one more possibilty: the rubber jacket of the hood release cable could be loose/cracked/gone near one of the clamps that holds it to the inside of the fender under the hood. this causes the entire cable to move when you pull, instead of just the inside. mine's been broken for about two years now. i'm just too lazy (also cheap) to fix it, so i open the hood by reaching up behind the front bumper/in front of the radiator and pulling the release by hand. if you still have the plastic piece from the chin spoiler to radiator, you have to swing that down and out of the way first. just remember to put it back!! mine's on the side of a road somewhere because of that.