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Porsche Boxster, dead battery, help!!
focijohn - 24/3/09 at 09:28 PM

Evening,
Anyone have one or worked on one when the battery goes flat as a fart? One of our customers has one and is as follows..... drivers door wont close passengers will not open and cant access and of the boot or bonnet as they are electronicly controlled. Is there a fail safe that would allow you to open the bonnet / boot manually, the old school way with a pull cord?
Forgot to ask the year as it had a private plate would have said between 95-01.

Its an auto too so cant pull it out of park to move it out of the cramped garage its in.

I thought maybe trying to jack it up and finding the starter?
There was another sujestion of charging it through the lighter socket on a very slow trickle charge.
Or even better someone tell me how to get into the bonnet or boot of the flaming thing.

Cheers

John


rayward - 24/3/09 at 09:37 PM

there's an emergency bonnet release wire to pull,
you need to pull back the wheel arch liner (drivers side i think) to acces it

hth

Ray


mangogrooveworkshop - 24/3/09 at 09:39 PM

Oh dear not another one. A friends one shut its self down in the underground car park at Edinburgh airport.......
They used skates to tow it out and porsche had it for a few weeks trying to reset it.
It was costly and they had to crack the management module.

It was like the curse of death was cast over that car......outllook not good


focijohn - 24/3/09 at 09:40 PM

Ta, i was hoping something like that was avalible... seems pointless to not have a backup.

Were hoping its just becuase the battery is dead flat (not been used scince NOv 08).
Altho he did say that the MIL light came on the last time he drove it and was coughing etc.... limped it home and there it lies.

[Edited on 24/3/09 by focijohn]


Eggy - 24/3/09 at 09:46 PM

I would use the cigar lighter socket to power it up just enough to release the bonnet??


scottc - 24/3/09 at 09:56 PM

similar to the bosses 911....

find the fuse box, footwell on drivers side (on LHD). Red big fuse thing, pull this out, the connect the + of a batt charger to this, and the - to the door lock (U shaped bracket on rear arch). this should give you enough power to open the bonnet and then charge the battery properly.

ETA: might want to confirm the + and - way roundness before doing this.

[Edited on 24/3/09 by scottc]


fazerruss - 24/3/09 at 09:59 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Eggy
I would use the cigar lighter socket to power it up just enough to release the bonnet??


Dont know about porsches but not all production cars have the cig lighter live without the ignition on/relays energised


JoelP - 24/3/09 at 10:10 PM

id say its definately easier to put jump leads on the starter terminals. Then you know you're getting a good boost quickly.


roadrunner - 24/3/09 at 10:13 PM

If all else fails, i have a Stihl saw you could borrow.


focijohn - 24/3/09 at 10:17 PM

quote:
Originally posted by roadrunner
If all else fails, i have a Stihl saw you could borrow.


Ill let the boss know..... good job i dnt air some of my thoughts about getting in. Could have lead to me being sacked. Customer and boss were looking at me like i was odd when i was chuckling.


scottc - 24/3/09 at 10:43 PM

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

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.


Simon - 25/3/09 at 12:25 AM

Alternatively, phone Porsche, tell them it's their design cockup and get them to open it.

ATB

Simon