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..