Dead battery, Key stuck, Tried everything.

I have a friends 2006 Cayman S up on the lift, dead battery , key in the ignition and I cannot open the front trunk. Let me first say, I have read a bunch of posts on this subject. I have read the manual. I have read the 2008 amendment about removing the key but nothing works at this point. What I have tried: 1. Trickle charging from the cigarette lighter with a battery maintainer. 2. Using a donor battery on the "pull out lead" on the interior fuse panel. 3. Using a "live" battery in a running vehicle in the same manner. 4. Using the 2008 "removing stuck key" amendment. Nothing has allowed me to unlock the trunk. When I do have a power source hooked up to the fuse box, if I turn the key, I can hear what sounds like one relay clicking in the front of the car but no other lights or anything. The interior trunk switch does not work and pushing the button on the key lights up the key but does nothing to the car. Since I thought the key may be disabled by being in the ignition, I have tried to remove it. But again, to no avail. I have removed the little "door" but when I turn the key all the way counter-clockwise i cannot insert either end of the rod any farther into the hole. If I look into the hole with a flashlight while turning I see no difference in the depth of the hole at any point in its rotation. At this point I am fearing that there is a bad cell in the battery making it toast that has completely disabled the system but I am still at a loss as how to get to battery if this is the case. In one of the other posts it was mentioned that there may actually be a mechanical release under the left fender. Can anyone confirm this? Also can anyone that has actually removed the key with the supplied piano wire tool tell me if I'm doing something wrong? This car is a 2006 and the amendment didn't come out till 2008 I believe, I wonder if it even works with this car. Any Suggestion? Thanks.

Sorry, I can't help on opening the front hood but can add a little info. When my battery recently went dead, jumping the battery would not work. Even leaving the jumpers attached for 15 minutes or so would not bring the old battery up in charge enough to let the engine crank. I had to remove the old battery and install a good one to get the car started. I did a quick check of the factory manual, and it does mention a release lever inside the front trunk. I also see mention of a microswitch on the lever, so I'm guessing the release lever is electrical, which probably won't do you any good. It is located on the right side of the car behind the inner fender if you want to check it out. Dave

There is a mechanical release in the fender. Somewhere here is a detailed how to but in summary jack up the car, remove the left front wheel, remove the fender liner & you'll see the loop pull handle of the cable. But a better/cheaper solution might be 1-800- Porsche since it is still under warranty. It can be flatbedded to the nearest dealer and let them deal with a common problem. The battery may not be covered but the recovery should be.

sorry, you will need a new car or search the articles sections for front hood release.

Ok Guys, Thanks for the help. I figured it out. Santa Fe: Thanks. I read that post also. But people on it seemed to discount it and say it couldn't be. Just another case of people making assumptions without taking anything apart themselves I guess. Schwabe: I searched in the articles section for all the key words but found nothing. Here goes: (Maybe you can link this to the Articles section for future reference) First, lift up the car. Take off the left front wheel. Remove the inner fender liner towards the front of the car. (T-25 torx and 10mm socket) Then you will see this: The little tiny wire tag is the manual release: Pull this out, you should get about a foot of wire out of the grommit. I used a small adjustable wrench, clamped down on the bitter end and wrapped it around the handle of the wrench to get some leverage. You have to pull like heck, but after a while the hood will open I swear. And just to let you know. There is no way that someone could just come up to your car and open the hood with this method in the parking lot. If, somehow, they could get their hand around the wheel and cut the fender liner. The wire requires so much force on it you really have to use a tool and both hands. No way you're doing that without it up in air. HTH

Nice discovery! Can I assume this would be the same on a Boxster ? This wire is on the left, or drivers side? It must be different from the emergency release handle that is on the passenger side then. Dave

I don't have access to a 987 boxter but I assume that these parts of the car would be similar if not identical. The wire is on the Left side (US driver's side). From what I can tell this is in no way connected to the emergency release. The inside emergency release seems to be an electronic microswitch. At least that's what it sounds like when I pull the handle and listen to it. Also the cable that I believe I had then end of, appears to come into the latch from the left side of the car. After looking at this I would caution you not to lock anyone in your trunk with a dead battery cause that handle's not going to work either.

CheerIO, Thanks for the write up. Just curious, what battery did you use as a replacement? Mine is an '06 and I'm thinking I should go ahead and just replace the battery . -Moto

How did you reset the mechanism?

