Dead battery, cigarette charger, and horn chirp
 

Following up on an earlier thread (Re: emergency trunk release)
The car is stored at a storage center. Previously I was not able to move the car, but today was able to tow it near an electrical outlet and plugged a charger into the cigarette lighter.

The charger appears to be giving the car at least some charge because the horn (I'm thinking alarm) is chirpping every 30 seconds or so. So I'm tryimg to figure out how to get the horn from going off.

Tried putting the key in, no diff. Tried taking the key out and locking the door, no diff.

So far, I pulled the following fuses, B3 - two tone horns, B8 - Central locking/alarm system control unit, C3 - also Central locking/alarm system, and E1 - another central locking/alram system control unit.

The horn is still chirpping. Whatelse can I do?

Thanks, Joe

Arm and then disarm the alarm, it will stop.

Thanks for the attempt to help, but with a dead battery, one cannot arm and disarm the system. My question, though not very clear, was which additional fuse(s) do I need to pull to keep the alarm system from trying to sound off?

Much appreciated,
Joe

I don't remember from your other post...were you able to access the emergency frunk cable to get to the battery?
I've been following your alarm/battery issues and I'm a bit perplexed :confused:

Replace the battery.

No, I have not been able to open the frunk. The emergency procedure with the second battery did not open the frunk. All it did was sound the alarm constantly.

Next I removed the fender liner to locate the release cable. It was no where to be found. I checked the tow hole as well.

Next, I purchased a cigarette lighter charging unit, but when I hook it up, it too wants to sound the alarm.

In my first post of this thread, I described the alarm as a chirp every 30 seconds or so. That was not a very good description. Now, I understand a little more about how the charger is working. It is charging for a few seconds, then stops the charge for about 30 seconds. So, the chirp, which today is better described as 2 horn beeps, is occuring only when the charger is actually charging.

The basic question remains. How to kill the power to the alarm system/horn. Doing so would make the battery more efficent at trying to charge (I have my doubts if this battery will even take a charge) and certainly keep the peace in the neighborhood.

Thanks for sticking with me. Maybe one of these bits of information will shake loose a bit of helpful information from someone's memory.

JFP, I'd like to do just that. Help me get the frunk open and I will follow your advice.

Thanks, Joe

OK, here is your quandary: The horn chirp is the alarm system, you cannot easily disable it, otherwise it would not be much of an alarm. When the battery runs down, it will chirp; if the battery were still good and was disconnected, it would go into full alarm when the cables were reconnected. All this is normal behavior for one of these cars.

If your battery is really beat, you will never be able to recharge it via the lighter socket. A low battery needs current (read amperage) to be brought back up; the lighter wiring simply cannot handle that level of current, it can only deal with the low amperage output of a maintainer. If you tried to put the current that the battery needs into the lighter, you would fry it and the wiring connected to it. Bad idea.

So now what? Well, you can start here: https://sites.google.com/site/mikefocke2/whenyourbatteryisdead Along time ago, Mike Focke put together all the known ways to get the trunk lid open in one place........... Be sure to pay close attention to the fourth method.

Joe- Curious: With the cigarette charger apparatus installed and providing power, have you at that point tried the emergency trunk/frunk release procedure again? I understand it shouldn't make a difference but just thought it'd be worth a shot and doesn't take much effort.

My car is currently in storage. The battery is at my home, on a tender. So, no battery in the car. If I plug a cigarette lighter connector into a jump and carry battery jumper and into the cigarette lighter socket, the windows go down their customary 1/4" when I pull the door handle; if I pull up on the frunk release lever, it works. Did I mention? -- there's no battery in the car! So my question is, if this works with no battery, why wouldn't it work with a dead battery?

Because a dead or dying battery preferentially sucks up all the energy put into the system like a giant sponge. Eventually, when the battery develops enough reserve, things will start working, but not until the battery gets what it needs first. And if the battery is really in bad shape, the lighter circuit cannot deliver the necessary current to bring the battery back up. So, in a way, you would be better off if the battery was not there............

What year is your Boxster?

JFP: Thanks. That makes sense. Learn somethin' every day!

A bit of a hijack here
With the cold we are getting lately here, I'm just letting the car sit in the garage for the couple weeks until the road clear and temps go up. I want to do a trickle charge in this ex-stream cold. I could go through the lighter but is it Ok to directly connect to the battery while it still connected to the car.
I don't want to disconnect the battery and have to go through the reset process
I drive the car year round but now that I have an extra car I can sit the box in bad weather

Yes, it's ok to put your trickle charger on the battery while still in the car ;)

Thank you, thank you! Thanks for all the helpful discussion, links, and what to avoid. Later today, I'll head back out to give some of these suggestions a try. Will report back then.

You all make this forum a GREAT group. Your willingness to help is very reassuring and enhances the Porsche ownership experience in unexpected ways that make a difference. I'm sure I'm not the only one that appreciates the support. Thanks again.

Report back later, Joe.

Replace your battery, it sounds like it is shorting out.

Close thread
 

Finally! Gheez, what an ordeal. I think if the car had been in a heated garage or at least if the weather had cooperated, this could have been accomplished much sooner.

In the end, I was able to reach up through the front bumper cover and find the emergency release cable (remember, I was NOT able to locate it in the passenger fender well). Pulled on it, but nothing at first as it was frozen shut. Pryed with a plastic trim tool and voila, it popped open.

I regret not having tried a few other of the electrical methods. Hate to say it, but I'm also now guessing that all along, my donor - second - battery may not have had enough of a charge. It read something like 12.89Volts, but I don't know if it could take a load - although it had no trouble powering the horn/alarm constantly.

In the end, I don't think we learned anything we didn't already know. And, if I hadn't forgotten more than I can remember, I would have checked Mike's boxster page before getting everyone so involved.

BUT, I do thank you all for helping. Hope to repay the favor sometime soon.

Thanks,
Joe

I used an transportable jumper pack to power my car to open the frunk. Had no troubles, done fast and easy.