Hood Latch won't open W210
 

Last night I noticed it was hard to close the hood on my '98 E320. Looking at it this morning, I saw that just one side caught. I pushed down and the other side caught.

Now, I can't open it at all. I have pulled as hard as I dare on the under dash plastic lever, but although there is tension, there is no movement of the wire and the hood does not pop.

Seems like something is jammed and I will somehow have to release it from the front, but latch does not seem accessible.

Anyone have any ideas?

How would the dealer do it?

I had only one success doing this. With a spray lubricant and the tiny tube attachment spray those hood latches from every angle, then using a partner have him/her push down on the hood as you pull the hood release lever from inside the car. You may have to remove the hood release lever and affix vice grips to the cable to give you that extra tug you need. Otherwise like the dealer they will probably sacrifice the grill to gain entry. Unfortunately with expensive cars come expensive fixes.

Looks from epc like there are two latches above the lights somewhere. The center latch seems to just be the safety.

Correct - the anti-theft on these girls are tuff!

I got it undone - tugged on the wire, cover and all, from under the dash. Then went and banged on the hood just above the lights. First one let go, then teh other.

As it turns out, problem was that the lever that the safety tab attaches to had bent through 90 degrees - It is about 1/4" thick and at first glance looks like steel. But it is some type of flexible plastic! Maybe plastic with a thin metal core.

It's working now, but I think I will buy a new hook assembly.

Passenger side hood latch stuck
 

I had the passenger side hood latch get stuck on my '99 E300 W210. No matter how hard I pulled on the release cable, the latch would not release and pop up. I had no problem with the driver side latch, which poped up normally.

I though I was going to be forced to break through the headlight to get to the hood latch. Then I found a nice solution.

I released the latch on the driver's side, and pulled the hood up (about 1/2 inch)and put some wood shims to hold the hood up. The wood shims between the top of the bumper and hood held it open very slightly. Then I was able to get a 12" metal hack saw blade between the top of the small headlight and the lip of the hood. I was just able to reach the latch pin with the blade, and slowly sawed through the 3/16" diameter pin. I could get about a 1 inch stroke with the blade, just enough. After about a 1/2 hour, i sawed through the pin, and opened the hood. Never thought I would be so happy to see my engine again!

The 97 E320 parts car I got a while ago had latch issues. Used a long screw driver to reach from under the car on each side to pop the latches. The latches had a plastic cover under them from what I recall that needed to be removed.