Kicking around with old cars might often mean you get the big picture right, but there’s some small item that either stays broken, makes an irritating noise, or acts up just when you really didn’t need it to. Take my Toyota Corolla, for example: it’s largely pretty good as a daily driver, and the functioning 4WD on it means it’s really handy in the winter.
Over the few years that I’ve had it, I’ve had some welding done to it, made sure it has good tires and working brakes, and despite some parts availability issues, I’ve managed to source rear wheel bearings for it. Being 4WD and thus relatively rare means a lot of the stuff from the firewall back needs to be ordered from Japan after perusing endless parts schematics late at night. However, there’s one thing on it I’ve neglected to put right other than spray brake cleaner on it, and it’s the hood latch.
The hood latch that sometimes doesn’t latch. The hood latch whose cable leaves the pull flap in the dash just a little bit out. The hood latch that sometimes needs repeated slams to secure the hood. The poison to kill Kuzco. Kuzco’s poison.
For example, I drove for six hours last night and got to my destination around 11 PM. I parked the car in the underground garage, and as a last thing, I thought I’d check the dipstick. And the hood wouldn’t close. I must’ve slammed it shut dozens and dozens of times, from various heights, and it always popped open, time after time. I propped some garbage from the trunk against the pull flap in the dash to try to keep it in line so it would perhaps let it latch. I fiddled with the cable, and I fiddled with the latch in the slam panel until my hands were black, and I sprayed it with some WD40 adjacent product someone had left next to their bicycle (sorry!).
At half past 11, I thought there had been enough slamming the hood shut extremely loudly, locked the car, and left it as is. The good thing is that I specifically drove the car south to eventually get the entire exhaust system replaced and as I’m writing this, I’m sitting in the train back north and leaving the car in the garage, having notified my brother to not to drive it until he’s managed to secure the hood so it doesn’t fly open like on Timo Mäkinen’s rally Mini on the Ouninpohja special stage at the 1967 1000 Lakes Rally.
I also didn’t bother checking the oil on the road, which means I didn’t end up swearing at the latch at a random service station with half of my journey still to finish. The engine doesn’t really burn oil, which on a 275k km, 2000 Toyota 74-FE means I sometimes top it up between 10k km change intervals but don’t need to pour it down its throat all the time.
And yet, it’s the smallest, the slightest thing on the car. It’s a cable (part number 53630-12500) that pulls the latch open (latch assy part number 53510-12670) and releases the hood (hood part number 53301-12860), it’s a latch that keeps it shut as I’m barreling down the road (highway number E12). It’s again full of grime, but I’m unsure if it’s the spring on the latch that’s let go (part number 90467-09043) or if the cable’s stretched. Earlier, moving the flap (part number 53611-22010-B2 for charcoal dashboard) between both its positions has convinced the latch enough to close, but for reasons unknown to me last night at 11PM to 11.30, it kept bouncing the hood back open.
Googling the problem makes me think it’s a common annoyance with Corollas, and it’s actually the one issue a friend mentioned about his similar-age, E11 generation hatchback. As well as fixing whatever’s wrong with it, I wouldn’t mind getting the hood look a bit more secure, as I can see it flapping slightly at highway speeds. I’ve never had it slam in my face while driving, with any of my cars, so I guess I’ve been lucky. None of my other cars have had this specific issue this irritating, though.
Top graphic images: Antii Kautonen; Toyota; iOS
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