Stuck engine lid- when all else fails

[Dr J]

I mounted a radiator on my decklid for a water/air intercooler experiment and had a tea tray tail on my car. The lid operated fine, but on one or two occasions I found it catching a bit. Instead of taking care of it, I continued to drive around normally. Big mistake! When I went to open the engine bay, I found it was stuck closed. It would not even pop a bit when pulling the handle. There was no room for a wrench or my finger to sneak in. So... I did a search here and went from benign to more aggressive solutions and when all else failed... well, let me not get ahead of myself. Here is what I tried:

1 have a friend pull the handle as I gently tugged on the lid- no joy

2 have a friend pull the handle while I aggressively pushed down, pulled up, pushed left and right, forwards and backwards, pushed near a hinge and pulled on the opposite corner etc etc. - no joy

3 drove around a few days and tried again- nothing

4 lifted the front of the car and tried to open the deck lid, same with lifting only the rear, then lifting one side, then the other. Didn’t budge.

5 tried to see if I could wrap the post with a coat hanger but it was so tight it was impossible, same if trying a wire.

6 pulled out the muffler and heat shield. Drilled hole As per this post:

Originally Posted by shinrai

Adding this photo here for future reference to anybody that runs into this jam. Same problem - could not open the lid after adjustment on my '87 911. This thread really helped out. Tried everything but drilling an access hole was the only solution. Remove muffler and stamped aluminum plate above it. Screwdriver in the the access hole got it open. Here is where to drill:

With a borescope I could look inside and see the post that goes inside the latch. Learned by feel how to put a screwdriver in there to try to force it open. Nothing.

At this point, having exhausted all suggestions, I decided to try something that finally worked. I removed the side engine tins. Each side has 3, 10mm bolts to the engine block accessible from the outside, two more connecting to the front tin, again accessible from the outside, but it has two more bolts connected to the tin near the bumper. Those bolts can only be accessed from the inside. Hmmmm

I saw that enough of the bolt was sticking out from the tin that I cut a slot with a dremel and used a screw driver on the slot to screw it in, which caused the bolt to back out. With the tin removed, I had enough space to put 4 extensions on my battery-operated ratchet to loosen the two 10 mm bolts on each side connecting the lid to the hinges. After, I pulled the handle and held it open with vise grips, wiggled the deck lid and it came free.

Wow. That was an ordeal I don’t care to repeat.

I did not have heater hoses on but if you do, this theoretically should still work as there is a lot of give in the hose to unscrew the clamps.

Hopefully this will help someone as a last resort before taking a sawzall to the lid.

[sugarwood]

Sounds like a nightmare. Any idea why it was sticking?

[proporsche]

to release the engine lid ..you have to remove the T plastic handle from the cable....The latch will either open or the pressure will be released..It is designed like that


Ivan

[Dr J]

Originally Posted by proporsche

to release the engine lid ..you have to remove the T plastic handle from the cable....The latch will either open or the pressure will be released..It is designed like that


Ivan

Yes. I tried that too. As a leap of faith, during step 6, I unscrewed the handle. The lid still did not release. The whole cable pull system was working properly, as I could hear the latch moving when I would pull it, before I removed the handle. I also manipulated the release through the hole from step 6 with a screwdriver which also confirmed that his was not the problem. In the process, I got enough of the cable out again to screw the handle back in and continue troubleshooting.

Originally Posted by sugarwood

Sounds like a nightmare. Any idea why it was sticking?

I believe the extra weight in the decklid and one of the components not being tight enough caused an angular misalignment that would not allow the head of the post come out.

[proporsche]

dr.j ...do you have those rubber stops adjusted correctly?Also the latch itself must be adjusted right.the adjustment is the best done when you lose those 2 10mm head screws (on male piece)and close the lid ,it will align the pin then open gently and tighten it ..
I guess you know by now;-)

Ivan

[Dr J]

Well... I found out that my original problem was not latch related at all! It was actually a self-inflicted wound. In my mods to the engine bay and deck lid. I had a nut that stuck out from the engine bay and caught on the enlarged-by-me opening in the lid. Apparently, I did not enlarge it enough! It was in the “Goldilocks” zone where if the nut had stuck out a bit more, the lid would not have closed. If it had been a little bit further in, it would have cleared no problem. It was just right (or rather wrong). Looks like my actual solution was the only one that would have worked.

So, we can all rest knowing that Porsche latches won’t go this level of crazy on us.