Hello,

I have a 1997 4 Runner SR5 4WD. Got it brand new back in November 1996. It has been very good to me.

Unfornuately, November 2002, it was involve in a parking lot fender bender. A car going 40MPH in a main drive of a public park parking lot sided swipe it as I was inching toward the drive. I didn't see it coming as there was a car that was blocking my view. The car caught onto the Manik brush guard on my Runner and pulled the guard and the bumper out of place to the passenger side. The impact was pretty hard and the headlight part of the guard got pushed into the driver side front fender panel and the front panel got slightly pushed into the hood.

I got real good body work done on Runner for real cheap and you can hardly even tell it has been tainted. For bigger and better front end protection, I now got a ARB Bull Bar on it.

Now to my hood problem....I hope I can get this resolved without taking it back to the body shop. When driving at speeds over 50MPH, air gets underneth it and the hood ripples up and down. It seems like the hood lock mechanism doesn't pull down tight enough as I can slightly move the hood up and down when the hood is fasten. I have check the hood lock mechanism and you can tell it was slightly affected by the fender bender, but nothing major looks wrong with it. By looking at the related hood areas, nothing looks obviously thrown out of place. I guess the body shop guy didn't see nothing was wrong with the hood either.

Has anyone ever had this problem or know how I can fix this problem myself? I have tried to adjust the rubber black knobs that the hood rests on. The rippling is less when I adjust the knobs up, but then the hood is not properly aligned with the front fender panel.

Please help!!! THANKS

 

Tyr this:
Open the hood all the way, then gently set it back down so that the secondary latch catches it. When the secondary latch catches the hook, press down on the hood. If the primary latch doesn't engage, then you will need to adjust the latch mechanism.
If both latches engage, you probably just need to bump the mechanism down a tiny bit.
I will take pictures when I get home tonight and show you what needs to be done.

 

Alan,

Both latches engage. When the hood is fasten, I can still lift the hood up about 1/8 to 1/4 inch. What is the mechanism that can be bumped down? Please let me see those pics? Thanks for your help.

 

Do you have rubber spacers under your hood? They should be in the front, one the left, one on the right, right above your headlights assembly. By turning those spacers you should be able to adjust the height of them just right and your hood will sit tightly while driving.

-- Andrey

 

prime example how those damn brush guards do more damage than good!