I opened the hood Monday, refilled the washer reservoir, and the driver's side latch would not engage. It was night, dark and I was at the usual Sleep Cheep motel, part of my soon-to-end Road Warrior tour of duty.

No garage, no tools, no nothin'. Curses, etc.

Today, I'm finally home, and it's warmed up to a balmy 10F. Oh, yes, it started first try, when it was about 0F.

I find the latch mechanism horribly gummed up with years of accumulated spray lube. This lube, with a layer of road grit, set up like tar in the cold and prevented the jaw trigger from resetting after it was released.

If the trigger does not reset, the jaw can not lock in the down position, and can not hold the hood latch.

A liberal bath with WD-40, some gently picking, prodding and scraping with a small screwdriver, and now the latch works again.

Now I won't have to watch the hood flutter at freeway speeds, wondering if the safetly latch will hold!

It a victory! Small, yes, but still a victory. The SDL will live to run another day.

Best Regards,
Jim