yellow emission light

Wonder if anyone can help. Got in my 1998.... 996 this morning having had no real problems over the last 2 years. However, after driving 500 yds or more the engine emission light (yellow) came on. This has never happened before. I have to say the car sounded a little rough as though it was possibly spark plugs!!!! It is over due a service. Anyway, switched the engine off and tried again, engine still rough. Drove it back home, again 500 yds or so and then saw a series of warning lights coming on. I'm looking for somewhere to give it a service but have had to travel 220 miles down south immediately after this problem occured. Have now made the journey in a peugeot 106.....not quite the same experience!!!! However, my children have informed me that the alarm keeps going off. It then gets sorted by placing the key in the door and turning forwards 3 times. However, the alarm has gone off again less than 24 hours later. How can i get my children to disconnect the alarm whilst i am away......note..my key fob internal pcb is currently away being looked at so the only machanism for locking and unlocking the car is by manually inserting the key. Oh....and any advice on what may be the problem would also help. The car is due for a 24,000 mile service and is used daily. Many thanks.

Sounds to me like the car battery is on the way out. Low voltage causes all sorts of wierd electrical problems. You are a bit stuck if the car is outside. You can't lock the car without setting the alarm. Even the emergency locking procedure you are using only disables the internal sensors. If it's in a garage, switch the ignition on with the key, and disconnect the negative terminal of the battery.

Richard, great to see your online. However, the battery is only 1 year old and is high spec. Will the alarm eventually die as the battery goes flatter if i just leave things or should i try to get the negative disconnected as you say.

The simple answer is I don't know how long it will be before it all goes flat. If your main battery is fairly new, then it sounds a bit odd. I thought that low main battery voltage was triggering the alarm siren as if someone was trying to steal the battery. The problem is that the alarm siren has a backup battery inside it, so it might go on for a while. If there is a problem with the alarm control unit, or maybe the tilt sensor, the only way I can think of shutting it all down is by disconnecting the battery.

Thanks Richard. I'll get it in for a service this week and ask for battery to be checked. Nothing really that i can do at this point. Will have to rely on what the service and diagnostics predict. Many thanks for your help though, really appreciate running things by you, Have a good new year.

Richard, have just arrived back home and thought i would look into recharging the battery first as i need to get the car running to take it in for a service. However, as car is now completely flat how do i get the bonnet open to get at the battery. I can open the car door but the bonnet pull by the drivers side door remains locked. Can you or anyone help.

Oh dear. I've never experienced this, but I believe there is a lock on the levers which needs power to release. The simplest way would be to put a trickle charger of the type that plugs into the cigar lighter (and switch on the ignition) to give enough power to release the lever. Alternatively, there is an emergency release cable in the front wheel arch in the area of the headlamp. You have to remove the wheel arch liner to access it. I think it is on the passenger side, but I'm not sure to be honest.

It's in the manual somewhere. There's a metal "blade" (for want of a better term) in the fuse box next to the accelerator. Connect one of your charger leads to that (can't remember whether it's + or -, a blue flash means the other one![ ]) and it will allow you to open the nose with the switch.

The emergency connection on the fuse panel didn't appear until 2002.............

You can release the levers using a small flat screwdriver - its a tricky procedure, but once you know how its done its fairly easy - i'll dig the info out.

When the alarm is set a metal cam rotates into position below the levers so that they cannot be lifted. If your battery dies or is disconnected while the cam is in the lock position then you cannot pull up on the levers. If the battery is connected then you can charge it through the lighter and once the battery has enough juice you turn off the alarm and the cam rotates out of position. Get a strong light and a small thin blade screwdriver. The screwdriver must be at the right angle so that you can reach the cam and rotate it. The cam is horizontal and rotates side to side. Stick the screwdriver in so that the tip is on the cam then try to rotate the cam. There are two pictures and a drawing as the pictures are not very clear. Picture 1 looks forward into the gap between the levers. The second picture is an enlargement of the gap. The drawing hopefully shows what you see when you are looking into the gap. Looking forward into the gap you will see a metal plate that has a U-shaped cutout. You will see that a part of the handle sits in this cutout. The locking mechanism is a plate that rotates underneath the U-shaped cutouts thus preventing the handle from moving. To unlock the lever you rotate the plate out from underneath the U-shaped cutouts. It is easiest to do this under the bonnet release lever. You reach in with a thin screwdriver or an awl and push the plate from right to left. This unlocks both levers. If you give up then you have to go for the emergency release cable which is behind the headlamp unit and accessible by removing the wheelarch lining.

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RTFQ again!!! [&:]

If you'd bothered to read post 6 there was arequest on how to access the battery when the release levers are locked (given that the battery is supposedly flat and is likely to be the root cause of the warning lights). If the moderatorss want to remove my posts , or move them to a more appropriate location for the benefit of those without the connection point in the glovebox, then fine by me.

Thanks for the info David - very useful! At some point I'll copy the info to the Technical Articles pages. If you have larger images, could you email them to me? Edit: Not to worry - found this thread on Renntech: http://www.renntech.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=2751 I think there may be some misunderstanding between yourself and John - I don't think he had picked up on the fact that David E's car was a 1998, and didn't have electric releases and thus no terminal on the fuse board. I think his "RTFQ" comment was meant as a reply to my post about the lack of the terminal, not to yours.

The RTFQ was for me!! 1998....

Wow, thanks guys, especially Black 80XSA. I followed your instructions on levering the CAM....worked a treat[ ]. So relieved when i saw the bonnet open. Anyway, removed the battery and put back my old one temporarily so as i can get it in for its service tomorrow. Think i will try GT1in Chertsey...don't know if anyone has used them before...spoke to the guy on the phone seems very nice [8|]. Anyway...funny thing is that when i put the old charged battery in the car started, drove nicely and all the warning lights disappeared...I hope this is a good thing.[8|] Richard, i wonder if it is a dodgy battery that has given me this problem. Bought a Bosch one from Europarts...said it came with a lifetime guarantee...better take it back and get it tested [&:]. Anyway, many thanks to all those who responded, without your help i would have remained in a real mess. Happy new year to all.

I was sure it was the battery from the initial symptoms. Unusual for a Bosch battery to give up after a year - at least you can get it exchanged. I've heard good things about GTOne. The other place to try if you are in that area is Peter Tognola at Datchet.

No offence intended, i was perhaps a bit hasty posting my response in between meetings this arvo ! Apologies John. Richard - you found the duplicate info in the Boxster sectin at Renntech - i think that text has been pilfered more times than i've zymolled the car !!!

No worries. It's always easy to misinterpret posts on a forum.

Well, thought i'd better let you know the outcome. Europarts replaced battery with no arguments, now have the latest Bosche silver S4 series battery....about the size of a bus [8|]. Took the car for service at GT1, diagnostics picked up a small split in bellows on emissions somewhere.....sorry, not as technical as most of you guys, and a recommendation to change the coil on cylinder 6. Gave the car a 24k service including spark plugs, brake fluid change and airbag check. Richard, thanks for the previous advice on the coolant expansion tank which needed replacing and the drivers side window issue, but instead of doing it myself i just asked GT1 to do it all. Service (incl labour and vat) £472 incl spark plugs Air bag test and brake fluid change £82 Door issue, ie broken cable £223 Expansion tank £305 Don't know how these costs compare but the chap at GT1 is very nice. Hopefully car is now in perfect order as it was well overdue a service. Many thanks again for everyones help.