Definitely degrease the coils. Here's my post on this subject from several years back:
My hood has always needed to be propped up with a dowel since I bought it back in Aug of '05. Sometimes it would stay up, but not where I would trust walking away from it. When it did feel like staying open, the slightest breeze or movement would cause it to fall. I'm lucky I never learned the hard way. Last week I went out and bought some GUNK engine de-greaser. I placed an old towel all around the springs and put a large pan under the car to catch the drippings just in case it's not good for concrete, and blasted them with the GUNK. I let it sit for a few hours. Hood seemed to be no better than before, but I still noticed there was some type of grease/lube in the coils. I then used a stream and blasted through the openings of the coils. I waited a few hours, came back with a water bottle and soaked the hinges down with water. The next morning, I came out and the coils looked brand new with no more grease/lube/crap in them. I took the dowel off and was amazed at the results. I could now close the hood several inches from fully open and the damn thing now stays open. It creaked like a SOB when I fully closed it, but after opening it back up the creaking has gone away. It honestly feels like I have a new hood now. I'll probably need to see a therapist to help me get over the 2 years I couldn't leave it open anywhere from fear it would fall. I've always felt like an idiot when someone wanted to see the engine and I would pop the hood and hold it while they looked.
