Help! Battery is dead, and I can't open my hood.

Hi guys! I live in the Mid-West, and every year around late October the car goes into storage in my garage. Last year, my original battery died, and I had to replace it with the Walmart one, and it had performed admirably. I was able to hook up the jumper cables to the fuse in the Porsche 's fuse-box last year to get the hood opened. But this year, when I went down to recharge the car today as I do every 3 weeks, the car was completely dead. That surprised me since it hadn't done so at all since it went into storage late October, 6 months ago. When I tried hooking the cables up to the fuse again on one end, and the other on my BMW the Porsche still wouldn't unlock the hood. I even started the BMW and let it run for a few minutes to no avail. I know that there's a current running to the Porsche 's fuse on the positive end, because when I tried to reposition the negative end on that bolt-hinge of the Porsche 's driver's door, I can hear the static discharges. I'm at a loss as to why the Porsche is not unlocking the hood. Any insight and advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. P.S. Could it be that there is another fuse somewhere in that fuse box that controls the hood release? I was thinking maybe that fuse may have been blown, but I don't see any listed on the fuse box manual. Is there any other explanation as to why the hood is not releasing? I've seen 3 Youtube videos, and they all did the same thing I did and got that hood open in 15 seconds. Anyone?

I was able to pop open the hood after recharging the original battery that I kept around, and then using it to hook up the jumper cables to the fuse instead. I don't know why I couldn't open it yesterday when I had hooked it up to my BMW SUV. But at any rate, the Walmart MAXX H-7 battery was purchased in June 2013, about 7 months ago, and it is completely dead. I have it hooked up to my battery charger now, but after a few hours it is still stuck at only 35% charged. I just thought I would update everyone since there will probably be more people with similar problems coming out of winter here in the North.

If your battery died over the winter in an unheated garage, it likely also froze. I doubt it will be recoverable or hold a charge reliably. The reason you couldn't open the hood by jumping yesterday was probably because it was actually acting as a sink - drawing/absorbing all the current being fed through the fuse box terminal. Just a guess - Totally dead batteries can do bad things.

Glad you worked it out. These cars must absolutely be kept on a battery maintainer when not driven every few days. Letting them go dead and then trying to recharge just doesn't work well in my experience.:cheers:

I didn't mean to let it go dead, of course. I've been charging it every few weeks for the past 6 months without any issues. This week was the first time that the battery went dead. The weather did warmed up to around 50 degrees for the first time today, so that may have affected the cell negatively. The battery was purchased 6 months ago, and I'll be taking it back to Walmart this evening for testing, and hopefully for a replacement. Thanks for all the comments.

My wife had a Lexus that would eat batteries. Walmart has got to be the easiest place to deal with on batteries - they happily replace it, and give you a newly dated receipt, thus your battery warranty starts over...

Don't forget the emergency cable release for the front trunk found in the fender well. You could pull that and pop the front hood too, although attaching power to the fuse block is another way to get power to the trunk switch and open it that way.

Oh yeah! That would have been my last resort, Ken. I would have to remove the front, driver-side wheel in order to get to it.

K-Man-S, You could pull that and pop the front hood too, although attaching power to the fuse block is another way to get power to the trunk switch and open it that way. Is this in the ops manual, haven't seen it, how do you get to it? Tx Machog

I-27: Sounds like you have it solved. While at Wally World, buy one of those battery terminal wire brush cleaner tools for a couple bucks and clean the terminal posts and the battery leads. It's amazing how little of that white powdery stuff on the posts it takes to keep a car from starting. I had the same thing happen, but my battery was 4+ years old. I jumped from my motorcycle, which was only a few feet from the fusebox. It doesn't require much power to pop the lid. Since it worked for you this time, I"m guessing something was wrong with the connection to the BMW . Sometimes, you just have to sleep on it and get a fresh look. Next Fall, buy a set of winter wheels and keep driving it! :cheers:

Very sound advice, Sixisenuff! That is exactly what I will do. Another trip back to Walmart for a new battery. Thanks.

Finding it interesting that wally world spent so much time checking the battery. When I've gone in there with the battery for the Lexus, they gave it about 10 minutes on the machine, gave me a new battery and sent me on my way. That being said, believe that the 3 times I did it they were all Saturdays, so they may have been happy to get me out of there....

just use a cigerette lighter socket to cigerette lighter adapter and keep the center pin alined + positive to + positive on the other end and you do not need to use the fuse box attach point. CORD RECHARGE 12V MALE/MALE 146-002-901 - Rakuten.com Shopping Way easier way to open hood with a dead battery. Plug in a 9 volt adapter to the cig socket and keep all of your settings too for the winter. NOCO Settings Keeper with 9V Battery: Auto Body Tools & Auto Equipment : Walmart.com

Ken, I'm having a problem with my front hood release due to completely dead battery. I saw your post about the release cable in the front fender well and went to the garage to find it but was unable to locate it. Could you please tell me more specifically where to look. I don't mind taking the wheel off. The fuse solution is not working for me. I'm guessing that the battery is completely shorted out. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks again!

The key to doing the fuse box jump is to make sure that the clamp not attached to the fuse box is attached to an unpainted metal part, i.e. The d-shaped door latch. I think a lot of people attach to the door hinge which is painted. This door latch method is in the manual.

Ultimate diy porsche 987 997 dead battery solution - can't open hood This whole thread is so painful to read it makes one feel as if still frozen in the Ice Age. What’s needed to resolve this (and all similar issues the non-experts tend to overcomplicate) is the Mighty Jump Pocket Car Starter: https://ebay.to/2kTiSlg If there’s any vehicle this device is most useful for, it's Porsche. Keep it in your glove box. I’m unsure of other models but the Porsche 987 Boxster/Cayman doesn’t have any electrical cut-off for the cigarette lighter port even with the ignition key removed. Hope this helps.