Alright so the other day while driving I noticed my hood bouncing up and down. I pulled over and found that where my hood latch bolts onto (upper bulkhead) had completely snapped so the latch was just bouncing around. I looked around quite a few places online to find a solution to the problem, and didn't find much so I figured I would write a DIY for anyone else that has this problem since it seems to be a somewhat common problem.
Once I actually got home and went to open my hood the cable had popped out of the latch so my hood was basically locked down and I had about a 3 inch gap to get in and try and get it loose with my hands.
Parts/Tools:
- Front Bulkhead (upper) part # 04602-S6M-A01ZZ
- Bulkhead Center (optional) part #60434-S6M-A00ZZ
- A set of metric sockets/wrenches
- Pliers
- Screwdriver
I did not buy my parts from here but it is a good reference.
http://parts.sonsacura.com/products/Acura/RSX/FRAME-SET--FRONT-BULKHEAD-UPPER/1452602/04602-S6M-A01ZZ.html
Notes:
If you can get your hood open already, you will save a lot of time. In my case the latch was locked on and the cable was unhooked so I had a hell of a time getting it open. I got the hood open to about a 3 inch gap and was able to get in there and work on it. I removed the three bolts on the latch itself and was able to shake it loose allowing the hood to go up about a foot and was able to release the latch.
Step 1:
Unplug the wire that is attached to your hood latch. (I did this in a later step because I didn't know if I had to take it out or not, but it just gets in the way) Also remove the cable from the hood latch if it is still connected.
Step 2:
Remove the clips holding the top of the bumper on. You can take off the whole bumper if you want, but I was able to do it without and it wasn't too bad.
Step 3:
Time to start unbolting. I've marked off which bolts you want to remove. For the first picture you will want to do the same to both sides. There is also one last bolt I didn't get a picture of because of the location. If you follow the metal piece that goes straight down between the two fans, there is one bolt at the very bottom that you will have to remove.
(Can anyone tell me what that piece on the left is? Nothing was bolted up to it and it was just kind of there..)
Step 4:
Fairly simple part. There are a bunch of plastic clips that are clipped into the front bulkhead and bulkhead center. To remove the clips, you just take your pliers and press in the plastic tabs so you can just push it out of the hole. Some are hard to get to but it is possible to get them all out without breaking any. I only have one picture as this step is pretty simple to just look at and find all the clips. I believe most of them were to hold wiring down tight and there was one for the release cable. These are pretty much what they look like:
Step 5:
You are now able to pull out the front bulkhead and bulkhead center. They are welded together so they will pull out as one piece. Now is the part where you have some options. You can separate the old bulkhead center and attach it to your new front bulkhead or if you bought a new bulkhead center, you can use that. What I did was reuse the old center piece and had someone weld it on to the new front bulkhead for me. I have also seen people who have drilled holes and bolted it together. Unfortunately I don't have any pics of the welding or the final product, but I would highly recommend you triple check the fitting BEFORE you weld it. If you decide to bolt it together you can look at the pics in this thread:
http://forums.clubrsx.com/showthread.php?t=763158
This is what it looked like when I took it out. It looked like this when I put it back in too, except the front bulkhead was the new one.
This is to show how bad the metal had ripped where my hood latch bolted up to.
Final Steps:
To reinstall, you just have to bolt it back in. I recommend putting in the bolt on the bottom that you removed first, then bolting up the rest. Reattach all the wires/clips especially the clip for the latch release cable. Next you are going to plug your hood latch wiring back together. Before you bolt your hood latch back up to your new front bulkhead, remember to attach the hood release cable to it then bolt the latch in position. You might need to adjust the latch a bit to get your hood to sit flush.
Hopefully this helps some of you with this issue. If you would like to add on any information, or need my help with this, feel free to let me know. 
