Rant ; bought one 99 TJ hood latch for $38.45 plus tax

Oct 07, 2005 3 Replies

I saw my hood flapping today as I was driving and upon inspection, I saw my right hood latch rubber had split in half where the fender grommet bolt goes through the rubber. I looked at my "good" latch on the left and it's almost totally split at the same spot also.



Damn! So I go the nearest dealer and he wanted 48 bucks for one stupid latch. I tried to find a cheaper than mopar hood latch for my 99 tj on the internet but could not.



So I went to the dealer near my house and he had one for 38.45. I took it and ordered a second one. I hate shelling out 81 bucks for a pair of stupid rubber hood latches. Ya' know? I thought I was taking good care of my rubber and trim by bathing it in the 303 proctectant all these years. Sorry 'bout the rant.



ps, I did not know this but the second dealer said each dealership and parts dept are franchised and set their own prices. He told me the suggested retail for this hood latch was 38.45.



snipped-for-privacy@geocities.com did pass the time by typing:

That's correct. And that's why I use

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don't overcharge. As for the rubber bits, might try a truck stop or even NAPA, they tend to have a lot of things in aftermarket.

-- DougW

Well, sorry to tell you but those 'protectants' only shine them up, they have a reputation of sucking the oils out so they split like you found out....

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

snipped-for-privacy@geocities.com wrote:

Yeah, I know about the "armor all" problems. In fact there was lots of discussion about how some protectants would leech the oils out of vinyl and rubber but the only reason I used the 303 protectant was because it got such a good rep here on this very forum. I believed that the marine "303" protectant would retard the drying effects of exposure to the sun . I can't really blame it on the "303". The splits on both latches were in the same place.

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