Help! Can't close the hood

[Materials]

Hey everyone,

Just picked up 2.3L on on Friday. Took a me a while to figure out how to open the hood, but now a bigger problem comes, I cannot close it! when I tried to close it, it only goes to the place where you pull the lever when you try to open it. I then push the hood hoping it will get latched, but doesn't work...Anyone can help me? I don't think closing the hood should be that tricky...

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[Adaraas]

Hey everyone,

Just picked up 2.3L on on Friday. Took a me a while to figure out how to open the hood, but now a bigger problem comes, I cannot close it! when I tried to close it, it only goes to the place where you pull the lever when you try to open it. I then push the hood hoping it will get latched, but doesn't work...Anyone can help me? I don't think closing the hood should be that tricky...

Pick it up to a foot-foot and a half above the closing point and drop it.

 

[Materials]

Pick it up to a foot-foot and a half above the closing point and drop it.

I even drop it from very high, still can't fully close it. It only goes to the point where you pull the lever...

 

[Materials]

Pick it up to a foot-foot and a half above the closing point and drop it.

OK I get it closed... Thanks man..

 

[Mruiz825]

I turned the bumpers in the engine bay about 3 1/2 turns clockwise and now my hood closes like normal

 

[bay584]

OK I get it closed...

:doh:

 

[Pakman]

You just have to assist it by lightly pushing down on the hood where the latch is as it drops. Mine is the same way. Its annoying and I've toyed with the rubber bumpers but it throws the hood alignment off.

I'd rather have an aligned hood then one that shuts easily so I just deal with it. I'm not too worried about it since I don't need to put a lot of force into it.

 

[thehunterooo]

I won't lie these things are hard to close, the 11-14 seemed to be even more difficult. At least they made the trunk easy this time around.

 

[Cueball]

Really? I never seem to latch the trunk closed on the first try. Probably because all our hoods and trunks are misaligned.

 

[tsunami]

Testing hoods and trunks...

I have 'played' with 9 new Mustangs at my dealer waiting for my 2 month delayed convertible to arrive. Every single one of them (even after dealer prep) required a near slam to get the hood to latch correctly. It required at least a two foot free fall to slam tight. I have become the dealership's unofficial hood adjuster. In the show room, I make a comment out loud that I am going to shut the hood. The first time I tried to get one to latch, even the receptionist jumped. A salesperson came over and said I was doing it 'wrong'. After four load bangs he gave up and said "well...this one is going back to the service bay". I reopened the hood and showed him how to adjust/lower the two hood 'bumpers'. The hood latched with a one foot drop. I think that the dealership was worried that if the hood was 'loosely' latched, that the hood would vibrate at highway speeds. After nearly two months, the dealer prepped cars are still adjust too tightly.
There seems to be a 'sweet-spot' for the hood latching. Loose enough to latch without banging it but tight even to prevent high-speed hood vibration. When my car comes, I am immediately going to install Redline Hood Struts. From other Forum members comments, it appears that the struts help keep the hood 'straight' on its downward plunge.
All of the cars' trunks shut and latched with minimal finger pressure. The last one I tested this week closed using two fingers with gentle pressure. I wish the hoods were this well built.

 

[steviebee72]

mine works fine, no issues. let it go from about 10 inches..


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk, yea we know that, it means I'm in between surfing for mods. 2015 DIB 50 year GT PP

 

[davekro]

I have 'played' with 9 new Mustangs at my dealer waiting for my 2 month delayed convertible to arrive. Every single one of them (even after dealer prep required a near slam to get the hood to latch correctly. It required at least a two foot free fall to slam tight. I have become the dealership's unofficial hood adjuster. In the show room, I make a comment out loud that I am going to shut the hood. The first time I tried to get one to latch, even the receptionist jumped. A salesperson came over and said I was doing it 'wrong'. After four load bangs he gave up and said "well...this one is going back to the service bay". I reopened the hood and showed him how to adjust/lower the two hood 'bumpers'. The hood latched with a one foot drop. I think that the dealership was worried that if the hood was 'loosely' latched, that the hood would vibrate at highway speeds. After nearly two months, the dealer prepped cars are still adjust too tightly.
There seems to be a 'sweet-spot' for the hood latching. Loose enough to latch without banging it but tight even to prevent high-speed hood vibration. When my car comes, I am immediately going to install Redline Hood Struts. From other Forum members comments, it appears that the struts help keep the hood 'straight' on its downward plunge.
All of the cars' trunks shut and latched with minimal finger pressure. The last one I tested this week closed using two fingers with gentle pressure. I wish the hoods were this well built.

Mine needs an 11" drop, which seems high to me and makes a louder bang thank I think is necessary (but from this forum, seems to be the accepted norm). From your experience now as a certified expert ;), what lower drop height can be achieved to get a solid latch w/o the 'BIG BANG'.

By definition does lowering the two bumpers, lower the left and right hood corners so they look too low? My RL struts will be here Tuesday!

 

[tsunami]

Always with a bang!

After playing with the hood bumpers to get a better latching...the hood always sounds like I hit it with a hammer. With my other vehicles, I can lower the hoods to about a foot and then with even pressure bring it down to the latch mechanism. The new Mustang seems to need a wallop to get the hood down to latch. As some other members have mentioned, the hood still needs to be dropped fairly hard to latch. Without adjustment, you can bring the hood down from a 45 degree angle, accelerate the closing and the hood just bangs and refuses to latch. If your new car latches without a problem, you are lucky.
Worst hood latching design I have ever seen on any vehicle.

 

[hcappie]

Same here. I need to drop that bitch from a high position. Pushing down on it won't latch. Sub-consciously it bothers me. However I ignore it because I love the car too much"

 

[Vile_the_Bastage]

Mine did this when I picked it up in Oct last year, except I had to drop the hood from an even higher elevation to get it to close. I had dealer order me another hood latch and install it. After new latch was installed, hood closed like normal. I think some of these things are really stiff.

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