Battery Issue and I'm at a loss where to go from here...

I normally have the car hooked up to a tender to prevent this issue, but the last person who used the car didn't hook it back up and for reasons I can't fathom left the key in the ignition so the battery is completely drained. Yes, I've already had a very frank chat about this... I'm now trying to figure out where to go from here. I cannot access the frunk as I can't access the emergency release. I tried to hook the emergency release for the rear deck, but no luck there either. Because the driver's side window won't drop, I cannot open that door to hook up to the fuse box and ground to the door latch. I can get in on the passenger side, but I don't think I can easily ground from that side if I try to get power through the fuse box, unless someone has done this before. I believe I can charge the battery through the cigarette adapter using the CTEK tender. I have the tender directly connected to the battery, so haven't used the cigarette adapter previously. I saw some discussion that I may not be able to charge through the cigarette adapter as power may only go to it if the ignition is on. Since the battery is totally dead, I'm not sure if turning the key to power on the car will allow current to the battery so it will charge enough that I can open the frunk and I can reconnect the charger. If anyone has experience with this and could provide insight, I would really appreciate the help. If the cigarette adapter won't work, any suggestions would be much appreciated. Lots of learning opportunities here, but I'm focused on getting into the frunk so I can get access to the battery. I have to believe someone out there has a "friend" who had to deal with this too. Thanks in advance for any help that comes my way!

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You didn't describe your car but my 966.2 supports charging by connecting the CTek to the cigarette lighter. That is exactly how I maintain a charged battery over the winter. Has nothing to do with the ignition key.

Apologies...so focused on fixing the issue that I forgot to describe the car! I have 2003 C2 with about 60,000 miles on the clock.

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Mine is a 2003 C4S, so should be the same in regard to the cigarette lighter.

Thanks for letting me know. Hopefully will work just the same for me!

I'm not sure if the cigarette lighter socket is hot or not with the key off, but it doesn't matter. The key is a mechanical switch. If you turn it to the normal ON position the lighter socket will definitely be connected to the battery, and the charger will send juice to it. Maybe. If the battery is truly, totally dead, it may not ever take a charge. You might still be able to use the socket and charger to get the DS door open and pop the frunk though. Good luck!

Just pop the fuse box lid off if you can get in the passenger side and connect a charger to the emergency charge point in the fuse box. it's enough power to pop the engine bonnet to connect jumper cables. The rear cable doesn't pop the trunk like the electric button, (I have a 2003 so if I'm missing details sorry about that.. ) ON my car I have to pull the cable while using a thin object to lightly lift the engine lid .. Good luck!

On my 2002 C2 my cigarette lighter was originally constant on, not switched. (I swapped out my cigarette lighter for a dual USB port and used the power from the switched telephone connection instead.) If you can get to the fuse panel you can use 12V to pop the frunk.

Thanks all for the feedback...Rennlist is such a great community! Will try the cigarette adapter when it arrives tomorrow. Hopefully this will provide access to the frunk at the very least. My family has always thought I was being a little **** about the tender and not latching the frunk when it was stored for a long period. Happily, they now understand the madness and this won't happen again.

Pop the front tow hook cover and see if a saintly previous owner routed the emergency release cable behind it. If not, put that on your immediate to-do list when you get access to it again. Like others have said, charging through the cigarette lighter will do the trick. I've had to do that a time or two!

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I don't have a cigarette tender either. In your case I would reach across and use the inside fuse box to clip the Positive jump cable. You can use any ground, anywhere on the body. Yes, it's usually easiest to use the driver's door bolts, but it doesn't matter. Use the Passenger side door bolts for the Negative/Ground... or there are ground points under the center console, or there is a major engine ground point just inside of the passenger rear tire (towards the back of the wheel, a heavy gauge wire between the engine and the frame.), or just anywhere on the engine from below (that is clean; it's all grounded). Finding a ground point is the easiest thing to do here!

Hi everyone just wanted to touch on a couple options to help avoid having to deal with anything like what the OP is dealing with in the future. We have a extended length starting harness which can be run directly off of the battery to an externally accessible point and then in turn that can be used with a jump starter that would allow you to connect directly and either energize the system, allowing anything electronically controlled to be opened, or just straight up jump the vehicle if the battery is dead. We also have our full size lithium automotive models with Wireless built in jump starting. So if a battery is being drained, it will shut itself off to protect itself from being over discharged but also have capacity to still start the vehicle at least a couple times so you're never stranded with a dead battery. Lastly we also make a little helpful device call the battery tracker which connects directly to your battery and allows you to monitor your voltage directly on your phone via an app and will even send you notifications if the battery is getting low when you're within its 30 ft range. Hopefully those provide some helpful options and additional details in the links below. As always feel free to let us know if you have any questions at all. Starting Harness , The Microstart , Automotive Model , Battery Tracker Best regards, Chad ([email removed])

Again...thanks to all of you for your suggestions. Finally got things figured out to some extent. Tried charging through the cigarette lighter, but that didn't work. Tried ignition key set to on and with no key. For some reason, I was never able to get a charge into the battery. Had someone come by with a jump pack that allowed me to get into the frunk and jump start the car. All is well now. Aside from being drained, the battery is in good shape and just needs to be charged. Hooked up to the charger now and hoping that takes care of the issue. Will check on it later to make sure the battery charged as it should. Not sure why the cigarette adapter didn't work, but that is a mystery I'll look into later. Really appreciate all the help with this issue. Things like this were par for the course for 2022, so hoping that getting the car started bodes well for 2023. Hope you all are having a great New Year! Thanks again!