How to unlock your front hood with no power

[ajgray925]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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

[angman]

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.