Hood light (front luggage comp) - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

Guys; I did dicover that when my hood is closed, the front trunk light stays ON. I did go to the front electric latch and unplug the wires that goes to the latch. Still light on! Is the light controlled by the electric latch? Any idea what keeps that front trunk light on??? For now, I did remove the bulb but there is a cure to that problem... I guess... Thanks for your help. Thierry

How did you determine that the light remained on? I'm too big to get in there and close the lid. If you put a kid in there, you need to remember to let him out....eventually. Perhaps our lights are on too. But remember that if it was on for more than a day or two, you batt would be stone dead.

First of all, easy to know that light stays on, unplug the light from the connector that goes to the light, use your voltmeter, extend wires to outside of trunk and close it. If you have 12 VDC when light is on and 12 VDC when trunk is closed, it's because the power to light is still there. Now I dicover that it's the same with rear trunk light. When I manage to look to it, I did open the rear trunk and immediatly remove the light from the carpet and it was very hot. That's a sign that this light stays on all the time... By the way my battery is new since a week and I think now that the old one have been killed by those 2 lights. I don't know since how long that problem is present, I did buy the car 1 month ago. Changes I made: Install 4 stalk, wire OBC & Cruise control (Hack) and did the intermitent wipers hack. Is there any body that can confirm that one of those hack have a relationship with the lights in both trunk? Help pls!

The front trunk light on my 2000 stayed on because the trunk light switch contained in the latch mechanism was broken. I was able to replace just the switch but at one point I believe you had to buy the entire latch to correct the problem. The latch post on the hood activates a rotary mechanism in the lower latch, which in turn causes the switch to function. An overly complicated design which is doomed to fail at some point. Mine did...and it sounds as if yours has as well.

I now suspect that it is the same with the glove compartment light!

The OBC & Cruise have not been activated yet with Porsche computer. Can it be the source of that problem?

The interior lights have a delay period that they go through when the car is shut off. Perhaps the trunks are just doing the same thing? Perhaps only happens when the trunks are first opened and closed??? Somehow you discovered this front trunk problem without doing your voltmeter test. I'm sure that you would not do that test just for the fun of it. You had a strong suspicion about it. If you have gone 3 or so days without using the car and the batt has not died, the trunk lights are not on. And when you just open a trunk after a day, are they already reallllllly hot? Bob

To answer your question, the voltage is always there after 20 minutes. I did look under driver seat to look at the alarm cpu. There is a kind of wire with a gold connector on it that is loose unplug. Is this normal? What is that cable an antenna or what? Thierry

The front/rear trunk lights are like a 3way switch in a house. If the front switch is on/open, both the rear and front trunk lights will illuminate. So your problem could be either one but I suspect the front one is bad (seem more common as it's subject to much more wear/tear). Anyhow, the car should shut off the trunk lights after 2 hours automatically to prevent battery drain but good idea to remove both bulbs until you fix the problem. In the mean time, I'd check the (distilled) water level in your battery and top off if needed. Then put it on a maintainer overnight to get it back up to optimum condition.

But Burg, it is normal that when I unplug the harness (2 wires) that goes to the front trunk latch, the light stays on anyway? Where is the switch that turn on/off the light?

It is normal that yellow lights in the door handles & the one named Orientation light (next to the interior alarm sensors) stays on all the time like the front & rear trunk & glove box???

If you want to shorten the timer delay in turning off the lights, I believe the manual says to lock your car. That shortens the period the lights stay on to just a couple of minutes (even if the trunk lid is open).

like I said in your other thread, sounds like either the ignition switch or alarm box to me. Start by replcing the ignition switch because it's the easiest and the cheapest (around $10 for the Meyle generic).

I already have the part for the ignition, but is there a link that will help me to do the job strait forward?

PM me with an email addy.

Guys; Sorry for my english, I'm a french canadian. My crazy front, rear & glove box lights story is now at is end. Here are the details in case it happens to one of you. Front compartment(hood) light, rear compartment light(trunk) & Glovebox light(03-04 Boxster) are ON at the same time. It means when you open one of those three doors, the 3 lights turns on at the same time. Each of those doors have a microswitch that send Alarm box an individual open state (it's a N.C. contact). So they have each of them an input on the Alarm box for diagnosis purpose with Porsche computer. What you need to know is that the three lights gets there ON signal from the same output and not individual outputs. That's why if one of the microswitches, let say the one in the glove box failed and stays in a N.C. state (open) not only the light in the glove box will stay ON but the two others too! Does it will drain your battery? Not that fast because after 2 hours the Alarm box turn the lights off to protect the battery but if this N.C. state stays like that for long time, your battery will finally die. Remember that when both compartments and glovebox are closed, you can't see the light that stays ON and when you open one of them, it is normal that the light is ON so it's difficult to imagine that YES, the light stays on. How did I found out that my lights were ON with trunk, hood & glovebox closed, I took a reading on my battery that is 1 week new and found that voltage drops from 12.5 VDC to 11.75 VDC. Taking a MA reading between (-) of the battery and car frame shows me that my battery was in a draining process. Also, I did unplug the electrical harness from the hood electric hatch and the light stays on anayway! Hope this will help you guys to appreciate your ''No substitute'' car! Thierry Despaux

Good info ! It's different on the early 986 because there is no glove box or gb microswitch, so your discovery may not hold with the early cars. I suggested the ignition switch because those were the symptoms my car showed (lights staying on) when mine went bad. Replaced ignition switch and symptoms went away.