PonyExpress

Loren, my battery is totally dead. I have searched for and read every post on this emergency cable and still haven't been able to find it to release my front hood. I have a USA 2002 Boxster S, have felt everywhere that seems logical in the top of the left and right wheel wells, behind the coil, pulling away the plastic liner. You mention the "left" wheel well, is that also the driver side wheel well on this car? Also, I found instructions both here and on another site that described an unlocking sequence that should have popped my hood, using a battery charger to that red pull out fuse, with the left door open, turn the charger on, the alarm goes off, then push the door latch to the closed position, lock and unlock the door and then open the hood. Multiple attempts at that failed also. Do you have any ideas here? I'm now getting a little desperate. Thanks, Mike Um... I can understand that you've seen this question a lot, AND there's other info out there that clouds the issue, especially when half the posts here talk about using a battery charger to open the trunk and that rarely works for anyone, and nearly everyone has trouble finding the emergency release cable the first time. I've some time scouring the web for more info, and found this. You'll note that the "driver side" wheel well is ambiguous,thus my question about which wheel well. Also the descriptions of location often mention the cable is "AFT of the coil tower" but on your site folks have mentioned it being in front of the tower: Front and Rear Hood Release Inoperative [grp5 1/96 5510 1/21/97] 1pg Should the front and rear hood releases become inoperative due to a disconnected or discharged battery, the following procedure will allow the hoods to be operated electrically under these conditions. • Open the left door. • Using an external battery, connect the negative lead to the door stop. • Connect the positive lead to both sides of fuse "C3" (see illustration below). • With the door open, move the door latch with a screwdriver into the closed position. • Using the key, lock and unlock the door. • The front and rear hood releases can now be operated. Note: If the vehicle is in the workshop and the battery must be disconnected, try to park the vehicle in a safe area where it is not necessary to latch the front hood. The diagram shows the same stuff as the bulleted directions above except it shows putting a 30 amp fuse between the external battery positive terminal and the C3 fuse. [Note: none of this worked, however one poster here mentioned removing the key from the door and inserting it into the ignition and turning it and that silenced the alarm and allowed for the hood release to operate. I will try that sequence tomorrow before attempting the cable release mystery tour again.] 7.9 Accessing the Battery when it is Dead The Boxster has a minor difficulty. If you have the alarm and the battery goes dead, you cannot open the front trunk to get to the battery to jump start it. There have been three techniques discussed for entering the front trunk when this problem manifests itself. 1. There is a Porsche Technical Bulletin describing one way that works for entering the car. See Front and Rear Hood Release Inoperative [grp5 1-96 5510 1-21-97]. A description of what one owner did to construct the device mentioned in the bulletin is shown at http://grr.xoc.net/boxster/articles/dooropener.asp . 2. It may work that a cigarette lighter to cigarette lighter jumper cable will power the car enough to open the car. This has not been confirmed to work, though. Make sure that you carry the jumper cables in the passenger section of the car, otherwise you won't be able to get them when they are needed! 3. Inside the top of the driver's front wheel well, just aft of the spring coil mount, is a little rectangular corner in the black plastic shroud that lines the inside of the wheel well. Reach under this, and you will feel a "wire" about 1/8" in diameter. Too thick for an electrical wire (and not in a harness anyway). Now tug this cable gently out from behind the shroud and get a good grip on a loop of it. Now pull hard away from the headlight once, and prepare to hear the music of the alarm as the front hood pops open. Grab a 10mm wrench and take off one of the battery cables to silence this thing until you can get your key in the ignition and disarm the thing. Disconnect the alarm horn, re-connect something with power to the battery leads, and unlock your car. Mike

Loren, my battery is totally dead. I have searched for and read every post on this emergency cable and still haven't been able to find it to release my front hood. I have a USA 2002 Boxster S, have felt everywhere that seems logical in the top of the left and right wheel wells, behind the coil, pulling away the plastic liner. You mention the "left" wheel well, is that also the driver side wheel well on this car? Also, I found instructions both here and on another site that described an unlocking sequence that should have popped my hood, using a battery charger to that red pull out fuse, with the left door open, turn the charger on, the alarm goes off, then push the door latch to the closed position, lock and unlock the door and then open the hood. Multiple attempts at that failed also. Do you have any ideas here? I'm now getting a little desperate. Thanks, Mike

turns out, for "some reason", both low beam bulbs went out at the exact same time. Since there does seem to a pattern in the posts describing this situation, my electrical engineering brain says that it is quite possible that the switch itself is causing the burn outs, either through arcing/poor insulation between contacts, improper switch design, or inadequate load carrying capacity. In my case, replacing two expensive bulbs was the "fix". We'll see how long it lasts. If these go out again, simultaneously, within the year, Porsche will be getting a call.

I just got nearly the same symptom, except that the high beams still operate. I've been driving home at night with the driving lights and fog lights on. Fuses all appear to be good too. Both low beams went out overnight, driving home was fine, next morning, gone. Almost seems like the headlight switch, but everything else is working. This is a 2002 Boxster S, 6 speed. Mike