Cant Open Hood, Need Help

[fenderstrat1234]

I have an early '00 boxster and, over the course of the winter, the battery died. I have been reading articles about how to pop the front trunk via the fuse panel. Most of them involve the red pull-out tab in the fuse box. I dont have one, instead I have read to connect the booster cables to C3 fuse and pop the trunk.

I cant find a way of connecting the booster cables to the fuse to activate. Ive tried paperclips and the such and they dont stay. Does anyone have a suggestion? Is there other (electrical/non electrical) ways of popping the hood? Also, i believe the alarm may have been active when i last closed the car, will this make a difference?

Any help is greatly appreciated!!!

[Loren]

:welcome: Sorry about your trouble.

Do a search here and you will learn how to access the emergency release cable behind the right front wheel well liner.

[PonyExpress]

:welcome: Sorry about your trouble.

Do a search here and you will learn how to access the emergency release cable behind the right front wheel well liner.

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

[Loren]

:welcome: Sorry about your trouble.

Do a search here and you will learn how to access the emergency release cable behind the right front wheel well liner.

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...

...right front wheel well liner

[PonyExpress]

:welcome: Sorry about your trouble.

Do a search here and you will learn how to access the emergency release cable behind the right front wheel well liner.

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...

...right front wheel well liner

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]

:welcome: Sorry about your trouble.

Do a search here and you will learn how to access the emergency release cable behind the right front wheel well liner.

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...

...right front wheel well liner

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

The cable is behind the right front bumper area - period. Sometimes you can reach between the wheel well liner and bumper and find it. In other cases you need to pull the wheel well liner partially out to find it.

The jumper position at the fuse box is also true - but only for MY01 an newer cars. So if you don't have the fuse block connection that is not an option on your car.