Hood Closing / Alignment issue on Passenger Side (with Fix)

cutsman

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Last night, I opened the hood of the car to admire the engine bay and poke around (as most of us have hah). When I was leaving the garage, I closed the hood and thought nothing of it because it closed as any other car hood would do.

Come this morning, I went back into the garage and noticed that the passenger side of the hood was not aligning with the rest of the car. There was a significant gap between the hood and fender (and the front bumper). After trying to press down on the hood harder, opening and re-closing the hood multiple times, and even slamming the hood down, I couldn't get the damn passenger side to align properly!

I went ahead and looked at the hinges on the hood itself, and I noticed that the passenger side hinge was "raised" significantly when compared to the driver side. It was probably off by a couple of turns on the thread. Since the hinge was bolted down by two 10 mm nuts, I removed them to take a look at the assembly.

Fix:

It turns out the black 11mm nut on the hinge (on the hood) is adjustable. I grabbed an 11mm box wrench and turned it clockwise a few times to "lower" the hinge. This would allow the latch on the body to grab the striker sooner. After the adjustment, the hood closed up beautifully!

IMG_20190918_063731-min.jpg
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s219

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Before making adjustments, make sure you are closing the hood with enough force. The procedure is to lift it to about 20" and gently but deliberately "throw" it downward with even force from both hands. It's a bit of an acquired skill, and most people will think it's too forceful the first time they try it, but this is trick needed to do it on these dual-latch BMW hoods. Never press or fiddle with the hood when it doesn't latch as they are easy to dent.

That might not be the issue, but what makes me think the latch striker was adjusted OK (and don't expect them to be visually the same side to side) is that the hood was obviously closed and latched OK prior to your experience. Generally, when the striker latch is set wrong, the hood either latches early on one side or won't latch at all on one side (so whoever closed it before you wouldn't have been able to close it). You need to diagnose both sides, as it's possible the real problem was on the other side.

There is a 2-3 step procedure to adjusting BMW hoods, and you skipped over the first couple steps. The rubber stops, which are supposed to control the final closed height, usually have a center plunger that you can pull out. Then close the hood, open again, and look at the plunger -- is it still poking out or is it flush with the bumper? Adjust bumper height and repeat process until it's just flush. Then move on to the latch striker adjustment, if needed. There are procedures in BMW service manuals on http://newtis.info and I would suspect the procedure for the G29 Z4 will also apply to the Supra.

Your car might have needed this adjustment, but given that the hood was closed and latched properly before you had this experience, I would suspect the striker latches were OK before.
 
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cutsman

cutsman

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Before making adjustments, make sure you are closing the hood with enough force. The procedure is to lift it to about 20" and gently but deliberately "throw" it downward with even force from both hands. It's a bit of an acquired skill, and most people will think it's too forceful the first time they try it, but this is trick needed to do it on these dual-latch BMW hoods. Never press or fiddle with the hood when it doesn't latch as they are easy to dent.

That might not be the issue, but what makes me think the latch striker was adjusted OK (and don't expect them to be visually the same side to side) is that the hood was obviously closed and latched OK prior to your experience. Generally, when the striker latch is set wrong, the hood either latches early on one side or won't latch at all on one side (so whoever closed it before you wouldn't have been able to close it). You need to diagnose both sides, as it's possible the real problem was on the other side.

There is a 2-3 step procedure to adjusting BMW hoods, and you skipped over the first couple steps. The rubber stops, which are supposed to control the final closed height, usually have a center plunger that you can pull out. Then close the hood, open again, and look at the plunger -- is it still poking out or is it flush with the bumper? Adjust bumper height and repeat process until it's just flush. Then move on to the latch striker adjustment, if needed. There are procedures in BMW service manuals on http://newtis.info and I would suspect the procedure for the G29 Z4 will also apply to the Supra.

Your car might have needed this adjustment, but given that the hood was closed and latched properly before you had this experience, I would suspect the striker latches were OK before.
Thanks for the information as I was not aware of the process for adjusting BMW hoods. I'll try out your closing method when I get home later.

My intention was solely to document my experience as I was attempting to close the hood in different ways to no avail. Considering not everyone is a BMW expert, others may experience the same thing so it is best that people discuss it. Thanks again!
 

s219

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To be honest, I think it takes a ridiculous amount of effort to close these hoods consistently and I cringe every time I do it. So it's not surprising people have all different experiences with this, and the first reaction that it's an adjustment problem is reasonable. This is a recurring topic on BMW forums. Early on after the Supra was released, it was common to spot pictures of the car on this forum (sometimes dealer photos) with one side of the hood sticking up and unlatched. One of the bad things inherited from BMW.
 

s219

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Dang, that is a great way to describe and show it. I think "energetically" is the word I have been searching for all these years. It just took German > Japanese > English translation to reveal it!
 

absolute0

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I noticed this one mine yesterday. The passenger side was not completely closed. It latched only on the driver side. No warning light!!! I was quite surprised...
 

