Please Help - Trunk Stuck Again!!!

The hood bonnet on my 2000 C2 is stuck and I cannot get it to pop open. I found the emergency release cable, I had to take off the right front wheel well liner to find it, but it will not open the trunk either . I also tried having someone pull on the release lever while I carefully pried up on the hood but that also did not work. The last time I closed the trunk it closed very hard and I could tell something jammed but I am not sure what happened. I believe the whole latch mechanism may have shifted sideways or maybe the carpeting is stuck in the latch. When I look at the hood from the front of the car it appears that the trunk lid is shifted slightly towards the passenger side, the gap between the hood and fender is larger on the drivers side. This makes me think that the latch mechanism may have shifted and is not allowing the latch to release the catch on the underside of the hood. When the release lever in the car is pulled I can hear it pulling on the latch at the front of the hood so I do not believe the problem is with the cable. Any help would be greatly appreciated. TIA.

Step one will be getting it open - it will likely take two careful people. One to lift the other to push side to side. Then you will want to look at this DIY for adjusting the latch. Adjusting Hood Latch Mechanism

The exact same thing happened to me. I followed Loren's advice, which included using a plastic kitchen spatula to carefully pry (right at the latch) while pulling on the emergency cable. Once it popped up, I followed the RennTech DIY for adjusting the latch, and it worked better, closed easier, than ever before. As a side note, other than a stopped up cab drain tube, this is the only mechanical repair my car has required in the 3 years, 45K miles (77K total) I have owned it.

how about pressing down on it while another person lifts up on the release... maybe it will relieve some pressure on the lock mechanism...

Just did this on a Boxster. Latch was not working properly. Owner pulled up on the lever while I pried open the lid with a small pry bar. Cloth was to protect the paint. If you are using your fingers you might want to try something else.

Thanks for the advice guys. I tried all the things mentioned and still no luck. Loren, I tried your approach but I could not get the hood to move left or right very much. Any other suggestions? I am very desperate at this point. My next step, I guess, is to take it to the stealer. TIA for any help.

ok...outside the box thinking...maybe the cable isnt attached to the release lever. Can you confirm that when the release lever is pulled, it is actually moving the lock mechanism of the hood? Can you hear it moving when trying to open... if not then the cable might be disconnected.

Redridge, thank you for the response. I can hear the latch moving when I pull the release lever in the car however I can't hear it move when I pull the emrgency lever, and I can't be sure that the latch is actually moving when I pull either one. I'll try having someone pull the lever in the car while I look with a flashlight to see if the lever is acually moving. I don't think you can see this with the trunk closed but I'll give it a try. I can't believe that I cannot get the trunk to open. I have read about many cases of problems with the 996's trunk latch but I have never heard of a case where it was jammed to the point that the trunk could not be opened(even with prying). I fear that if I take it to the dealer they will damage either the paint or the car in trying to open the trunk.

Perhaps you can try to see if the whole trunk latch mechanism is loose. See if you can feel the trunk latch moving up and down... I had this problem two months ago and ended up replacing the complete latch for $132 in part cost and 1/2 hr labor. It turned out that the latch that is bolted on to the front hood of the car was not tightened completely so everytime you closed the latch, it pushed the latch further down. I now have a spare trunk latch...

I had the same dogone thing happen...with all the groceries in there...after three days of trying everything I ended up taking off the front bumper by taking all the screws off from the underside and inside the sidelights....that leaves you about 4 screws inside the front hood that you cant get to....so I just pulled and tore the plastic tabs. (yes...it hurt to know I was breaking the tabs)...no big deal really....but once the bumper was off I could see that the cable release would not release the latch. Nothing would have worked. The latch ended up somehow being jammed against the front part of the the mechanism casing so that friction prevented it from moving. It wouldn't move using the main cable, and the emergency cable wouldn't budge it either. Once you're in there, you can take apart the mechanism and using a narrow pry bar, move the latch mechanism away from the side of the housing....then used silicone grease to get it to move freely. I also used the incident to move the emergency wire cable so it comes out the front rather than stashed behind the passenger headlight. Probably best that you replace the entire latch mechanism once you're in there....I bought one out of a wrecked 99. Do you have the mechanical release? If the main cable is broken, I have a new one I bought but never used.

Thanks for the info. Chuck. I may need to use your approach because I am still unable to get the trunk open. Is the latch mechanism fully visible and accessible once you remove the bumper cover? Also, how much force did you need to use to pull the bumper cover free from the screws? I believe my car(2000 C2) has two screws under the hood which help hold the bumper cover on. My car does have the mechanical release. If my cable is broken I will contact you. Thanks again.

OK...I just went out and looked....and there are four of those simiple half-turn plastic retainers that are notched and you give them a half-turn to release the plastic cover that only serves to cover and esthetically dress up the area around the latch....those will pull loose when you eventually get to the point where the front bumper will come off. There are only two screws...sort of speed type screws....that hold the top part of the bumper up tight against the body on the inside of the hood. These two are the ones that you'll end up tearing the tabs on....but when I put them back together, there's just a small narrow tear that doesn't affect your ability to tighten the screws in order to keep the top part of the bumper secure. The compression of the screws hold it in place regardless of the fact you had to tear it loose. That should do it for you. Just remember to take out those hidden screws that are inside the area of your sidelights...I think there are two on each tide....one behind the wheel well liner and the other up inside the sidelight. Good luck....and don't drive yourself to drink if you have to tear a tab or two. I watched Loren work on my car and told him it was like watching a brain surgeon do surgery with a hammer. We have a tendency to treat these things like porcelain figurines. They're really pretty durable. Chuck

Great info Chuck, you ARE the man!!!

