Reviews for Kentrol 80704 Mechanical Hood Catch Kit for 07-18 Jeep Wrangler JK
They seem solid as a rock. No hood movement whatsoever. I really like the way they look and they're way easier to open and close than the factory latches.
A couple of comments based on my installation:
1. The instructions don't mention it, but you need to transfer the rubber hood bumper that's attached to the lower portion of the factory latch to the new latch.
There's a tab on the new latch for it. In reading other reviews (and looking at customer pictures) on the vendors' websites, it appears that some people miss this.
2. Underneath the factory hood catch is a plastic piece that mates up with the aforementioned rubber bumper (that's on my 2018 JK; I don't know if other years are the same). The Kentrol instructions are silent on this, but their pictures seem to indicate that you remove it. Instead of using the Kentrol hood catch gasket, I left this plastic piece in, since it provides a wider surface area to meet up with the rubber bumper and also to retain the factory hood gap. The plastic piece doesn't exactly line up with the Kentrol hood catch, but it's close enough that you don't notice the difference when the latch is closed. It seems to me that, without this plastic piece, the hood gap would be too tight, and over time the sharper hood edge would cut into the rubber bumper making that situation even worse.
Overall I gave this 5 stars because they're really nice latches. I was tempted to lower my rating to 4 because of the instructions and my concerns about removing the factory plastic piece under the hood catch. In the customer pictures, mine is the white Jeep.
I bought my jeep with aftermarket latches put on and they looked terrible. These look outstanding; much better than any other aftermarket or stock latches.
What a pain to put on! Not the product's fault, but just know your ratchet will be doing gymnastics!
Look great, kills hood flutter, and easy to install!
super quality as all Kentrol products
I've had these on my Jeep for well over a year, and they still look as good as the day I put them on, even with a winter-driven Jeep on northeastern salt roads. I had horrible hood flutter (early JK with stretched rubber parts) and this not only solved it, but has needed no adjustment since installation. Would highly recommend!
Quick shipping, I received my product before delivery date. Stop the hook flutter and easy to install. Took about 30 mins.
If you tighten them down, make sure to put some friction tape on the frame that is under the hood, you may get some rubbing as I did and it will take the paint right off. These have totally stopped my hood flutter and look much better than the stock ones.
Great Product !
Hood is nice & tight now & they look much better than the washed out grey factory hood latches ,
You get what you pay for !
great product , well built . only thing paint was weak againts north salty road
Great design, but the paint pretty much falls off. As I was installing the paint flakes off in my hand. Kinda looks like crap now... At least the hood doesn't flutter any more.