it shouldnt take force to open the hood release. How often to you lube the hood latch behind the grill? I grease mine once a month with a little spray lube to keep her free

 

I never greased it because I rarely open in but it always took some force since the truck was new, now I can do it with my pinkie finger though.

 

Lest see.... I have a 2006 175K miles stock hood and lights. The latch is not greases and
taks almost no force to open it. Grease every month is over kill once a year IF it needs
is all it should need. The down side about all the grease is it will attract dust and the
more dust the faster it will wear because the dust will act like as an abrasive .

Sean

 

If force is required, the stops are too high or the latch is too low.

 

Interesting it must have been off from the start then, I'm still waiting on my new stops hopefully I'll get them early next week.

 

So last night I was on my way home from a friends house and i didnt even realize it until i got home but the hood popped open! not unlatched but as if i pulled the lever in the cab. Good news is that I got my new bump stops the old ones popped out fairly easily.

The old ones were slightly higher than a 1/2"


I installed the new ones and made them slightly taller by about an 1/8" (sorry bad pic). The drivers side ended up going up to about 3/4" because the hood is slightly bent on the corner by the grille.


Now my hood sits just about right.







I also tried adjusting the hood back towards the cowl but it is already all the way back. The passenger side slid back about 1/8" but that's it, I just loosened all 4 bolts and pushed towards the cab but got no movement except for the passenger side slightly.

Here is how it sits now which is pretty much unchanged, it does stick up slightly above the headlights and moving it back a little would fix that.



Also in case anyone needs it the part number for the bump stops is F81Z-16758-AB they are $5 each from White Bear Lake (AutoNation Ford White Bear Lake Parts (previously Tousley Ford Parts) bad actually