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Re-route Hood Release Cable

One of the ways a thief gets into your car silently is by slashing your inner fender liner and accessing the hood release cable. Once the hood is popped your alarm siren and your battery are vulnerable. A good security strategy is to stop the thief early, stop him at every attempt, and get him to set off the alarm as early as possible. Not only does this protect your vehicle as a whole, but it minimizes damage from an unsuccessful attempt and helps to protect your parts and personal items. By re-routing your hood release cable through the engine bay, you force the theif to smash your window or pick your door lock, both of which are covered by your theft insurance and both of which will set off the alarm.

Loosen the driver's side front wheel lug nuts. Put the car in gear, pull the ebrake up to max, chock the rear wheels, jack up the front, and put a jackstand under the driver's side front jack point. Let the jack down until the passenger side front wheel rests on the ground but leave the jack in place. Remove the driver's side front wheel and put it under the car roughly beneath the driver's door.

plastic kick panel cover

Ignore the missing/broken dead pedal. You don't have to remove yours.

remove hood release handle

Remove the plastic kick panel cover. Remove the two 10mm bolts on the handle.

remove cable

Detach the cable from the handle.

remove inner fender liner remove inner fender liner remove inner fender liner

Remove the splash guard in the fender. A lot of times it's easier just to pick the plastic screws out instead of screwing them out.

Pop out tabs Pull cable through

Pop out the tabs that secure the cable to the inner fender and then pull the cable through.

Pull cable through Pull cable through

Open the hood and pull the cable through near the headlight/turn signal.

Route cable through engine bay

You can start re-routing the hood cable from the tab behind the headlight. I ran it underneath the cruise control to secure it in place away from the accessory belts. Run the cable through the engine bay as efficiently as possible because you are going to need as much slack as you can get. Later you can come back and secure the cable with zip ties.

Run cable through the firewall Run cable through firewall

I made space alongside this other cable using an angle pick and a flathead screwdriver. On some cars you will have to drill a hole or run it through a wire harness grommet. If you're going to cut into a wire harness grommet, first disconnect the negative cable from the battery.

Cable drops down

The cable drops down behind the clutch pedal interlock switch.

Run cable behind fusebox

Use a deep socket or extension 10mm to remove the lower bolt from the under dash fuse panel, then run the cable behind it. Connect the cable to the handle and reinstall it. You may need to pull some extra slack through. Test it and make sure it works.

Put some anti-seize on the lug nuts and torque them to 80 ft/lbs. Put everything back together and take satisfaction in knowing that your car is that much more difficult to steal.