Help - 987.1 battery disconnected can’t get into front bonnet

I am soooo stupid and now completely stuck I disconnected my battery and then I shut my front bonnet now I have no way of getting into the front bonnet to reconnect battery . I’ve read on many forums that you can take the front left wheel off and get under the wheel arch and there’s a release cable - but - my locking wheel nut is also in the front and also my steering lock is on so I can’t turn the wheel to get access help !

Don't panic, @Socco - There are two ways of going about this, as I had the exact same issue about a month ago (disconnected battery). However, YMMV. 1) Try hooking up a known working car battery through through the fuse box (procedure is in your manual). I tried with a known and working motorcycle battery, and that didn't work for me. So, I went with #2 (see below). 2) Yes, remove the front left wheel. Now, if your wheel is at an angle with the steering lock on, and you can't access the locking wheel nut in its current position, I'd try the following. Jack up the front left wheel -- which you'll need to do anyhow. Once done, you should be able to rotate the wheel into a position where you can access the lug bolt. Lower the car, and then remove the lug bolts and the wheel. Then, yes -- remove the front wheel arch and you'll be able to pull that hidden cable. Hope this helps and let us know how you get on with it! Cheers.

Thanks for your advice. My problem is the nut has a locking nut on it and the key for the locking nut is in the front so I cannot get the wheel off.

Then continue to work the jumper post option. Use a full size car battery . If breaking the circuit under the hood prevents the jumper port from working, then the next viable option is to work on the lock piece with suitable modifications to said lock to remove it. Use care and patience to prevent the wheel from being damaged.

You can open the frunk by applying 12VDC into the cigarette lighter receptacle, but you must use battery from another car, as a charger will not do it..

That is not going to work, the lighter goes nowhere now; maybe the same for the footwell junction. He broke the connection at the battery and closed the front bonnet, that really created difficult conditions by accident.

Boris, are you saying this because the ground is not attached to the battery ? If so, you could use an extra set of jumping cables to ground the chassis from the external battery .

It’s a great idea and that scenario is plausible. I’d certainly try that before I butchered the wheel lock. I won’t be surprised if it doesn’t work. Had an idea this morning if the ground to car try doesn’t work. They only make so many variants of wheel key. Perhaps a photo could be matched up to one of our keys and we could do a mail to and back. I don’t use mine I have a different set up, it could be shipped to help a member. A dealer may have a master set too. It would be well worth it to have them overcharge a one time fee to remove said wheel lock correctly.

Ummmmm... it shouldn't matter if both cables are disconnected from the battery . The battery is simply a storage medium for electrons used to power up stuff in the car. If you can provide another path that provides power to the circuits in the car - the electronic hood latch will work.. The lighter suggestion is a good one - Center pin is positive, outside shell negative (although I'd probably use a different negative like the body mounted part of the door latch.) This should work instantly. We're not charging up anything, we're simply providing electrons where there were none before. Once connected, use the latch on the door sill or your key to unlatch the frunk hood. Bet you'll remember not to close it when the battery is disconnected again.. FWIW - this is a great example of German over-thinking and over-engineering an issue, creating more issues that they have to also overthink. The US NHTSA came up with a safety requirement, that any compartment in a car that a human (even a small child) could be locked in MUST have a release inside the compartment. For the rear of the boxster - the regular trunk it was simple - a nice glow-in-the-dark handle attached by a cable that's attached to the electronic lock on the lid (why an electronic lock? So you can unlock it using your key.) The front was a different issue - since there is a safety catch involved that when opening the front hatch, you have to stick your fingers into the gap made when the primary catch is released electronically - and feel around and move the latch so the lid can be opened. But - if you were locked inside the frunk, if they used a simple cable-release mechanism as they did in the rear, you'd be unable to reach to open the safety latch, and you'd still be stuck in the frunk. SO - what to do? We're GERMAN! We solve things. Make it all electronic - the primary AND secondary latches. That unfortunately brings up the issue we have here - if the battery fails (or is disconnected) and the lid closed - how do you get into it to fix the battery ? Duh. Let's overthink this. They came up with 2 methods: - Jumper some volts into the assumed dead battery, enough to power the latch. That's done with the special little pull-out stub in the fusebox, and a set of jumpers. Positive connected to the stub, and negative to the door latch. VOILA! You can release it electronically - except when you can't. When you can't some people have achieved success by using their key fob to unlock it instead of the door sill switch. Why - dunno...? Some people have achieved success by using a car or motorcycle battery (me) instead of a "jumper-pack". The issue with jumper-packs is a safety feature. Many of them won't put out any voltage unless they see SOME voltage on their pos/neg connectors. This keeps you from turning it on and then accidentally welding the connectors together which will probably overheat the battery, catching fire and burning down a considerable part of your neighborhood, leading to a class-action lawsuit and recall. A standard car battery won't catch on fire, so that's not an issue.​ - Finally - being German, knowing that whatever can go wrong will go wrong at the worst time in the worst possible way in the worst possible location - they provided the happy owner with yet a 2nd way to open the frunk-lid. They hid a wire cable attached to the latch at one end, and with a O in the other end - behind the wheel liner on the port side of the car. All you have to do is remove the liner, which will possibly require you to remove that wheel which you can only remove using the anti-theft key for the wheel lock holding the wheel on. That wheel-lock key is normally kept - in the tire goop fill storage area IN THE FRICKIN' FRUNK. Catch-22. Only the Germans.. It's never easy, but - a word of encouragement - everyone eventually gets it open without using a sawzall. I think. BTW - my wife finds this hysterically funny and will regale friends, neighbors, relatives, and people in the supermarket with this tale of stupidity. I just wish she didn't do that at PCA meetings...

Today is the moment of truth. I am going to try the cigarette lighter idea just borrowing one for my friend will keep you all posted.

Few are the times a cabled latch malfunctions. I don’t see a weight savings by electrifying the latch, just artificial luxury via a very expensive switch to replace. IMO it’s a “ fail” in design .

The cigarette lighter option worked !!! I’m so happy bookmark this everybody if you ever do a stupid thing like me in the future

That's great news! Congrats -- that's awesome. I'm curious too. Again, I had applied very much a well known amount of 12V as jumpered from my motorcycle battery , which had PLENTY of juice. I'd think that the cigarette lighter option would be far less amperage than I had applied -- so I've been puzzled why my attempt didn't work TBH.

I think we need to differentiate between disconnected and dead batteries. I can see where a dead or shorted battery would act as a sink and draw all the current passed from the donner battery .