Dead battery - closed hood

[venralf]

Hi,

I have a dead battery and can't open my hood to get to the battery for replacement or re-charge. The dealer advised me to use a 9 volt battery, link to ground and poke the other pole wire into the fuse box, relevant group, this will activate a current which will allow for the latch to operate. I have tried several fuses and I'm not sure which is the right one. Can someone help me? Is there any risk of blowing up the electronics, 9v 2 amp ..Thanks, ralf

[Guest]

Can't believe your dealer would say that. What a bunch of idiots. Thier is a positive terminal and a grounding plug in the rear engine compartment. Your owners manual will tell you exactly where. The only way to open hood is to juump it off via the terminals in the rear. Once running and the battery starts charging you will be able to open front hood. Happended to me first time I left a light on.

Hi,

I have a dead battery and can't open my hood to get to the battery for replacement or re-charge. The dealer advised me to use a 9 volt battery, link to ground and poke the other pole wire into the fuse box, relevant group, this will activate a current which will allow for the latch to operate. I have tried several fuses and I'm not sure which is the right one. Can someone help me? Is there any risk of blowing up the electronics, 9v 2 amp ..Thanks, ralf

[davegemini]

Can't believe your dealer would say that. What a bunch of idiots. Thier is a positive terminal and a grounding plug in the rear engine compartment. Your owners manual will tell you exactly where. The only way to open hood is to juump it off via the terminals in the rear. Once running and the battery starts charging you will be able to open front hood. Happended to me first time I left a light on.

Hi,

I have a dead battery and can't open my hood to get to the battery for replacement or re-charge. The dealer advised me to use a 9 volt battery, link to ground and poke the other pole wire into the fuse box, relevant group, this will activate a current which will allow for the latch to operate. I have tried several fuses and I'm not sure which is the right one. Can someone help me? Is there any risk of blowing up the electronics, 9v 2 amp ..Thanks, ralf

will a battery tender in the cigar lighter work?

[Rolla]

Hi I also have a 99 Boxster and I can tell you the front trunk on 99's is a mechanical linkage not an electrical one. so even if you battery is dead you should be able to open it.

[Rom]

Heh, funnily enough this happened to me this morning. I went on a trip a couple of weeks ago and I disconnected the battery before I left and closed the hood! I got back and tried to open it this morning and the mechanical level inside the car was locked - it wouldn't open! Anyway, this is how I opened the hood:

* Put your hand behind the drivers side FRONT wheel and just on the right of the suspension spring, behind the plastic trim, you should be able to feel a cable. This is the mechanical cable link. Pull on it a little so that you can get a good grip on it, and then pull hard away from the front of the car.

* The hood should now pop open. Your alarm MAY go off if your battery has enough charge to power it. Just quickly disconnect the battery negative lead to silence it.

Thanks!

Shash

[Tool Pants]

The fuse mentioned post #1 is C3.

Shash must have a RHD. On a LHD the cable is on the passenger side.

[Guest]

I think if you guys would just look in your manual it will tell you where to Jump the car off. On my 996 the front hood locks when battery is dead. I used a jump pack and attached the cables to the post in the rear engine compartment. You really should take the time to look in the manual cause this is a neat feature and one you may need to use oneday.

[Rom]

The fuse mentioned post #1 is C3.

Shash must have a RHD. On a LHD the cable is on the passenger side.

Um, I have a left hand drive, US model... And it's *definitely* on the drivers side (cuz I pulled it to open the hood yesterday)! :)

Thanks!

Shash

[tholyoak]

The opening of the lids is a mechanical linkage, however the central locking system locks out the levers so they cannot be raised if the battery goes dead. On a boxster I don't know how you are going to get access to the battery post on the engine if the battery is dead, since the top needs to go into service position. You possibly could get the engine cover off from inside the car with the top up, but it is easier to use a low voltage supply to the fuse Tool Pants mentions, or use a modified cigarette adapter and supply voltage to the car through the cigarette lighter. You need very little voltage to allow you to actuate the central locking with the key in the door to release the locks on the lid levers, and thus allow you access to the battery.

Todd

[Tool Pants]

The fuse mentioned post #1 is C3.

Shash must have a RHD. On a LHD the cable is on the passenger side.

Um, I have a left hand drive, US model... And it's *definitely* on the drivers side (cuz I pulled it to open the hood yesterday)! :)

Thanks!

Shash

Any pictures of the cable? Like these? Which are of the emergency release cable on different LHD cars..

Or, did you pull on the bowden cable housing connected to the mechanical lever in the door sill?

[Rom]

It was the bowden cable that connects to the mechanical lever in the sill. This is where I got the idea from:

http://www.986faq.com/7-0/default.asp#009

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.

* 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 .

* 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!

* 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.

I did the third item - took less than 10 secs to locate the cable, and pull on it carefully (there's a lot of slack on it so you can get a good grip). Hood was open in under 30 secs... (actually quite a security risk on US Boxsters that don't have battery backed up alarms - never store anything in the front compartment!!!)

Thanks!

Shash