How To Open Hood: 1981 Mercedes-Benz 380SEL 3.8L V8 Sedan (4 Door)

This video shows you how to open the hood in your 1981 Mercedes-Benz 380SEL. Popping the hood, or bonnet, on your 380SEL is a two step process, you need to release the hood latch inside your 380SEL and then you need to release the safety latch under your hood in the front of your 380SEL. The video above shows you the location of both hood latches.

Sometimes, the hood on Mercedes-Benzs gets stuck and won't pop up after the interior latch is released. If you need to open the hood with a stuck latch on your 380SEL, simply pull up on the hood and it should pop up for you to release the second latch. Another option is to pull the interior hood release, then bang on the hood to see if that pops it open.

If your hood still won't open, you may have a broken hood release cable. Opening the hood on your 380SEL with a broken cable requires you to use a coat hanger to reach through the grille and release the latch on the bottom of the hood latch. Sometimes, especially on older 380SELs, you may have difficulty getting your hood to latch when you close it. In this case, the interior release lever on your 1981 Mercedes-Benz 380SEL is probably stuck in the “open” position – push the release lever back and forth several times and then try to close your hood.