Steve Nation

Anyone know how to open the hood when the hood cable has broken. Had it at mechanic for 2 days with no success. ? 2012 Q7

premiumq7

Yes, I had that exact same problem and it sat at the first shop for days before I had it towed elsewhere and they got it open in a little over an hour and called me. They have to go through the upper driver side tire panel and pull the sweet jesus on that thing and it will pop. You will need replacement latch cables & wires. The actual latch was stuck even though the entire cable was in place. You may have to hit it a few times too, but they got it. The repair itself though can be costly if you're not already aware but worth the fix. The replacement OEM parts were about $695 plus labor ($400-600). Take it to a Euro shop. Not a regular shop. They should take great care of you. (My entire hood/latch mechanism was replaced and now I have no issues). Hope that helps!

Steve Nation

Well after 2 days at mechanic and an afternoon at a smash repairs I took it home and fixed it myself. About 5 hours of pain and frustration. There are 3 10mm nuts holding the piece attached to the bonnet that's slots into the latch. The front 2 were easy to undo but I had to do a makeshift tool to have a longer ratchet spanner slide through a d onto the back nut. Wedge the bonnet open as much as possible and work like crazy to get it under and on to the nut. You will only have a small space but mm by mm it will undo. Finally open I had to then undo the latch from the frame to get the cable off. Turns out there is a shorter cable with a round ball on it that joins a spring loaded section of the cable just above drivers front headlight. It had come apart so that was a relief. Put back together and a couple hard earned beers. Job done.