I can "release" the hood on my 1999 Audi A4 from

Yes, you will be able to open the hood if you pull off your splash guard and use a long long flat head screwdriver or something like that. You'll see the hood latch in front of the radiator with the cable attached to it at the top near the hood, put it on the drivers side edge of the bottom of the latch and pry to the passenger side, the lever moves from the drivers side to the passengers side, the cable basically pulls the top of it to achieve this. so your doing the same thing on the bottom with the screwdriver.


Release the latch from underneath by the lever that you have to pry towards the passenger side. Then open the hood, and repair or replace the safety release mechanism. This is very simple to remove out from the hood.