I went to open the hood of my 97 Civic EX and the plastic handle of the hood release under the dash broke off in my hand.
Honda has the part for $30 bucks but it's around $150 to install it.

Anybody ever replace one of these? How difficult?

 

not hard at all to replace.... remove the drivers side fender and front bumper and ya should be able to see the cables route....

just be carefull not to scratch your fenders or bumper after pulling them off and laying them down. best to get some cardboard and put them on or some old sheets or something...

 

YIKES!
Remove the fender & bumper? More than I feel like tackling.

 

Wait, did just the handle snap off? If the cable is still sitting there, then all you'll need to do is remove the driver side kick panel (the plastic behind it) and remove the old handle, replace with new. I've never done it, but I can't imagine it'd be that hard. If you need access to the cable, you may be able to get to it by removing the wheel and taking off the plastic fender liner, instead of removing the fender.

Good luck! Post up some pics if you're looking for some more detailed info.

 

He said the plastic hood release under the dash. That sounds like a pretty easy thing to do yourself. It sounds like you'll just have to remove that handle from a hinge and put the new one on. Heck, you could probably just forget a new handle and use pliers to pull that cable in the future.

 

on my 92 hatch the cable has two little ***** on each end if a 97 is the same you can just replace the handle like bakertime said. but if the cable end is messed up its still not that bad

 

This must be common. I test drove a 97 ex with a broken handle. Then I bought a 00 si with a broken handle. The kick panel on my si is loose( no screws or pins), so I just pull the panel out and to the right. Then you can easily grab the cable and pull. There is still the plastic on the end of mine so it's no big deal.

 

Yes, just the piece that you grab and pull with your hand broke off. The flat handle piece. The cable is still intact. I had considered pulling it with vice grips to open the hood. Maybe I'll do that until it warms up a little and I can look into fixing it myself. I live in Wisconsin and it's still COLD here.

 

Yeah, I'm in Iowa. We're damn near neighbors.