The battery is charging right now. So we don't know if we need a replacement as of yet. (My preference is to put Optimas in anything that will fit them.) As near as I can tell, the cable releases the lock and when you push the hood back down it resets everything. As an amendment to my above post about the internal microswitch: It seems to have two cables that are pulled when you actuate it. One coming from the right side of the car that pulls the safety latch out of the way. And it also seems to share the cable that comes from the left side of the car that unlocks the actual primary latch.

another way is alos to simply hook another battery (jumper cables work fine from another car) to the fuse box in the foot well. This allows you to release the front hood and access to your battery .

Shwabe, no offense dude.... But by reading your two posts on this thread, I am just wondering if you read my initial post at all. :hilarious:

Another way to do it is to make a jumper that powers both sides of a pulled fuse. I made one with a couple of blade electrical crimp connectors. Then pull the fuse that powers the hood release circuit and plug the jumper into boths sides. Dont forget to ground the battery to the chassis with the negative lead. I got enough power through this connection that everything came on imediatly so you should be able to remove the key if no then charge the battery and you should be able to remove it then. I had to do this once so I know it works and a lot easier than pulling the wheel and the fender liner.

That's a really good idea. I will keep that in mind for next time. :cheers: At this point the battery is looking in good health. If it is, I wonder why Porsche 's solution does not supply enough power to be a real solution? :crazy:

I used jumper cables hooked up to an extra batter and connected the negative lead to the chassis. Dont remember where. To make the fuse jumper cable you need o- Bolt o- Large Crimp Loop o- In Line Fues (you can use the fuse you pull out of the fuse panel) o- Butt Crimp o- Two short pieces of wire o- Two male blade crimps Asemble in the order of parts listed above. Also included a small picture of the one that I made. Costs maybe $4.00 in parts if that. Probably trickle charger doesnt put out enough power to charge a dead battery or provide enough amps for the accessories. Not familiar with the other approach you call out that Porsche references.

What is Porsche 's rationale in not releasing the key when the battery is dead? This makes the driver to stay with the dead car. For other cars I can just lock it and deal with it later. With Porsche , if I walk away, there will be an unlocked car with the key inside.

Considering that her owner couldnt do anything, I doubt a thief would

I completely agree with this. I can not think of a single reason that it is preferable to lock the key in the ignition. Out side of taking everying in the glove box, center console, door pockets, and rear storage boxes... I could have your steering wheel's airbag out in about 15 seconds. Pretty hefty haul if your a thief.

HTH: I think the force required would be much less if you or an assistant applied some downward pressure on the trunk lid while pulling on the wire. Vice Grips make a very nice handle for wires like this.

When I had a bad cell in my wife's car I was only able to pop the hood with the key fob not with the lever on the floor. Donnu why but it released with the fob. i tried a battery charger, even on start boost and 10amps and it would not work. Connected another battery to the fuse box and it opened with the fob only.

... or

Ahhhh ha ha ah. :hilarious: I don't know why I didn't try that to begin with.

An update. First, who is the !@#$$%$ !@#$!@#$ engineer that designed this hood release system? I can't believe that someone would design a system where you needed a second battery just to open the hood to get at a dead battery. If they were smart enough to put a release cable hidden in the tire well, why not just bring it into the passenger compartment somewhere?? In any way, there are a couple of items that I found when trying to open the hood when my battery went dead. I left my XM radio plugged in and forgot about it. I couldn't get the 12v extra battery approach to work at first so I was going to use the remove the front tire approach and pull the hidden release cable. That is, until I realized that the security bolt wrench for the wheel bolt is in the tool box next to the battery. Unbelieveable!!! - I finally got the 12v jump to work. The manual says to use the door lock for the negative connection. This does not provide a good ground. After many trials, I decided to use the door hinge and it worked the first time! It is metal and makes a great connection to the chassis. - Put the security wheel bolt remover in the glove compartment!! Hope this helps someone in the future!! Jeff

You're the man, cheerIO! Your post saved my bacon this morning. Thanks for the instructions in the post.

Didn't work for me Even worse (or dumber) is that my lug nut key is inside the trunk.

THANK YOU! Yes, the latch does not work well. I used the hinge and immediately it opened. Thanks so much!

I'm putting the lug nut lock in my glove box tonight!

+1 Mee too!

cheerIO I had exactly the same problem and I did like you did. But now, since I got a new battery the key stay stucked every time... I turn on the car, drive, when I turn it off the key is not released.... Any idea? Thanks for the pictures and the help!