Dream Carrera, I hope you have the hood opened by now. If not, here's just to confirm some of the info already given above. I was right there this evening, installing my front bumper cover back onto the car. Decided to investigate the emergency release cable that was there. So I had the hood opened at that time, I pulled the cable, there was a click. Then I laid the hood down, and it closed. So I pulled the cable again, no worky. I went to press the hood release button (mine's electrically controlled) inside the car, That opened the hood! I went back up front to close the hood and it latched closed. Pulled the cable manually again, the hood opened this time. Sorry if it sounds confusing...I thought it was strange the hood didn't open the second time I pulled the cable manually, and had to reset the lock mechanism with the electric hood release button, before it will work again. So...I dunno, maybe that strange piece of info might help you think of something? Maybe not. Good Luck, and if you need the DIY to remove the front bumper, HERE is a link.

So Michael....give us an update on what you ended up doing with your stuck hood latch. FWIW, today I went over to Silverstar recyclers and they have a complete front latch setup for the manual cable release which works on the MY99. After that I think Porsche went to the e-cable release. You should be able to take that mechanism out and bend the latch away from the side of the housing....the question becomes one of.....What causes them to do this? It's not an isolated occurrence. Is it better to just go get a new latch, or try to fix this one? I fixed mine and will keep it in there as long as it continues to "pop" when I raise the cable release. The minute it starts acting up again and not allowing the hood to pop up....the I think it's best to change it out.

Maybe he got it open, climed in the trunk to work on the latch, and the bonnet closed again, locking him in the trunk, so he can't reply!

Tim: You mihght be right......Hey Dream Carrera....bang three times on the inside of the trunklid if you're stuck in there....

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Thanks for the concern guys. With friends like you who needs enemys. Don't worry about me, I've heard that you have a much better chance of being struck by lightning than getting locked in your P-Car trunk. ...OR was that having an RMS leak.... BTW, I am too smart to climb in the truck to work on the latch. If my wife were to see me doing this she would probably slam the hood on me and later act dumb when being questioned by the authorities. Chuck, I used your advice and pulled the bumper loose from the screws holding it on underneath the hood. I was surprised at how easy it was to pull off. I still cannot see the latch mechanism well enough to pop it open so I need to remove the plastic trim piece which is in front of the latch. Hopefully I will have time later today to work on it. Chuck - Thanks again for the info. Tim - Thanks for your concern.

You're welcome! Well, you getting locked in the trunk COULD have happened! OK, OK.... possible, but not probable! But it did make for good fodder here. Oh, one other thing. If you have bought a Blue 996, you would not be having a trunk latch problem.

Once you get to the latch, take a screw driver or I have a little mini pry bar, and insert the flat edge of the pry bar or screw driver into the latch on the left side of the machanism....you'll see the latch rotated over in the closed position....pry it away from the side of the housing and it will function well enough to get it open. Then pull the whole mechanism out by taking out the three 10mm nuts, disengage the emergency braided cable from the slot on the bottom left and the cabin release cable from the top right, and you can take the whole thing out. Make sure to disconnect the electronic plug that you'll find behind the fibreboard trunk insert, and you can then push the rubber grommet holding the wiring thru the hole. I used the new synthetic silicone grease on the mechanism including the spring....and reinstalled it. Everything works EXCEPT I still get the little beep upon locking....tells me the micro switch isn't working, and I havne't seen fit to replace it...but haven't had any more trouble with the actual latch. When you reinstall the bumper...make sure you push the top part that you had to tear the tabs on...push them in snug, otherwise you'll get a slight circular gap under the passenger's side headlight. Nothing drastic, but looks tacky.

For the sake of reference purposes I am posting a conclusion to this thread. It should be used in conjunction to the great write-up about the trunk latch mechanism that can be found at renntech.org. My trunk hood was jammed to the point that nothing I tried would open it. Even after removing the front bumper cover, which allowed me to see the latch mechanism, I still was unable to un-jamb the latch mechanism or even see how the latch was jammed to begin with. Finally, I got the idea to remove the bolts which hold the latch catch to the hood. Once the front bumper cover was removed I was able to fit an open ended wrench in under the hood to loosen the two screws holding the catch to the hood. How is that for thinking out of the box? I was able to look down into the latch once I raised the hood and I could then see that it was simply jammed. I grabbed the catch with both hands and pulled up with a lot of force to finally pull the catch free. This is the same thing that I was doing while pulling up on the hood(by wrapping a kitchen spatula in a micro-fiber cloth and slipping it under the hood) only I was afraid of bending the hood as I was using a lot of force without the hood even budging. The cause of my problem was the main culprit with these latches. The end of the spring, which is supposed to be bent at a 90 degree angle and inserted in a hole on one of the latch arms, slipped out of the hole and then pushed on the latch arm binding up the entire latch. Unfortunately, the metal that Porsche used to make the spring is weak and sometimes looses the 90 bend which allows it to slip out of the hole. I tried to repair my latch by re-bending the end of the spring and re-inserting it into the hole but after a few test runs the spring popped out of the hole again. I ended up replacing the latch mechanism with a new one that I purchased from my local dealer. The cost of the new latch was about $140. I also rerouted the emergengy release cable to the tow hook hole as seen in the picture. Hopefully my ordeal can help someone in the future with the same problem. Here’s a pic. of my shiny new latch.

DC: Glad you finally got it fixed.....although I fixed my latch by inserting a screw driver between the latch and the housing and bent the latch away from the side of the housing....I'm not that confident that it might not happen again....but at least now I know how to get in there...and I've re-routed the emergency cable too.....you may want to re-route the cable in the back too...it's on the driver's side in the rear. No sense having to tear everything apart just because you can't get to the emrgency cable.