How to Replace Hood Latch 2004-05 Toyota Highlander
Created on: 2018-01-29
How to repair, install, fix, change or replace a broken, loose, or bent, hood latch on 04, 05 Toyota Highlander
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step 1 :Removing the Grille
- Pry up and remove the push clips from the grille
- Unclip the grille on either side
- Slide the grille out
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step 2 :Removing the Hood Latch
- Unclip the hood latch cover on both side
- Remove the hood latch cover
- Remove the three 10mm bolts from the hood latch
- Unclip the hood release cable and release it
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step 3 :Installing the Hood Latch
- Latch the hood cable in
- Tighten the three 10mm bolts to the hood latch
- Clip the hood latch cover on
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step 4 :Installing the Grille
- Clip the grille underneath the lip and slide the grille in place
- Replace the push clips
Tools needed
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Flat Blade Screwdriver
Needle nose pliers
Trim Tool Set
Hi, I’m Mike from 1A Auto. We’ve been selling auto parts for over 30 years!
To remove the grille there are four push clips on the top. Use a flat bladed screwdriver to pry them up and unlock them. Both sides. Use a trim clip tool. Kind of pry on them a bit sometimes they take a little bit of force to get them to unclip. There are two clips on either side of the grille. They’re kind of hidden. You can get to them. You’d access the clips through here to release them on either side. Ours are broken. They actually clip through the headlights so without those in place there's the bottom of the grille clips to the top of the bumper. Just kind of slide it out. You may need to slide a screwdriver in there and just push the lock tabs in. But this one's pretty loose, so it came right out.
To remove the hood latch, there's two 10 millimeter bolts here. There's one hidden behind this plastic cover. To remove the plastic cover, it's clipped in on both sides. Use a small flat bladed screwdriver, and just pry it down a bit. You have to look in here to find the clip. I'm just going to push it in to unlock it. There's that one. Once I got that one loose, it popped out. You're basically just pushing in on these tabs to get it to pop out. Put that aside.
Use a 10 millimeter socket extension and ratchet. Just remove them all. Just got to hold on to this so it doesn't fall. Unclip the hood release cable. Point it straight out. Then, you have to maneuver the cable out from the hook around the little ball there, and take your hood latch right out.
Take our hood cable to latch in around that hook, so just maneuver it in. Flip it around. Clip it into place. Grab one of the bolts. We can see where the outline of the hood latch was. As far as alignment, since this one was working okay, the hood alignment seemed all right.
I'm going to put it- you can see where there's an outline. I'm just going to line it up the exact same way. If you needed to, you can adjust this side to side, and up and down. For now, I'm just going to line it up where it was originally. Reinstall this plastic cover. It's got a couple of hooks in the back. Just hook it up in the back. Snap it into place.
It's always a good idea to take some penetrating oil and just lube up your hood latch, so it's easy for it to open. It is right on the front of the vehicle, so it can get rusty.
These are the clips and brackets that are supposed to be mounted to the back of our grille. It's broken on both sides, but they would clip into here. The headlights on both sides to help hold the grille in. You don't 100% need them but if you have yours you can clip them back in. These clips on the bottom of the grille are going to go underneath this lip. Push it down like that. Slide it up under that lip into place. And put the push clips back in place. Grille is back in place.
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