What did I do wrong?

[PJS]

My brother came down from Atlanta today so I showed him my new Viper.

I opened the hood for him to see the V10 and after I carefully closed the hood my brother pointed out that the hood on the driver's side was about an 1"1/2 from lining up with the head light. The passenger's side was okay. For a moment I thought it was factory alignment problem but after a minute I decided to open and reclose the hood with a little more force. Well after I did so that time everything seemed to line up to a perfect fit.

Any Of you long time Viper owners know what I did wrong and did I hurt anything?

By the way I did check the first time and the hood seemed to be latched down okay.

Thanks in advance from a new Viper owner.

 

[Ulysses]

If it was 1 1/2 inches above the headlight, you simply did not have enough down force to latch it. Backing down the rubber stopper a tad or bringing up the front latch a tad on that side might make it easier to close.

 

[Ulysses]

I have to add that you must ALWAYS make sure that the rearward latches, the ones that the rollers set into, are well seated with the rollers before slamming the hood shut. Not doing this might cause you to bend the hood. This will cause cracks in the paint or cracks all the way through hood.

 

[Kevin ACR]

Sounds like you only caught one latch. I usually give a tug up on the front of the hood by the wheel on both sides to check that they both latched. Its easy not to latch it even owning it for a while. As far as damage, highly doubt it, done it myself many a time, just pop it and drop it again.

Are you closing the hood by placing your hand up by the mounting points between the two grills in the hood? You should be so that you don't stress the hood when closing. I'm sure there are better explainations if you do a search if you don't know what I mean.

 

[MES]

When closing the hood press down on the center just in front of the window to settle the two rear latches into their slots. Then close the hood from the front by pressing down over top of the underhood supports. Look under the hood while it's up to see where these supports are. As to your question, I think you just didn't snap one side of the hood in place when you shut it. There are two front hood latches one on either side of your hood scoop, no damage done.

Site suggestion make an illustrated "How to close the hood" section

 

[MadMaxx]

Make sure she sits down in the rear rollers well (completely down). Then with an open handed, WIDE approach (almost to the inside corner of each headlight) push the hood down. Resist the urge to put your hands close together, one side probably won't latch the first time

Wider is better... less stress and doesn't take much pressure to close.

You didn't hurt anything, you're fine

James

 

[jimandela]

PJS,
Congrats and welcome to YELLOW FEVER!!!

best wishes
JIM

 

[slaughterj]

Cool, another NC Viper! You should come up to the auto-x in a couple weeks.

Sounds like one side just didn't latch, no big deal more than likely. See what others have posted. Especially note three things: (1) make sure that the part of the hood closest to the windshield is down in each of the slots properly, (2) make sure that when you push down on the hood to fully close it, that you are not pushing down on the lip/edge, but rather are about a foot up the hood so you are pushing down directly above where the hood supports connect to the hood, and (3) go to each side of the car and give a light tug on the hood above the wheels to see that the latches have caught.