Dead Battery Frustrations

I am so fu*king frustrated with how things are going right now with a dead battery . Some back story, winter is here and I could not afford a battery maintainer (yes, I am that poor - should I have bought a Porsche at my age? Probably not, poor life choices). Anyways, so instead of buying a battery maintainer, I just started my car every two weeks and the battery was running fine and the car was beautiful. Come December, I was thinking the car started fine up until now every two weeks, I'll start her up in a month instead. That was stupid cause in January, she was completely dead. By January, I had spared enough money for a cable charger and I did, except the hood release is electronic, but the battery is eff-ing dead... Did some research and apparently I can charge through the fuse box. So I tried that and it didn't work, the battery charger said there was an error. Well ok then. Come February, I decided to dish out an unholy amount of $150 for a OEM Porsche battery charger that goes through the cigarette lighter socket. Perfect, well not really because I accidentally pushed the cigarette lighter in. Now it won't pop out unless its been heated. It won't be heated unless it has power, it won't have power because the battery is eff-ing dead, again. So now I have two battery chargers, fuse box doesn't work, cigarette lighter is stuck, I heard there is a third option of removing the wheel well and pull on some wires to manually release the hood so I can get to the god damn battery already, but I don't want to have to do that. I am scared to do it myself, I have no experience, but I can't afford to pay someone to do it for me. What do?

Cant charge via fuse box, must connect to battery or via cigarette plug . If the battery is flat, connect jumper cables to fuse box and use key fob to pop the frunk.

After re-reading my post, I seem really frustrated lol, I've calmed down now. Thanks for the reply bofus, I'll try jumper cables to the fuse box, I'm assuming that's different than a battery charger with the polar cables. I'm guessing those don't have enough juice in them.

Can you charge it with the power socket under the glove box?

Welcome There are extensive threads and discussions concerning batteries. I suggest you take the time to read them and the problems others have had and their solutions. In the meantime, watch this. Ignore the model numbers, the cars all work more or less the same. Just think of it as a lesson learned. From now on, if the car sits, keep it on the battery maintainer, especially in cold temperatures. Good luck

Hello Chow4us and all. Interesting tutorial on getting into the Boxster with a dead battery . The tutorial shows using a " booster box" to supply voltage to be able to unlock the frunk hood. Can a "PowerAll" device or similar ( lithium ion) be used to perform the same function as the booster box...ie, supply power to the fuse box to unlock the frunk hood, as in the tutorial to unlock the hood? The "PowerAll" packs quite a "punch" and could it be harmful to the fuse box? .....And this is why I am curious.

He was using something like thishttp://www. amazon .com/Clore-Jump-N-Carry-12-Volt-Starter-Compliant/dp/B00CMP3Z1C/ref=sr_1_1?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1423660197&sr=1-1 That is a car battery in a box, 1700 peak amps, 425 cranking amps. A powerall has 12000 milliamps, or 12 amps and 400 cranking amps. I think products like poweralls are several 18650 batteries, similar to used in LED flashlights (but not sure). In any case, if I had a powerall, I'd probably used it but YMMV. And BTW ... Porsche is, indeed, a two syllable word

chows4us: I chuckle with every new response to the syllable discussion! I can't believe all the discussion this has provoked, and some of the comments are very interesting at that. Has this never been discussed on the P 9 site before?

Not that I know. I am sure it has elsewhere on the Internet. Some people don't care its a family name. They will do whatever they want. Others do care. I know I wouldn't want people to mess up my name. I really think its a matter of respect so I try to remember but sometimes forget too. Hehe.

If you are just starting your car and letting it idle, this is not good for your car. It will not sufficiently warm up enough to evaporate the water that is generated at start-up that collects in the mufflers. You'll do more harm than good by just letting it idle for a period of time. Take your car out for a nice 20 min drive.

Elezra, I live in Ottawa and what I do is simple since my car sits in a garage that is not mine. If the car was at my place I would simply leave the battery in and use a battery tender . 1. Park the car for 6 months (Nov-Apr) with a full tank of gas with 1 octane booster bottle and 2X gas treatment (same as my snowblower to prevent gas from going bad) 2. Remove battery to bring home 3. Insert a object to leave hood open near the latch (I use a rag!) *** VERY IMPORTANT *** 4. Lock car with my key 5. Use my $30 Canadian Tire battery Tender Junior on the 1st of every month (it goes green the same day) 6. Put battery back in car in the Spring! This way I do not start the car for nothing and the battery stays warm inside the house throughout the winter. Bonus is if someone wants to steal the car well it's more annoying for them... Hope this helps.

I bought a Ctech (?) charger for my CS on Amazon for $80 with a $60 rebate if I opened an Amazon Visa card (which I immediately cut in half) but I have three others trickle chargers for three other old cars I own and they work great. They cost me $19 each at AutoZone.

Thank you for bringing that up. Correct. Bad idea. Oil never gets to boil out any water and fuel in the oil. Bad for the engine. Bad for the car. Take it out and get everything hot or don't go out at all.

I have the same problem right now, I tried the fuse box and it didn't work. I went to walmart to grab re-chargeit 8amp with cigarette lighter socket but still no good. what should i do ?

There is a bigger lesson, I think. Once you've used the little key to unlock the door (if needed) and a charger battery to hook up to the fuse box to gain access to the dead battery , and then charged the battery with a tender, consider your opening comments. You have so little money that even buying a cheap battery tender was a struggle. Hey, I've been so poor that I could only afford one meal a day (starving jazz musician in the early 1970s). BUT, I wasn't buying Porsches. For God's sake, SELL THE CAR. Buy something you can afford. Maintaining a Porsche will strain the resources of people making six figures a year with plenty of money in the bank. This car will ultimately bring you more grief than it's worth if your resources are limited. Someday you'll be able to afford it. That's what happened to the rest of us. Till then, ain't nuthin' wrong with a several-year-old Miata that won't financially drive you out of house and home.

There are quite a few threads on here regarding this issue and how to solve your problem. Search is your friend. It's also in the owners manual. Not sure what you are hooking up to your fuse box but it ideally should be another charged battery . If done properly, it always works. That will open your frunk so you can access the battery , not recharge your dead battery or start your car. It only opens the frunk. Then if the battery can be recharged, you need a battery charger, not a battery maintainer. If it can hold a charge, any auto store will check it for you, then recharge it. If not then buy an appropriately sized new one and put it in. Issue solved. It's not rocket science.:cheers: You can buy a resonable quality battery maintainer for $25 to $30 at Sears or Walmart. A Porsche or even a Ctec model are not necessary. I've been using a couple Sears models for 10-15 years with no trouble whatsoever.

^^^^^ What he said. Watch the video in post #5. You need a real donor battery, not a battery maintainer, to pop the hood.

Cranking batteries r not designed to be fully discharged. Never mind staying like that for extended periods. U will need a new battery in SHORT order.