Before you can do any work, maintenance or even check the oil in your Honda CR-V, you have to get the hood open. While every car is different, most have similar systems holding the hood down. The CR-V uses a main latch that keeps the hood closed and a secondary safety latch that will catch the hood if the main latch fails or when the hood is released from inside the car.

Open the driver’s door of your CR-V and locate the hood release under the dash against the left-hand inner kick panel. Grasp the handle and pull it back until the hood pops open.

Move to the front of the car and slide your hand between the hood and the grille with your palm facing up. Feel for the hood release handle on the underside of the hood and push it up with your fingers.

  • Before you can do any work, maintenance or even check the oil in your Honda CR-V, you have to get the hood open.
  • Feel for the hood release handle on the underside of the hood and push it up with your fingers.

Lift the hood, then pull the prop rod out of the storage clip and place the end of the rod into the hole under the hood. The prop rod hole has an arrow embossed into the steel point at the hole for easy identification.