How to unlock your front hood with no power - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

Perfectlap · 06-20-2007, 01:38 PM

^ that's forbidden in the manual. Looks funny too.

angman · 02-19-2008, 03:05 PM

Thanks for the pictures. Is this cable available for all model years? I have a 97 and my problem is compounded. I stored my car in my parents extra garage. I took the battery out so that its in a wamrer environment and on a charger. I thought I was smart by not locking down the hood. My father being the nice guy that he is noticed that my hood wasn't closed properly so he locked it down for me. When I found out I almost tore my hair out.

Tool Pants · 02-20-2008, 03:05 AM

All Boxsters have a front and rear emergency release cables.

On 1997-2000 the trunk release levers in the door sill are mechanical levers. You do not need a battery to operate the mechanical levers. The issue is when the alarm is set the levers are locked so they can't be pulled up. If the battery then dies you can't lift the front trunk lever to get to the battery.

As long as you did not pull the battery while the alarm was set then you will have no problem opening the front trunk.

Frodo · 02-20-2008, 04:36 AM

Quote:

"^ that's forbidden in the manual. Looks funny too."

Posted by Perfect Lap.

Any idea why that would be verboten? I've jump-started manual transmission cars all my life---why should a Porsche be any different?

angman · 02-20-2008, 10:52 AM

Stupid me. I locked the car with the hood open and then pulled the battery out. I didn't mind having the hood unlocked but I didnt want anyone else to have access to the interior. I now have the battery beside the car and will be expecting to spend a great deal of time over the weekend in a cramped and dark garage fishing for this little hood release

And to think that I was so happy happy at first to find out that my car had a mechanical latch instead of the newer electronic ones until I pulled on it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tool Pants

All Boxsters have a front and rear emergency release cables.

On 1997-2000 the trunk release levers in the door sill are mechanical levers. You do not need a battery to operate the mechanical levers. The issue is when the alarm is set the levers are locked so they can't be pulled up. If the battery then dies you can't lift the front trunk lever to get to the battery.

As long as you did not pull the battery while the alarm was set then you will have no problem opening the front trunk.

Perfectlap · 02-20-2008, 12:47 PM

^ wait...so you have the battery out but the front hood is still open?

timothy · 02-20-2008, 01:55 PM

Perfectlap, no he removed the battery and propped open the hood, but his dad came along later and closed hood.

CA_Boxster · 02-20-2008, 03:29 PM

If you were to plug one of those Black and Decker rechargers into the cig lighter (or get one of the cig lighter to cig light jumper cables mentioned above), would the juice going in be enough to hit the "unlock" button then pull the mechanical latch (or on the newer cars, hit the button to open the hood)? What I don't know is if the battery has to be in to complete a circuit for any of those things to get power.