HELP! Locked hood, battery dead - far beyond the basics.

[Hijack]

Like many others have experienced, it's spring, I let my 996TT battery die and I'm back to trying to get into the trunk to jump/charge my battery.  I am very familiar with the process of using the auxiliary power post in the fuse panel to provide enough power to electrically unlock the hood.  Unfortunately, I'm also very familiar with (when the bloody electric solution doesn't work) the manual release cable you get to by removing the front portion of the passenger side front wheel well.

 

 

Well, I'm in dire straits my friends.  Neither option is working for me.

 

So let me set the stage,  going back to front.   I have used the manual release cable before.  I know where it WAS.   It's not there now.  I didn't reroute it (like I should have) the last time around.  But for some reason now, I cannot find it.  It has, at a minimum, shifted position on me.   Truth be told, I'm not even certain its coming through the grommet hole from the trunk anymore.  How this could happen, is beyond me.  But suffice to say, there is no way in gods name I'm finding it through the front portion of the wheel well without removing other parts...

 

So....QUESTION 1.  Which grommet hole does the release cable supposedly come through?

 

There are 5 primary grommets I can see coming from the trunk into the wheel well.  Starting from the back of the trunk, moving toward the bumper:

 

There is the largest hole/grommet through which the electrical cables for the headlights, marker lights and radiator fans come through.

The next two are arranged one above the other.  The upper is an oval shaped blue grommet.  The lower is a round black grommet.   I believe these are for adjusting headlight focus/beam positions by inserting tools through the trunk into the side of the headlight housing.

The next is a black round grommet further forward.  I THINK this is the hole through which you insert the tool to unlock the headlight housing and slide it out of the body.

The last is an oval black grommet furthest forward.  I THOUGHT this was where the release cable came through.   If so, bad news for me....nothing is coming through that hole (or the others).

 

So unless there is another hole where  the cable comes through, it got snaked back into the trunk somehow!  YIKES

 

Which leads me to QUESTION 2.  Is there a way to remove the headlight housing without turning the lock level through the access port in the trunk?

 

If I could get the headlight out, I could have complete visibility into the void to really know where the cable had moved to.

 

 

So backing up from the manual release cable issues and revisiting the electrical solution......

 

The whole reason I went to the cable again, is because the donor battery/charger on the fuse box post didn't work.   I have no idea why.

 

As per normal, when I hooked my battery charger/jumper to the fusebox post and the door latch, the alarm started to sound.   I had the key in the door per instructions and went to unlock/relock/unlock...whichever.   It didn't stop the alarm.  I pulled the key from the door and put it in the ignition and tried to turn off the alarm by turning the ignition.   That didn't work either.   However, the alarm (horn beeping) started getting softer and softer, stopped beeping altogether in about 15 seconds.  Weird right?  During this time, I was trying to activate the electrical hood release as well, and it wasn't working.

 

At any rate, I decided to leave the thing on charge for 45 minutes to see if I'd get enough juice built up to have it work.  No go.   I've tried using the keyfob remote buttons as well.  Again. no go. (key battery is good)  AAAARG.   If I could just get the bloody thing to work, I wouldn't need to screw with the release cable!  

 

QUESTION 3.  Does anyone know what would stop the electrical option from working?

 

I've checked all my fuses and they're good.  Would the alarm, since somehow I could not get it turned off, be somehow involved in keeping this from working?  I would think that is probable.   But how, especially now that the alarm seems "dead", can I get the thing to turn off and allow me access?  Pulling the C3 and the E1 fuses and trying again didn't work.

 

 

If anyone out there can offer answers/insight into this, I'd be grateful.   This is one of those situations where I certainly don't want to have the car towed to the dealer as I will bet that I will be raked over the coals as they try to figure this out and get into the car themselves!

[Ahsai]

Try to use jumper cables connected to another car with engine running. Sounds like your donor battery/charger is not powerful enough?

[Hijack]

Always a potential issue, so good question.  But my charger jumper is capable of 200 amps.   Tried both a 40 amp and 200 amp setting

[Ahsai]

Not sure if yours a smart charger. Some of them need to detect enough voltage before sending out power. Maybe the dead battery is throwing it off. Did you try another key? There should also be an engine lid release cable inside the left rear tail light. I never tried to fish it out but I heard you could. Hard to imagine with the tight gap though.

The frunk latch should be powered directly by the alarm unit so I suppose it's possible the alarm unit is not working correctly somehow.

[Hilux2400]

Try this:

 

http://www.renntech.org/forums/tutorials/article/376-opening-a-996-when-the-battery-is-flat/

 

It's sometimes easier from the back.

 

H

[Ahsai]

Btw, did you also try to open the engine lid with the electric switch at the door sill?

[Hijack]

You guys are great.  Definitely some new things to try.

 

1.  While I did try the engine compartment release button as well, the issue could indeed be my charger.  While my charger did provide enough charge to set off the alarm, and continues to spark if I wiggle the negative connection on the door latch, I don't know if it is really supplying full power for a charge.   It has an analog volt meter and it is indeed not registering a current flow very high.   Maybe this is really the issue.  I'll try a pure and simple donor battery.  (I did try the engine release button though.)

 

2. I never knew about the manual pull for the engine compartment.  This is another excellent option.

 

thanks much gang.  I'll report back on progress.

[Hijack]

It's Alive!

 

Thanks guys.   The manual release for the engine bay was so easy.  A coathanger stuck in under the light and pulled out drew the cable with it on the first try.  Didn't even need to wedge the light up.  You can even see the cable in there be peering up under the light.  I hooked the battery jumper/charger up to the normal engine bay points and it started charging right away.  Car started after a quick 5 minute charge and changing the unit to jump mode.

 

However, I've got other issues to deal with now.  Maybe I'll start a new thread or check around first.   The key remote won't work, the electric door lock button IN the car won't work and the electric frunk release still won't work, even though the car starts up, the radio comes on, etc etc.  I wonder if I fried the alarm with my original attempt to use the auxiliary electric post in the fuse box since the jumper was set at 200 amps?  The fuses are all good though?  Odd.   Anyway, she runs.

 

Thanks again!