Trunk cable release fix - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

It's pretty annoying when one of your two hoods won't unlatch. The front started acting up this May. In having my wife activate the switch by the driver's door, and on separate attempts using my key fob, I could hear the latching mechanism clicking as I posted myself close to the front emblem. Since this had not been a problem until the weather started warming, I theorized the cable was stretching just enough to not get the job done. In the morning, I tried again, and boom, it opened. Searching through threads on how to adjust the cable, I came up empty handed. Upon removing the plastic cover over the latch, it proved itself to be a pretty simple mechanism. At the very end of the cable is a lead cable end stop that catches on half of the latch and pulls it back, allowing the hood u-bolt to be released. I knew I wanted to shorten the cable length, but was totally unwilling to cut off the original cable end stop. So, my solution, I'm guessing, will not meet Porsche standards. I headed to my fishing tackle box and found a lead sinker of an appropriate size so it would not slip through the latch. The sinker is of the type that is cut almost in half, allowing the fisherman to crimp it onto his line. In this case, the "line" was the cable. I put the sinker immediately in front of the original end stop, crimped it on tightly, and, would you believe it, the latch now works perfectly. By the way, thanks to those posters who recommended "fishing" the emergency cable down through the bumper and into the tow ring hole. Clever.

Cool fix with the lead sinker! Interesting that something 'fishing' related solved 2 problems.