Can't open hood: battery dead
 

So my 01' 996 C4 has yet a dead battery again. except this time when I use the jump clamp on the driver side kickpanel i still can't get the hood to open via the electric hood button by the door sill. is there another way?

the car is getting a charge because when I clamp the jumper cables my alarm goes off but still no reaction from the electronic hood button. could the fuse for the hood be bad? what are my options?

You might try leaving the jump pack on the manual override clip in the fuse panel for about 10 minutes or so.... It should eventually pop. If not your only option becomes trying to actually fish the cable out under then bumper which almost always leads to some chipped paint and a lot of headaches. The 996's are VERY picky on having the right amount of current in order for ANYTHING electical to work right so take your jump box, make sure you have a good ground, give it a little time and try the button.

Another extremely rare possibility is that the actual button to pop the hood itself is bad. Obviously the chances of this failing at the same time your battery dies is next to nill but it might be worth checking with a voltage meter before diving into the project any deeper. Good luck.

Try poping the engine lid with the jump pack then using the jump lead in the engine compartment to another working car battery....

If that fails there is an emergency release located inside the passenger side fender well behind the headlight. You must pop the fender liner back a bit and you will see a pull cord.

under your left tail light there is a metal wire, you need to grab a hold of that wire, pull it and your trunk is going to pop open. then you have access to your motor.

Sounds like you are speaking from experience. It's a pain, but probably the best way to get to your battery. I strongly recommend pulling the right front tire off. I tried it once without and was waaaaay too hard to reach everything. Good luck.:eek:

If you go with the wire pull, wear ear protection.

Had to use the jumper method last friday.

I was changing the wheel out in my coworkers 2008 Cayman, I had the battery disconnected and the hood open. He went and closed the hood!!! I had to go buy 4 allegator clips and about 20 feet of wire so that we could jump the fuse box from my Audi without taking the battery out of the car. It worked, even though some people were saying that this method only works if the battery is dead and still connected.

It was a learning experiance, but it was all good in the end.

He wants to open the front...plus, I've always wondered how you remove the taillight to get to the cable when the engine lid is closed.

I'm a little dense: when you say "hood" do you mean engine bay or trunk? (Either way, you have the instructions already to manually open either one.) Most front engine cars have a "hood" that covers the engine bay. So would a Porsche hood be in the back where the engine is? Perhaps you are referring to the front part where the engine is on other cars, so that hood is actually the trunk lid. And english folks refer to the trunk as the boot, but the boot is in the back. So would the front boot lid also be the hood you are referring to? See, told you I'm dense.

Have you checked the fuse for whichever "hood" you are referring to? If it worked before, it should work again. Also, does your keyfob have a button on it for the "hood" you need open? I seem to recall that those cigarette lighter jumpers work to open the trunk, but since I don't have electronic openers - I didn't pay close attention those posts.

-td

you dont remove your tail light, you need to try to lift the light just a lil bit and take a coat hanger and try to catch that wire and pull on it.

Porsche makes it easy for us - the parts catalog calls the front one "Cover Front" and the rear one "Cover Rear".

Still doesn't answer which one is the hood.

-td

you sound like a lawyer

Check if the front bumper has a 1" plastic plug located to the left of the front plate (I always thought that was where the tow hook conected) When I had my Boxster I had this issue and the dealer told me the manual release cable is behind the plug and to fish it out with a coat hanger, took all of 5 mins. Not sure if the 996 is the same?