boyfester
New member
During an off-road trip this past weekend, I noticed a large gap between my hood and body on both sides of my '14 TE. It was about 1/4-1/2" gap. I never paid too much attention to the hood before so I was worried that my monthly off-road expeditions had done something to the hood. I opened the hood expecting to see a rock or mud in between the rubber seals and bumpers but didn't see anything. I closed the hood firmly but the gap remained. Here are some pictures of the gap.
This is looking down towards the left headlight on the driver's side.
This is the left side.
And the right side.
As far as I could tell, the gaps were even on both sides. So I scoured this forum about how to adjust the hood and only found notes about a hood gap after people did some headlight upgrades. I scoured youtube and the internet and found out that two of the bumpers underneath the hood (Marked "A" in the following picture) are adjustable down and up by rotating them either clockwise or counterclockwise, respectively.
I ended up rotating them clockwise all the way to their limits and the gap still remained. I then removed them completely by unscrewing them and, still, the gap remained. So my next diagnosis was the bumpers on top of the radiator shroud. I removed these (they were in the locations marked "B" in the above picture) and the gap decreased by about half. Ah ha! I was onto something! If I pushed down on the middle of the hood, I could see through the grill that the hood latch had some clearance in it. I realized that if the entire hood latch could be lowered about 1/4 inch, it would eliminate the gap entirely. I was hoping that the holes on the latch were slotted and therefore, could be adjusted.
So I removed the black plastic covering the radiator to gain access to the latch. I removed the latch by removing the three bolts. Unfortunately, the bolt holes on the latch were not slotted. Bummer! Therefore, I took out the Dremel and opened up the two top holes about 1/4" upwards and opened up the bottom hole about 1/4" downwards. The screenshot below shows the direction of the grinding on the three holes.
I took off all the springs and hood latch cable to see how everything worked while it was apart which was a good thing. When I remounted the latch to its new lower position, part of the mechanism struck the metal framing which was connected to the body and the front grill. Therefore, I had to grind about 1/4" off of this as well to allow the latch parts to move freely. The picture below shows what I removed.
When it was all said and done, I lowered the latch about a 1/4" and put all the rubber bumpers back on. I found out that the "A" bumpers could remain but screwed in to their lowest positions. The "B" bumpers raised the hood again slightly again about 1/8" and so I removed these completely from the assembly. The following pictures are of the finished product.
Looking down at headlight from the driver's side again. Much more flush.
Left side
Right side
This is looking down towards the left headlight on the driver's side.
This is the left side.
And the right side.
As far as I could tell, the gaps were even on both sides. So I scoured this forum about how to adjust the hood and only found notes about a hood gap after people did some headlight upgrades. I scoured youtube and the internet and found out that two of the bumpers underneath the hood (Marked "A" in the following picture) are adjustable down and up by rotating them either clockwise or counterclockwise, respectively.
I ended up rotating them clockwise all the way to their limits and the gap still remained. I then removed them completely by unscrewing them and, still, the gap remained. So my next diagnosis was the bumpers on top of the radiator shroud. I removed these (they were in the locations marked "B" in the above picture) and the gap decreased by about half. Ah ha! I was onto something! If I pushed down on the middle of the hood, I could see through the grill that the hood latch had some clearance in it. I realized that if the entire hood latch could be lowered about 1/4 inch, it would eliminate the gap entirely. I was hoping that the holes on the latch were slotted and therefore, could be adjusted.
So I removed the black plastic covering the radiator to gain access to the latch. I removed the latch by removing the three bolts. Unfortunately, the bolt holes on the latch were not slotted. Bummer! Therefore, I took out the Dremel and opened up the two top holes about 1/4" upwards and opened up the bottom hole about 1/4" downwards. The screenshot below shows the direction of the grinding on the three holes.
I took off all the springs and hood latch cable to see how everything worked while it was apart which was a good thing. When I remounted the latch to its new lower position, part of the mechanism struck the metal framing which was connected to the body and the front grill. Therefore, I had to grind about 1/4" off of this as well to allow the latch parts to move freely. The picture below shows what I removed.
When it was all said and done, I lowered the latch about a 1/4" and put all the rubber bumpers back on. I found out that the "A" bumpers could remain but screwed in to their lowest positions. The "B" bumpers raised the hood again slightly again about 1/8" and so I removed these completely from the assembly. The following pictures are of the finished product.
Looking down at headlight from the driver's side again. Much more flush.
Left side
Right side
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