Hood lock spring

[Jureb]

Hi,

My bonnet wasn't closing very good, the hood lock wasn't locking good. I had to slam the bonnet real hard to get it closed. There was a lot of dirt and old hard grease in hood lock so I disassembled the hood lock and cleaned everything with brake cleaner and greased it again with lithium grease. The problem was fixed, the bonnet closes very nice and with ease!

As I was inspecting and cleaning the lock I noticed that the smaller, lower spring is deformed, it still works but it could fail in the (near) future. Does anyone know if these springs can be bought separately, or sourced from some other application/other Toyota vehicle as a separate part? I'm asking because it seems Toyota sells it only with the whole hood lock assembly and not separately, everything is combined in one part number 53510-60091 (LHD vehicle). I really don't want to spend 50+ € for the whole hood lock assembly just because one little spring is deformed.

Did someone experience something similar and has suggestions?

 

[Shayne]

I remember thinking that spring looked a little flimsy when i messed with mine about 6 years ago but i never thought about it again until i read your post .

Incidentally i crushed my bonnet lock along with the bonnet so i pulled it apart while bending everything straight again got it working but decided to fit a second hand one anyway which actually looked identical and worked the same .

 

[diggerdave]

search on ebay for 'extension/expansion spring' and you'll find the right type, but you'll obviously need to do some careful measurement. To my knowledge (flimsy, based on air rifles) springs are categorised on length/thickness of wire/number of coils. I've no idea how crucial it would be to get the exact specification in this application - probably not vital, but near enough would do.

But I'd leave the original in place even if you buy a spare for your peace of mind. It doesn't look as if its about to break to me.

 

[Tel Boy]

53510 is the complete catch assembly and as you say, too much money to be sensible.
53510A is just the springs - both of them. Only a few euros. These exact springs are used on many Toyota models, not only Cruisers, also Lexus and cars. Do a search on Toyota spring 53510A and you will find dozens of individual part numbers, one for each vehicle. All of them are the same, so go for the cheapest/nearest to you.

But as digger dave said, your small spring looks like it will carry on working perfectly for years. Its a little bent but if it works OK it would be good enough for me. If it worries you then use a pair of thin-nosed pliers to straighten it out a bit. You will never get it like new but that really doesn't matter.