We were changing out the wheel on a 2008 Porsche Cayman a couple weeks ago (a very easy thing to do)

The owner of the car came up with the brilliant idea to close the frunk. With the battery disconnected we were unable to open the frunk. After reading the manual and a bunch of the forums it looked like he only way to open it was to jack the car up, take off the driver's side front fender liner, and pull on some cable in there. The problem was that we didn't have the key to the wheel lock...it was in the frunk!!!

There is also a way to jump the fuse box with a battery to open it, but everything we had read said that this was only if the battery was dead and still connected. We bought some longe wires and allegator clips and tried it anyways, and...it worked!!!

We thought this dead Cayman was going to be a perminant fixture in our driveway.

Here is a few pics of the proceedure. We didn't feel like taking the battery out of my Audi so we bought some extra long wire and did it with the battery in the car.

Enjoy the pics!




Here we are happy to have this experiance behind us:

 

goofy looking owner.

good work though!

 

I guess I'm pretty goofy looking then (the one on the left) It is the Eric's car (on the right) he also works here at MAcarbon now.

 

been there, done that, got really really really pissed off.

as you say, the biggest problem is that your tools might be in the trunk. fortunately, my wheel lock was in the cabin - just had to run down to the store & buy a jack.

supposedly, some people have been able to reach the release without taking the wheel off, but their arms must be super tiny.

i tried jumping mine but it didn't work - i assumed, as i read somewhere, the circuit was broken. interesting that it did work for you (maybe this fixed this on newer-model porsches)

- chuck

 

So, you're saying the battery was disconnected on the Porsche and the emergency lug still worked ? That would suggest the only purpose for the emergency lug is to open the front boot even if there is no battery in the car. While I was aware of the lug and it's purpose I didn't think it would work if the battery was completely disconnected so this is good to know. It makes sense, but, why not just put an emergency cable in the car somewhere that's more easily accessable ? Leave it to the Germans to come up with an overly complicated solution to a simple problem.

 

my biggest complaint about porsche - time and time again...

- chuck

 

This happened to me at Sears Point.

I joked with Porsche Assist tow truck guy that I was probably the only one that he showed up to help at Sears Point with all the body panel still shiny.

 

Isn't that like the first thing they teach you in Porsche school?

 

FTR, This is incorrect...the cable is behind the passenger side wheel well.