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Posting on behalf of a friend. She bought a used 2020 Toyota Corolla from carvana a few months ago. Yesterday she called me saying the dash threw a hood unlatched warning and the hood latch was actually open. We fixed it easily by opening and closing the hood, but why did this happen?

She had no reason to open the hood when she owned the vehicle

Could she have accidentally hit the latch release with her leg?
Could it be an act of vandalism when she left her car unattended?

Just want to make sure this is a one off thing or if its a symptom of a bigger issue

rsn
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It could be that it just wasn't latched all the way and finally popped. I've seen weird things like this happen. If it happens again, I'd suggest the latch needs to be adjusted to ensure it's fully engaging correctly, or possibly the latching mechanism is worn out and might need replaced.

Most modern day hood latches take quite a bit for them to be overcome by nefarious means. Also, hood latch pulls are designed so you have to purposely engage it for it to unlatch the hood. There's just about no way for someone to accidentally do this by bumping it with their knee or something similar.

Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2
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It's possible someone at Carvana was in there inspecting it, and didn't latch it all the way when they closed it. I'd consider it "no big deal".

Any hood will have a secondary latch, which will prevent it from opening more than a few inches even if it pops open. You must reach in and release the secondary latch to get it to open further. That's a safety feature.

Harper - Reinstate Monica
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