...and there's just no room to reach the emergency hood release.

This one has me stumped (and fuming at Porsche for making this such a &#%@ pain the a$$ for so many owners, over and over). AAA and I spent an hour trying various workarounds, and I've now spent another hour looking at various remedies on Google. But as I mention above, the usual tricks don't work for my model.

If I recall from my last 996, there's a way to charge it through the lighter socket just enough to get the hood latch open. Either way, if anyone has a solution for me, I'll be forever grateful!

-E

 

What year is the car? You can go through the engine bay I believe on cars up to 2001 and attach jumper cables as shown to get power to open the trunk.

 

Thanks for your reply. It's a great idea, but my (2000) model has a supercharger, which further complicates matters because the engine bay is awfully cramped. We looked briefly at the possibility but it's worth another look, thanks again.

My other thought is that the AAA guy didn't look carefully enough for the red terminal. I took it for granted that mine may not have one because it's been modified so heavily, but I should verify that myself.

I've also tried to use a few slender tools to slide the hood latch, but that's appears nearly impossible. Ugh.

 

Did you try this?

 

[QUOTE=bbywu;3236955]Did you try this?
<snip>

Thanks, yeah the red terminal appears to be missing in my (rather heavily modified) model. But I've read that it can sometimes be somewhat difficult to extract, so I'm going to take a closer gander. Thanks for the idea and photos!

 

Only other choice that I can think of is this:

 

What is that, exactly, something like a trickle charger or battery tender? All I can really tell from the pic is that it has Porsche written on it so it's astronomically expensive. lol

 

It's a CTEK charger...it is OEM'd for Porsche, but can be had for much cheaper...



You just need to buy the separate cigarette adapter.

 

Thanks much for the info, I'll definitely check it out. It just baffles me that a dead battery could possibly necessitate the purchase of special equipment, but alas.

 

I thought 1999 -2001 had a mechanical hood release, not electrical - that would explain the missing terminal in the fuse box. (I had a 2000 C4 and it had the mechanical release).

 

Go to autozone,and get a cigarette lighter charger. They have one mad by Stanley. Same thing happened to me. Works like a charm.

 

It does but i think when you lock the car something locks the latch for the hood from being pulled.

 

Thanks very much. That's my mission for today. The AAA guy tried that half-heartedly yesterday with a handheld donor battery, but gave up after 30 seconds, vaguely telling me that it wasn't working and unable to clearly tell me why.

As an aside, something about this whole fiasco doesn't seem right. The car was completely dead (no attempt to turn over, no clicking) and I don't think it was more than 3-4 days since I last drove it, and it seemed fine. Also, the light on the stereo (alarm, I presume) continues to blink at regular intervals, so it's not completely out of power. Could a fuse have blown or is there something else I'm not realizing?

 

Could be ignition switch going/gone bad which would, in a matter of hours, completely drain even a strong battery (keeps the car 'active'). Replacing ignition switch is a $10-50 (depending on where you by the part: online or at local Audi dealer) and 30 min DIY but more importantly, back to getting your hood open...

Two options:

Manual levers... yes there is a pin/plate that slides under them when car is locked to prevent from being raised. However, using a small screwdriver (like a freebie one at a trade show) you can reach in between the front & rear levers sliding it out of the way. It's a white plate which needs rotated (a little bit at a time) so it's back to perpendicular w/ the door sill (it'll currently be parallel). See this thread on Renntech (posts 5, 8-12) for more details and pix.

Or... you could always go for the emergency release cable. From the factory, it's up behind the passenger side headlight to be accessed by pulling down the wheel well liner. However, if you're not the original owner, it may have been moved (commonly) to the front tow hook location. So, pull your tow hook plug cover and look for a 1/16" thick silver cable. Give it a yank.

Regardless, and even though the battery may be dead, there will still probably be enough juice left to set off the alarm horns once you do get it open. So, have a 10mm wrench handy to disconnect the (-) battery cable ASAP once opened.

Good luck

 

Thanks so much for the detailed reply. I'm not optimistic that I can reach the emergency release, but I had no idea it was possible to move the plate between the levers manually. I'm going to check out your link and see if that'll work, thanks! And it may well be the ignition switch, as something about this whole fiasco doesn't feel right. And I'm elated to know that it's a relatively cheap fix. Thanks again!