Has anyone experienced their stock hood shake at speed? I was driving on the interstate going about 80/mph and noticed my hood shaking up and down. About five minutes later, I noticed the hood became unlocked and was only held shut by the safety latch. I was able to safely pull over and close my hood but I was nervous during the remainder of my drive that it was going to pop open.

 

Yes, this seems to be a common concern with S197 owners.
Some have achieved success by adjusting the rubber bumpers Up and/or the center latch Down. Others have drilled holes in their hood (yikes) and installed hoodpins.

Here's another solution: "Stealth S197 Hoodpins"

http://www.mustang50magazine.com/tec...ins/index.html


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+1^^

adjusting the hood bump stops should help with calming down the hood movement, but having the hood actually pop up??...that should have never happened. was your hood open recently?

 

Yes. This is common. There's probably been 2 dozen threads about it (not bashing for not searching, just stating that it's very common). It seems to be caused by the amount of air that gets under the hood due to the way it overhangs the grille. Adjusting the hood bumpers and or adding hood pins are the most common and effective solutions.

 

Very common, including my 07 GT. I finally gave in and installed Shelby non-logo'd hood pins. My car sees plenty of track time and I can't afford to have a hood latch fail on the track (or the interstate, for that matter).

 

Over 80mph or if you are getting a strong headwind, you'll see the hood wobble. It's normal and has to do with the shape of the hood. Check the rubber standoffs sticking up from the radiator cover (to make sure they're in contact with the hood) and make sure the latch mechanism is in good order.

I wouldn't worry too much about it, but if you find it happening a lot, invest in a set of hood-pins.

 

Had that happen too, coming back from Carlisle going down hill at a decent speed. Thankfully the latch did catch, has never happened again though.

 

Mine does it also. Especially, at highway speed passing or following a semi.

Never had it pop open though.

 

As said before, it's all about the bump stops. Just turn them counter-clockwise to raise them up a bit. Keep going until the hood won't close properly, then back them down a turn or so. I have cured the problem on 3 different Mustangs now this way.

 

It should stop moving between 120 to 140 mph.

 

No, not recently.

 

As I've said before, this worked for me also.

 

The S197 does not have an open cowl to reduce under hood pressures caused by ingestion of air through the grill.

This, combined with the hood's lightweight construction which allows flex, you get hood wobble at speed.

To my knowledge there has never been a claim with the hood failing where it wasn't operator error (not closing the hood properly).

Hood pins add an extra bit of safety, but this won't necessarily stop the hood from buffeting. The only way to truly do that is to allow the high pressure air under your hood to escape. This means creating an opening in the cowl, or adding a hood that allows the air to escape from the low pressure area on top of the hood.

 

Umm... just how do you have operator error when closing a hood? Is there also a way to close a door improperly, because I sure wouldn't want that opening up while I'm going down the highway either.

 

I use this solution on my car:

 

Tried that on my '07 before resorting to hood pins. The bump stops, alone, could not stop my hood from shaking, but it helped.

 

Sure. Ever closed your door, thought it was closed but not quite? Not saying it's easy to do, or common for that matter but it's not within the realm of impossible.

My point here was that it's a visual issue only. If there was enough buffeting going on to cause the hood to dislodge from it's primary latch there would be a safety recall, or a TSB at the very least addressing the issue.

There's enough S197 cars on the road that if it was a safety problem, ford wouldn't be able to ignore it based on complaints through the NTSB.

 

I have known one person whos hood bracket failed, and another whose latch failed, leading to scary results. But that's a rare, rare thing.

Besides, if you're racing, there's different regs for safety. On the road, going fast enough to cause a potential hood failure...hood failure is the least of things to be concerned about.

 

Where did you buy the material? Good job.

 

Thanks.
It's some foam rubber - I've ordered from my rubber dealer here in my region, pre-cut to the right dimensions and with an adhesive strip on it at one side... very easy installation.

The hood shake at >=80mph has vanished...