Opening trunk with dead battery (997)

[aualexa2]

Hi guys,

Also posted this on RL. So, here's the story...a friend calls me up and ask me to help him figure out how to get the trunk of his 2008 997 cab open because his battery is dead. Not being that familiar with the water cooled cars (mine is an '87), I search the forum and find three possible options:

1) Jump the hood latch at the fuse box
2) Chage the battery through the cig lighter long enough to be able to pop the hood
3) OPen some panel in the wheel well to access the cable (not sure if this one actually applies to this model year)

So, I tell him the options, and he calls me back a bit later and tells me that he found the ground for the hood in the fuse box, but it's small and too far back to be able to get access to it. He tried with some forceps to grab it and pull it forward but wasn't able. Next, he figures he'll go buy a charger that goes through the cig lighter. He pushed the lighter in though, and now it won't come out. So, here are my questions:

1) Is it THAT difficult to access the ground in the fuse box? Any tips for making it easy?
2) With a dead battery, how can you get the cig lighter out?
3) Anyone know if there is a emergency release cable inside the wheel well on a '08 997? Anyone have pics?

Thanks in advance!

Alex

[Rrrockhound]

When you use the fusebox trick, you only attach the hot (red) cable to the terminal in the fusebox provided for this purpose. The black cable (ground) gets connected to the door striker, which is attached to the car body and is therefore grounded.

Modern Porsches kill their batteries after just a few weeks of sitting. Tell your friend to get one of these:

Amazon.com: Battery Tender 021-0123 Battery Tender Junior 12V Battery Charger: Automotive

[aualexa2]

Thanks for the reply, Rrrrockhound. In my post, I said "ground in the fusebox", but I meant terminal. I wasn't there to see what he was doing, but from what he described, he was having trouble getting access to the terminal to get the "hot" cable attached. From the pictures I found online, it seems like it should be pretty easy to do...right?

[Rrrockhound]

Oh, OK. The hot terminal has to be pulled out from its retracted position to use. It's designed for a jumper cable, so it should work. At least that's how it is on my 996. Porsche being Porsche, I assume the 997 is similar. Also, I understand there is an emergency cable behind the passenger side headlamp on my car, but I can't vouch for where it is on the 997.

[aualexa2]

Quick update. Today, I was able to stop by my friends car, and we were able to connect to the terminal in the fuse panel and pop the trunk. The problem was that the terminal in the fuse box had been pushed back behind the fuses. So, it wasn't visible when looking at the fuses. We had to remove the interior trim piece around the fuse box, locate the red terminal and pull it back out. Once we did that, it was easy. Thanks again for the feedback.

I have to say, my friend's car is gorgeous. It's a 2008 cab, meteor grey metallic with carrera red interior. Only 3001 miles!

[Rrrockhound]

Tell your friend to buy the trickle charger! And has he changed his oil yet? These cars don't like to sit!