XtremeMaC

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whenever I try to gently close the hood, one side always remain up. Even if I then apply pressure on that side to close it, it won't. Only thing is to pop it back up and "energetically" :) shut it.
Is this a BMW double latch thingy or specific to Supra?
 

s219

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whenever I try to gently close the hood, one side always remain up. Even if I then apply pressure on that side to close it, it won't. Only thing is to pop it back up and "energetically" :) shut it.
Is this a BMW double latch thingy or specific to Supra?
Typical for BMW double latch hoods. Don't be timid with it, give it a good throw downward from 20". You can actually do damage by shutting it cockeyed and/or trying to press it.
 

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Thanks for posting this!!

I just purchased my Supra late yesterday and early this morning I decide to open hood myself for a good look see...When I closed the hood I gently pushed it down and I'll be damn the passenger side hood wasn't latching fully....I must have tried doing this 6x and no luck and thought to myself ...damn back to the dealer...LOL

I then searched this forum, found this thread, and tried the 20" energetic close and I'll be damn it shut tight both sides!

Thanks guys!
 

Z8AKU

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I have never had this issue and I never drop any hoods down like this EVER! Always gently set the hood down and then using both hands firmly press down until it latches. The latches and strikers can become bent and become worn from slamming the hood down causing permanent damage over time. FYI
 
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cutsman

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I have never had this issue and I never drop any hoods down like this EVER! Always gently set the hood down and then using both hands firmly press down until it latches. The latches and strikers can become bent and become worn from slamming the hood down causing permanent damage over time. FYI
I was under this same assumption, which is why I originally posted. But apparently its common to energetically close it haha. ::shrug::
 

s219

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I have never had this issue and I never drop any hoods down like this EVER! Always gently set the hood down and then using both hands firmly press down until it latches. The latches and strikers can become bent and become worn from slamming the hood down causing permanent damage over time. FYI
That is not the way BMW or Toyota recommends, and you risk denting the aluminum hood (read some BMW forums to see just how common that is). You absolutely do not want to be pressing down on the outer skin of the hood, no matter how gentle you think you are being.

The hood sits on rubber stoppers and that is what sets the depth and takes the shock when slamming it shut, not the latches. There is a detailed adjustment procedure that adjusts the stoppers, then the latch pins, to make sure everything works as designed.

Properly adjusted, the latches never take an impact, rather, they pivot and "capture" the pins by rotating. What you may perceive as "impact" is actually the linear momentum of the hood rotating the latch against the latch spring. This linear-rotational transfer pretty much eliminates chances of anything bending or getting damaged as you allude to.

In reality, it is no different than slamming your doors.
 

30MilesOffshore

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I had this exact same issue. The car is only two weeks old. Took it to the local dealer and the dealer informed me that:

"There is a Technical Service Bulletin out about this issue and that there was nothing wrong with the latch and the latch was not the problem. I was also informed that the cause could be due to incorrect closing of the hood and possibly a warped hood was the culprit and that it is not covered by warranty and odds are I might need possibly a new hood!"

I almost flipped my lid when I was told this. He referred me to the body shop across the street for an opinion on the hood being warped. I took it to the body shop for them to look at it. Both the manager and the service tech said the same thing. The hood was fine and the lines looked clean and couldn't see any warping. They also recommended that I take it to their "Luxury Shop" that handles in exotics and have them look at it too.

So, I drove across town and had 3 more techs take a look at it from the luxury shop. They all said the same thing, that the hood lines are clean and they couldn't see any flexing, bends, creases, tension, etc. They all said the same thing, that the latch was the issue. One of the techs examined it and did exactly the same fix as mentioned above.

Wish I would have found this thread earlier, because it would have saved me a day of headache! I can't believe the Toyota dealer would just treat their customers this way and try to wash their hands from even attempting to fix anything! Total disappointment in the Toyota Techs trying to pass the work off and not diagnosing the issue correctly!
 

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After pulling the hood lever from under front the inside driver's dash(I keep wanting to find the hinge to unlatch the hood like my other cars. LOL) I keep forgetting that you just lift it up.
It took me a few times of practice on which height/force to drop the hood to get both sides to latch. First time dropping it, the passenger's side wasn't fully latched and had a gap.
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