My experience was similar. Jumper cable attached to the fuse box post and the door hinge, powered by the battery from a running car did the trick. The floor lever would not pop the lid, but the remote on the key did it. The Cayman's battery was drained down to 7 volts so it probably needed a car battery to supply current to the discharged battery and still have enough left over to activate the lid solenoid. My key was not trapped in the lock. Maybe that is why the key remote worked for me but not for other people? The '06 Cayman instruction book says to use the remote on the key to open the trunk. Maybe that is how you must do it. After reading this thread, I did store the wheel bolt security socket elsewhere, just in case that it ever needs to be there.

This just happened to me. I charge the battery monthly for the past 2 years without any issues, and I just fully charged it 2 weeks ago. Came back from a conference this past weekend, and the battery is completely dead. My key is stuck inside the car today when I went to try to start the car up. I don't remember if I had a second key. Did we get 2 keys with the car or just 1 ? I also tried hooking the battery charger up to the emergency fuse unlock, but that didn't work. I'm going to try a battery from a running car tomorrow. Thanks.

I've read that the cars are delivered with two keys and someone buying a used Porsche should be sure to get them both because they are expensive to replace. My used Cayman came with two keys.

New owners get two keys. You should have another one unless you bought used and were not provided with the other key. Barry Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

think that i may just leave my hood popped in the garage when i go away and leave it on trickle. any reason not?

Many do. Or, they get a cigarette lighter adapter for their trickle charger & crack the window, which I've done for years. All you have to do is have your battery go dead ONCE in your Cayman ... Ask me how I know. :wall: John

i have had my 2007 cayman s about 2 months. first thing i did was hardwire in my valentine 1 radar detector. today i changed all the squealing ceramic track pads that came with the car. this dead battery issue is of concern. it is not a matter of "if?" it will affect me, but rather "when?". batteries die---thats it. i am a hot rod guy....built and own a 40 chevy , 52 plymouth suburban and a 33 american austin. when we shave the doors (no outside hardware) there is always a concern of batteries dying and an inability to get in the car. it is very common to put external battery posts to connect to. so why cant one take a heavy lead from the positive pole of the battery and put a post under the car or in the wheel well? it seems so simple. all you would have to do is put a +ve jumper cable to that post and a -ve to the chassis. has this been done or written about? does it make sense? i think it would be relatively easy to do.

Why go through that? Just make sure your key works. Use it once in a while with some graphite lube. If the battery dies you have two choices - jump at the fusebox or get a trickle charger with a cig lighter plug . Either should get you into the frunk.

My battery was completely disconnected (and fully charged) when I inadvertantly closed the bonnet/hood. FWIW, what ultimately freed my hood after everything listed here failed, (so I thought) that I took another careful look at the pull out connection for jump powering the latch with a bright LED flashlight. Guess what I found? There are no connections on the top and bottom of the pull out where I had tried in my numerous frustrating attempts over a week. So this is a side mount only connection and will not work top/bottom connection. No wonder my jumper cable attempts had failed. With the side mount, the second I attached the negative to the metal door latch, it kicked a decent spark. I knew it was powering something. A short push of the key fob hood release gave me the immense satisfaction of hearing the front hood click open. Now for bad news, I ripped out a connection seen below (not ripped out seen here). In a failed attempt to pull the cable connection in the front wheel wheel, I accidentally yanked the yellow electrical wire seen in this photo, the left side pulled clear of its harness plug? What is it? What does it power? Where is it connected?

That's not "factory" wiring. Do you have an aftermarket headunit with GPS? HID retro-fit? Or some other non-OEM equipment? If not, this may be a remnant of some aftermarket equipment that was removed prior to resale. It might not of been attached to anything before you yanked on it. Red, orange, or yellow usually is a +12v power feed to something. But someone might have used whatever they had.

I'm more interested in the battery failure. What king of "trickle charger" was used and was it used religiously? How long was the car allowed to sit b4 using the battery tender ? What kind of battery was it and was the age? Over the years of my garage queen Porsche batteries died. But none since I got my CTEK 4300. I use it religiously anytime my car will sit for more than 4 days. Sulfation is what kills lead acid batteries. It is a cumulative buildup. And they get Sulfation buildup sitting too long without a proper battery tender to many times, and from poor quality trickle chargers.

Wow. This post is over a decade old but it was a lifesaver today. I had the exact same issue with my ‘07 987S and tried using Google and YouTube which was no real help. Then it dawned on me, “What was the name of that Cayman forum I used to frequent years ago?” FortunateLt my login still worked after all these years and a simple search saved me so much time, money and stress. Thank you Planet-9!