Been enjoying my GT for about a month or so now, but have a question for other owners who may, like myself, enjoy a little high speed cruising now and again...

I have noticed that at speeds over around 75/80 and most noticeably at speeds over 100, that their is considerable lift of the hood - enough such that it concerns me. Anyone else have this problem or concern? The latch mechanism is strong, and pulling on the hood does not produce the same effect, but the wind sure does.

 

Haven't noticed the hood "lifting", but it definately rattles like heck.

 

Many people have said they have experienced this, it seems to be worse on windy days.

 

Hmmm... I guess the lift could be described as "rattling" up and down ;-)

 

Glad to hear others are experiencing the same thing, makes me a little more comfortable with it. Guess the question then becames, how does it effect the top end of the car ;-)

 

It's still governed at 143.

 

I've got it too... I'm guessing everyone does but might not notice it.
Maybe it's the color that makes it more obvious... not sure.
I think it's the material of the hood that makes it wave like this.
It's almost like a flexing piece of aluminum at speed.

 

I was on rt 80 over here in Jersey on sat. night at about 2 a.m.(I know this was wrong but i was Bored). so i decided to take the stang out for a little run. At about 115-120 mph I hear a weird noise and I look at the hood and the hood was bouncing up and down. I dont no what happened but the latch let go thank god the second latch(or what ever you call it) held it down. I pulled off the highway shut it tried to pull it up and it was holding. So i got back on the highway and made a second run to about 142-143 mph, and the hood stayed perfectly shut no problems. I guess the wind must have hit it the right way and poped it. And I gotta say the car has no problems getting up to that speed and holding it. Also the car felt so much more solid then my 2002 GT did at those speeds.

 

Yup the same thing happened to me . . . I was driving down HWY 4 frm San Fran to LA . . . it was really windy that day and no cars in sight so I decided to floor it . . . I got up to about 98-100 and all of a sudden the hood popped up! I pulled over and shut it and it hasnt done it since but I do notice that it seems as if it wants to come back up at 75+ speeds . . . I brought it to ford ASAP and thy said that nothing is wrong with it and that the latch is fine . . .

 

If you are one of those who might be going that fast sometimes, can you say............
....... Hood Pins

If you don't like the looks of hood pins, but still want a safety mechanism to keep the hood on at any speed, try this.

Back when I used to bracket race ('77-'79), there was a guy who didn't want to put pins on his hood but his latch was shoddy and the hood would pop loose from time to time. What he did was route a length of 1/8" steel cable through two holes in the latch mounting bracket on the underside of the hood. He had one of those crimp-on eyelets on each end of the cable. When the hood was closed, the cables hung down in the front grill area in front of the radiator. There was a hole in the lower frame cross member that supports the radiator. He could line up the two eyelets with this hole with just a little slack in the cables. Then he would put one of those small padlocks through the hole and the eyelets, basically locking the hood to the frame B)
Stealthy and 100% effective. Downside was that everytime he needed to open the hood, he had to slide under the nose of the car and undo the padlock But because of this , you wouldn't have to worry about someone with the wrong intent opening your hood and making off with your hard earned goodies Those thieving scum are out there, and our cars are prime targets!

 

hey, the hood only weighs, what? 25lbs? anything not REALLY bolted down is gonna rattle a little when it weighs that much. my personal method for fixing this problem? I'm gonna get the RKSport hood - 45 lbs, functional air ram scoop - too heavy to lift and adds some power - now that's a "Cthulhu solution!"

 

My can start to flutter as slow as 75-80 mph. Almost always by 90...defintely at 100+. Reported it to the dealer at my first check-up and they reportedly test drove it up to 75 and couldn't see a problem. I guess wind tunnel tests weren't done at high speed??

 

did anyone see the race at the daytona speedway to day it was on the speed channal around 11:30am est . the race was the Grand-Am Cup on feb 4 2005 one of the gt hoods came right off as it was in turn 4, fastest part of the track

 

I havent seen my hood shake or rattle or pop up and I have gone up to 85mph in my GT....

and I have been watching for it since there had been complaints about it....

If anything I have had a hard time closing it after drooling on the engine and being to gentle closing the hood...

 

Yep that was pretty wild. It did not slow him down by much though.

 

I've lost a hood while going 50 or so - it is no fun. I can't imagine what it would be like doing 90 or better. Hood pins sound like a real good idea .. unless you like watching the hood flutter, and taking a chance on the backup latch. :shock:

 

well since that last post I did 105mph :nono: - no problems -rock solid....

 

I wonder if this is just a GT problem? Have had my V6 up to 112 and the hood doesn't even fluter. Wonder if it is the different front end on the GT that is the cause.

 

The GT hood is a lot taller than the V6 hood . . . so mayb?

 

Had mine up to 120 didn`t see the hood pop up or rattle, but the RX-8/ sure saw my taillights though.