You either have the friend or are the friend. The one who reports their 2013 Nissan Sentra “stolen” at the mall, only to have the police find it parked there an hour later. Who thinks oil changes are optional until the dash light is practically screaming. That singular individual who runs out of gas on the highway because they’re too busy belting out “I’m the Problem.”
Creator @ourismancdjrwoodbridge recently met that person. In a TikTok watched more than 17,000 times, the Virginia-based mechanic shared a head-shaker of a moment.
“The customer states they wanted to check their oil, but couldn’t find the hood release,” he says to the camera.
He looks under the dash, and sure enough, there’s no little lever. So then he circles the car. “That’s because it’s Wrangler,” he says, releasing the latches on either side of the Jeep’s hood. Thereby gaining access to the engine block.
Snarky & Snide
The folks in the comments don’t hold back. It’s like none of them have ever made a simple, easily Googleable mistake (say, like not knowing how to put a BMW X3 into reverse).
“The hood release is behind the 674 ducks lined up on their dash,” joked @kustombypook13, referencing “Duck, Duck, Jeep.” a kind of mutual appreciation game where Jeep owners leave a rubber ducky on cool Jeeps they spot.
While @johnharper81 speculated that the Wrangler’s owner will run into more problems, “I bet they couldn’t find the spare tire either.”
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Yet not everyone was without sympathy. “Ngl, I be forgetting sometimes too,” said @mitchryanson.
Several others went off on tangents, noticing that the mechanic in the video sounds an awful lot like beloved actor John Goodman, particularly his character Eli Gemstone in The Righteous Gemstones when he’s talking to his spoiled adult children. “John Goodman, datchu?” asked Johnnybravo_554.
Why Do Wranglers Have Latches Instead of Releases?
For the 4x4 once lauded as “faithful as a dog, strong as a mule, and as agile as a goat,” the hood latches make sense. Back then, they were designed as a fail-safe on far-flung battlefields of the world (a soldier could always get in and do a fix). Now they’re a throwback to the vehicle’s rugged heritage. They also work to decrease “hood flutter,” or hood vibration at highway speeds.
For those experiencing this unnerving phenomenon, users of the Wrangler Forum suggest replacing the factory hood bumpers with better ones, or upgrading the hood latches. It’s a common mod and several brands were suggested: Daystar, Steinjager, Rugged Ridge, and DV8.
Forum user rsmwrangler said of upgrading the hood latches, “You won't know you need them until you need them. I ran a lot of miles on the stockers, thinking I didn't need the aftermarket ones until one day I met the right criteria.”
“In my case I was doing about 65-70mph or so in a 2 lane highway with a big semi coming the opposite way,” they continued. “Once the truck went by the hood starting fluttering and let me [tell] you, it's crazy how the hood seems to want to lift up and fly away.”
Motor1 reached out to @ourismancdjrwoodbridge via TikTok comment and direct message. We’ll be sure to update this if he responds.
