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

ajgray925 · 06-20-2007, 10:44 AM

I have a 2000 Boxster S and my iginition switch failed and I had to replace it. It was really easy to switch-out, but my battery died because the ignition was stuck in accessories mode for a few days. Once the battery died, I couldn't recharge the battery because I couldn't open the front hood (lid). Looking back, I should have immediately popped the front hood as soon as I realized I had a power problem. I read through countless posts about removing the passenger side front wheel, removing the wheel liner, and pulling on an emergency front lid cable that manually releases the front hood so that you can charge the battery.

Well, my wheel lock socket was also in the front trunk, so I couldn't take the wheel off, but I was still able to take the wheel liner off and turn the wheels all the way to the right to attempt to locate this emergency pull cable. I spent hours looking for this cable and I finally found it and opened the hood and everything is great now, but I wanted to posts these pictures showing the actual location so anyone else that has this same problem can easily find the cable by referring to these pics. No one has posted any pictures showing this cable that I am aware of, so I hope this saves a lot of you a lot of time and money.

Looking at the attached pictures, you can see the silver colored cable with a loop on the end (I circled it in RED). It's located between the headlight assembly and the steel outer structure of the trunk. It's actually tucked back behind where I have it now visible, so reach your finger back there and you can feel it.

By the way, I believe the 2001 models and earier all have a way to hook up jumper cables to your fuse box and door jamp to provide enough energy to pop your front hood, so if you have a new Boxster, you don't have to worry with this method.

Good luck..

Perfectlap · 06-20-2007, 11:26 AM

I also have a 2000 and I did not see this spot on the fuse box to jump start the car.

I posted a thread a few weeks ago about a similar ordeal. I now keep a fully charged Black and Decker Battery booster in the rear shelf compartment. They are $50 at Wal Mart or Target. It has a cigarette lighter plug to run enough juice to either simply unlock the hood or jump start the car.

Brookstone also sells a cigarette lighter adapter that lets you connect to another cars cigarette lighter for a jump.

pecivil · 06-20-2007, 11:32 AM

Now that this has happened to you, here is what you do to make it east next time. its some work, but the next time it happens you will be glad.....

remove the front bumper cover, and then route the release cable through the hole in the actul steel bumper, and right next to the plug opening in the bumper cover.

So when it happens again, all you need to do is pull off the bumper plug from the outside, grab the cable and pull it.

this is a "standard boxster hack" sort of thing.

OldBlevins · 06-20-2007, 12:08 PM

Pecivil, thanks for posting those pictures. This seems to be a pretty common problem.

There's something I'm not understanding. Why don't people just roll-start their cars? I assume that won't work with the Tip, but otherwise...?

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.

Frodo · 02-21-2008, 04:03 AM

Quote:

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

Posted by (an apparently not-yet-fully-awake) Frodo.

What I meant was that I've roll-started (popping the clutch) manual transmission cars with dead batteries all my life. Has no one done this in their Boxster? Ignoring the "feeling foolish factor," what's at risk?