Hood Ajar Switch

[cahaldo]

I just finished messing with my "hood ajar" error message that was annoying  the snot outa' me, so I thought I'd share what I experienced:

 

I took the nose off and replaced all the light bulbs in the front because replacing one is kinda useless;

As we all know, if you replace one, replace them all or else it will come back to haunt you.

 

After everything was back in place and all the lights working properly, the "HOOD AJAR" message came on.

 

I searched for a replacement switch, which is between 42-80 bucks online, or possibly much more than that at the Ford Dealer.

After taking the splash guard out and turning the driver side of the nose down I made sure the switch, a  micro switch,  was intact.

 

Reading a lot of comments in various places made me leery not to replace before testing. (I am a QA Analyst after all)

 

Before it came out, I marked the bolts and the latch frame's position so it would go back into the same position when it goes back in.

Scratching it with a hook tool puts a line around where the washer originally was.

 

I took the entire hood latch out to expose the switch in its' environment so I could see how it operates

Then I took the switch off with a small torx socket.

I checked the switch for continuity  - OK.

Brightened the contacts and the lobe on the hood latch just-in-case, thinking it may be grounded- it's not .  - OK

 

Then I SLIGHTLY bent the hook of the stainless switch arm with a small needle nose pliers to give it just a tad of downward angle.

I thought that, after some time the metal had fatigued and was not shutting off.

 

When the switch is depressed, the meter gave me continuity. I think that is "Closed" circuit?

When the switch is released, continuity is broken. Is that an "open" circuit?

I don't know which direction the message is triggered, but I figured bending it might help.

I had to try to save 80 bucks.

 

Once I got the latch all back together ( I left the nose hanging), I tried it to see if the message went away.

This time it worked.

So I suggest, maybe checking the switch out for continuity, clean the contacts, the lobe of the latch,  maybe adjust the height of the latch, and pray you can save 80 bucks.

Another thought: if the latch mechanism is moved SLIGHTLY up, the bar on the hood may come down a little deeper into the latch and move that lobe a little further into the switch.

That might also be a reason the light was coming on. I jiggled something to cause this.

Anyway,  hope this may give you some ideas and help someone else out there that may experience the "Hood Ajar" issue.

It beats spending 80 bucks.

 

Edited September 16, 2018 by cahaldo

[IngotSport]

So, I too just replaced the bulbs in a '16 Fusion, checked all the lights and connections before buttoning it all up and thought all was well.  After it was done, I got the hood ajar message, so thank you for this enlightenment!  

[IngotSport]

18 hours ago, IngotSport said:

So, I too just replaced the bulbs in a '16 Fusion, checked all the lights and connections before buttoning it all up and thought all was well.  After it was done, I got the hood ajar message, so thank you for this enlightenment!  

 

Update...so I thought I reconnected everything...as I looked down over the hood latch release I noticed I missed the hood latch connector...there is just enough flex in the upper portion of the bumper assembly to get your hand in there by removing all the upper plastic clips and the 3 screws...just.barely.enough...