How to Open MINI Cooper Hood

How to Open the Hood of Your MINI Cooper

One of the easiest ways to open your MINI Cooper hood is from the inside of the vehicle.

Down on the driver’s side, to the left of the pedals, there should be a lever. Pull it up once to unlock the hood, then again to open it.

Once you step outside the car, you may notice the hood is just slightly open. Often, a safety latch will prevent the hood from flying up. In that case, stick your hand under the hood to feel for the latch. Push onto it, and the hood will come up all the way.

When you’re done inspecting everything, push down forcefully from about 20 inches to fully close the vehicle’s hood. If the hood isn’t completely closed, you’ll see a Check Control message displayed when the car is on. After you get that hood shut tight, the message should go away.

What If You Have a Loose or Broken Cable?

If you’re having trouble opening the hood of your MINI model, it may be due to a loose or broken cable. Therefore, you’ll want to check under the hood for any slackness or disconnection.

When you pull on the latch, use a flashlight to find two cables behind it. Then, use your fingers or a hooked pick to pull on said cables. If they’re easy to pull on, they’re loose and will need to be fixed right away. If they’re taut, there may be another issue with the cables.

Either way, you’ll want to have a service technician examine the cables. They may be able to clean and re-grease them to get hood opening up again. However, if one or more of the cables are broken, the tech will need to replace them.

What If Your Car Battery Is Dead?

As we mentioned before, you can simply reach into the MINI Cooper and pull the lever to open the hood. However, you may run into a scenario where the doors are locked, and the battery is dead—preventing you from getting inside the automobile. What do you, in this case?

You could use the key to manually open the car and get to the lever. However, some models are designed where you can’t open the doors if the car battery is dead.

For those cars, here’s what you could do…

• Press down on the hood: If you push down on the hood hard, it should be able to pop up slightly, where you can pull on the latch and get the hood up.
• Get to the latch through the grille: With the help of a flashlight, you might be able to find the latch through the car’s grille. Then, use a screwdriver, wire, or other thin tool to pull on the latch and open the hood.
• Go under the hood: If you’re unable to approach the latch from the front, you could always try going underneath the hood for access. Grab pliers and tug on the cables to see if that opens the latch. Don’t attempt this, though, if the car was recently on. The engine would still be too hot, which would be dangerous for you.

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