I finally installed the new cable in my 2002 EXL-RES. It works like new again. It took twice as long (~2 hrs) than I had originally planned. Here are some pointers that should help you.
1. Jack up driver side front & remove wheel.
2. Unscrew (3 phillips head screws) and remove mud guard.
3. Starting from the mud flap, remove enough of the inner fender guard/lining to expose the hood release cable (1 screw and about 8 plastic push button fender clips). I didn't need to remove all of them to gain sufficient access to the cable. The plastic push fasteners can be preserved if you tap on them about 10 times or so with the butt-end of the screw driver handle to loosen up years of dirt before trying to pry out the plastic center plunger piece. If they plunger head cracks off, stab the remaining center piece inward and then pull out the remaining plug from the hole with pliers. Clipsandfasteners.com sells boxes of 25 of these fender clips if you want to get replacement ones inexpensively. I have 3 Hondas and an Acura so I've consumed a fair amount of these plastic push fasteners on other front end jobs.
4. Open the hood and remove the plastic push fasteners (10+) and remove the black plastic bumper cover to expose the hood latch.
5. Unscrew (3x 10mm bolts) the hood latch bracket. Before you remove the hood latch assy, use some needle nose or similar pliers to squeeze and push the plastic tabs on 3 cable/harness push clips that protrude inward along the driver's side upper radiator rail (2 black ones are for the wire harness, the white one is for the hood release cable. Be careful with the white one since that needs to be reused on your new hood release cable. Disconnect the grey connector from the hood latch switch.
6. Lift the hood latch to expose the hood release cable's connection to the latch. Wiggle the cable sheath free from the groove where its retained in the latch assy and then disconnect the cable's steel ball end from the latch mechanism.
7. From inside the driver's side area carefully remove the left lower kick panel as follows: Move the floor mat out of the way. Vacuum the floor if it is as dirty as my wife's van! Gently pry up the plastic floor garnish near the kick panel. Gently pry/pull off the door trim/seal from the edge of the kick panel. Unscrew/remove the black plastic button screw from where the kick panel is attached to the floor. Gentle pull the kick panel loose. Lift the hood release lever and work the kick panel free from the lever.
8. The hood release lever bracket is screwed in place with two 10mm bolts. The lower bolt is easily removed. In my 2002, the upper bolt is annoyingly obstructed by a mass of connectors. This connector block is attached to the side wall by a white plastic push clip. Using my needle nose pliers and a screw driver, I squeezed the wing tabs on top and bottom of the white connector block's fastener and wiggled it free from where it was pressed into the side wall. Push the connectors out of the way and remove the upper bolt.
9. Wiggle the cable sheath end from the groove in the lever bracket and pull up the plastic lever to allow the steel cable and its knob-end to be slid out from the groove in the lever.
10. Tie a string at least 3 feet in length securely to the old wire cable end that was removed from the lever. You'll need this later to help pull the new cable back into position when you are installing the new cable. If you've done any electrical wiring in an existing home you'll know what I mean.
Working from the wheel fender, grab the cable and wiggle the two black cable clips free from the inner fender wall. These clips are thrown away with the old cable. The new cable includes these clips. You should now be able to easily pull the old cable from the latch through the hole in the fender.
11. The hardest part of the job was extracting the cable from the lever side, because it kept getting hung up on sharp edges and objects in narrow passage ways. While outside the car, pull the rubber cable grommet free from the fender and try to pull out the cable and the attached string. On my '02, the lower left fuse panel above the kick panel had to be partially moved away from the side wall to provide sufficient space for the cable to be pulled free. To loosen the fuse panel, remove the single 10mm nut. There are two plastic clips on top and bottom of the grey fuse panel box that frees the panel from the side wall. The lower clip may be the only one that needs to be unlatched to allow the lower side of the panel to be pulled away by about a 1/2 inch from the wall. From the outside fender, the cable should now be free to be pulled from the vehicle. It may help to have a second person gently pull while you try to coax the cable from the inside. Anyway I didn't have help and this is what took the most time.
12. After the old cable has been extracted, remove the sting from the old cable and tie it securely to the new cable. I recommend wrapping tape around the string and the knob-end in a conical way to provide a smoother transition that would reduce the chance of it getting hung up as you pull it back through the fender and firewall into the car. I also wrapped tape around the end of the sheath to also help prevent that from getting hung up on some unseen sharp edge. Use tape with a gentle adhesive (painters' tape?), you don't want to gum up the steel cable. From inside the car pull the string and cable far enough into position so that it can be attached to the lever. Once pulled in place, remove the tape and string.
13. Feed the other end of the cable new into the hood area. Replace the white plastic clip from the old cable onto the new cable. Put everything back together in reverse order.
14. When putting it all back together, remember to replace the white plastic clip from the old cable onto the new cable; Reconnect the electrical connector on the latch; Carefully align the 3 hood latch bolts/washers to the old "rust" marks so the hood shuts the way it did before you removed the latch; make sure both of the new cable's sheath ends are completely inserted into their respective grooves in the latch and lever brackets; use a torque wrench on the wheel nuts and check them again in about a week.
Good luck!