  Please refer to whichever is most clear.

After jacking up your car and setting up a drop light in between your transmission and your A/C heat exchanger take your bicycle cable and reach up into the area between the radiator fans and the transmission.

If you look closely you can see where the bicycle cable sits in this picture and where it is feeding into.  Let's get a closer look.

The arrow shows where the bicycle cable is feeding into.  Your hood latch (a little black box shit) is sitting in that front bulkhead enclosing (little red hole shit).

It's super annoying, but you're going to take the fat end of the bike cable and you're going to try and pull the "rear latching mechanism" in a similar manner as shown in the pictures.  You have to reach up into the space shown above as well doing this.

This method takes a lot of patience, but it was the only method that worked for me and it did not damage my bumper or grill or new Honda emblems or latch!

Hopefully this helped you open your hood!  It did for me ;)

Until next time, peace.