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960 hood hinge is stuck 900 1991

Hi guys,

I have bought a 1991 965 a couple of months ago. The previous owner stated that I had to be gentle with the hood when opening it, as the passenger side sometimes wouldn't free up. He said that it started happening when he had the hood repainted.

Since yesterday, when I finally had room in my garage and wanted to start working on the car, the hood won't open anymore. The latches work fine, but the passenger side hinge seems completely stuck. Whereas the driver side hinge seems to lift when you open the hood, the one on the passenger side stays down. I can lift the hood for about 10° degrees without forcing anything, which leaves very little room to see what's going on. I tried to wiggle the whole hood, to wiggle at the hinge location, tried spraying some WD40 on the hinge, but it won't give. The hinge stays completely down at the front windscreen, I'm not able to get underneath. As far as I know, this is not a rust issue, as the car in great shape. I'm thinking either a lack of lubricant or something that snapped.

Any ideas on what is going on? And how to get it to free up? I'm thinking on spraying some oil on it as best as possible (barely room to get to it), but I'm out of ideas when that won't work. Help would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Roel.








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    960 hood hinge is stuck 900 1991

    If you go to Brick pics then standby, for pictures down, you will see what could happen to your hinges.

    The exact same thing happened to out '91 745 that I had given to me guy the elderly couple who owned it for 26 years.

    Volvo techs lubricate hood hinges, hood latch, door hinges and possibly other things such as steering stops.

    In fact, you can often tell if a Volvo has beeb properly maintained by looking fo lube at those locations.








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    ANSWER 960 hood hinge is stuck 900 1991

    It's open!

    Bought some penetrating oil, and sprayed it on the hinge as best as I could, but that didn't seem to help. But then I figured out that I could lodge the passenger side of the hood upwards little by little, by pulling and pulling that side forward really hard. And then I could open it! Without any damage.. pfew!

    And once it was open I couldn't see anything wrong in there (nothing bent, nothing rubbing against something else), so I'm guessing this wasn't lubricated ever in 30 years. So I put on lubricant generously, closed the hood again hoping for the best.. and it seems to work fine again.

    Thanks for thinking with me, guys!

    This post has been marked as an answer to the original question.








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    960 hood hinge is stuck 900 1991

    Dear Roel,

    Hope you're well. I'd guess the left hinge has been bent, such that when it is closed, the "arms" bind against each other. Spraying lubricant will help.

    Further to the advice given, if the gap between the hood's left-hand edge - and the edge of the left fender (edge of the passenger-side fender closest to the engine bay) - narrows towards the front edge - then the hinge has been bent such that the hood is slightly rotated in a clockwise direction.

    To ease the "binding" of the hinge, grip the left-hand front corner of the hood and lift upwards, which tugging the hood sideways, i.e., as if you wanted to turn the hood in a counter-clockwise direction.

    If the hood then can be opened fully, you've found the problem: a bent hinge. If you can't find a replacement hinge at a salvage yard, it may be necessary to remove the hinge and to straighten it by clamping in a large bench vise, and using a hammer to push the bent section so that it is again straight (or at least straight enough to allow the hood to open with less effort).

    If you need to remove the hinge, use a fine-tip permanent marker to show where the hinge mounts contact the fender. These marks will enable you accurately to re-position the straightened hinge.

    Hope this helps.

    Stay well!!

    Yours faithfully,

    Spook








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    960 hood hinge is stuck 900 1991

    You might try this. It worked to open my stuck 95 855 hood which was also locked down on the passenger side. If I recall correctly the hood design is the same. Try pushing down hard on the hood near where the hood meets the passenger fender at the passenger wheel well while pulling on the latch release at exactly the same time. You might need to enlist someone to help you. If that doesn’t work try pushing on the very front of hood near the latch. Experiment with different locations to push on.

    This is an alignment problem. A clue is to check the gap between the hood and passenger fender. If it is out of alignment (gap is not straight) then you’ve found your problem. If you get it open lube the entire cable and the latches. If you are lucky that will fix the problem.
    --
    Will I buy another Volvo??? We'll see....







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