Engine Hood Emergency Release - Long

[mike cap]

Many of you know that our cars have an emergency wire cable release for the front trunk. This is installed as a backup in case the front trunk actuator mounted in the cabin malfunctions or the primary cable breaks or becomes disconnected. This emergency pull cable is tied off inside the left front fender and is accessed by removing the left front fender liner. On my '97 C2 there was no emergency cable like this for the rear engine hood. I believe that Porsche started installing them on later cars, at least someone had mentioned this before. This has concerned me - if the engine hood release failed, I had visions of taking a crowbar to the rear of my car. Not very appealing. As it turns out, the set up was there to install an emergency release cable on my car - the only thing missing was the cable itself.... So, while my car has been in storage this winter I went ahead and installed an emergency cable release for the rear engine hood. Details: 1) Buy a # 964-512-521-00 Hood Release Cable from your parts source. Cost is about $10. 2) Remove the left rear tire and pull the rear fender liner. Above the muffler area inside the fender, you can see the steel guide tube that houses the release cable for the rear hood coming from the drivers door pull handle. Its dark in there so a flashlight or trouble light helps. 3) Where this guide tube comes through the inner fender, there is a very small hole punched in the inner fender. The hole is hard to see and find. If you position a flashlight inside the engine compartment it will help shine some light through the hole. Thread the new release cable through this hole. 4) Locate the rear hood closure mechanism under the engine compartment sill. With a flashlight you can see where the primary cable from the drivers door is attached and "compressed" into the little fitting on the bottom of the release mechanism. 5) Look closely and you'll see a second hole and compression bolt. This is where the emergency release cable threads into. 6) Run the new emergency cable along the guide tube in the engine compartment and loosely attach with some cable ties. Don't tighten the ties too much. 7) Insert the straight end of the emergency cable into the second hole in the hood release fitting and tighten the small bolt. I believe it is a 10 mm. 8) Inside the fender liner opening, you can tie off the looped end of the emergency release cable with a cable tie. Now you have an emergency release for the rear hood by just pulling the left rear fender liner and can put the crowbars away. Sorry about the length of this post. Hope this is of some help.

[Evan]

Great info.

Thanks Mike !

[STLPCA]

Good job Mike. This has been on my to-do list since I bought my car. Your post may motivate me to actually get it done.

[mike cap]

Dan,

Thanks. I also finished fitting and mounting the TT bumper this weekend. It took me three weeks to get it out of the paint shop - they are all buried with work because of the bad winter and 120" of snow causing MANY accidents.

I'll post some pics after the WX improves. My car looks just like yours now with the TT bumper and lowering.

[Aussie Alan 993]

Hey All,

Any body thought of using the emergency cables to put electric remote release on the front or rear or both?

I have not done it but I was only thinking about it last weekend.

[budge96]

If I remember correctly there should be an emergency release for the rear as well,behind one of the
rear lights...

[NC TRACKRAT]

This excellent tip was posted last year:
http://forums.rennlist.com/rennforum...d-release.html

[IXLR8]

Will these pics and text help....

Parts needed to make this engine lid back-up release:
1 - bicycle brake cable.
1 - bicycle cable casing cut to length by user.
2 - bicycle stainless steel cable casing ends.
2 - rubber caps (optional).
4 - cable ties.





A close-up view of the rear engine lid latch where the OEM cable attaches to. The end is in view and it is held in place by a screw.

The back-up cable release is fed through an existing hole next to the manufacturer's engine lid cable release. The barrel end of the bicycle brake cable is in view.





The view of the engine lid latch from other side.

The bicycle cable casing can be conveniently tied to the same bracket that the metal tube for the OEM's cable release is attached to.





The bicycle cable casing is run along and under the existing metal tube and tied off with cable ties.







The back-up cable release exits through the inner fender through an existing hole adjacent to the OEM rear engine lid cable release metal tube.

The bicycle cable casing is cut to length so that if parallels the OEM rear engine cable release metal tube. The ends were filed square, the outside and inside edges are deburred. Compressed air was used to blow out any metal filings. Then metal cable ends were pressed on.

The red rubber caps were placed over each end and were used to prevent metal to metal contact. OK, so I'm picky.

[FD Motorsports]

Good answer Mike, good info

For a factory Porsche solution, you can add the Porsche emergency release cable (some 993s already have this).
As Budge mentioned above, it is accessible by removing the driver's side turn signal assembly.

Part # 964 512 521 00 (about $11)
For the 993 turbo: 993 512 523 00

For a visual, here is the parts diagram. See #11:

[flying_low]

I have a spare factory cable if someone is looking for one.

[Mike J]

Yup, I put a few in - not quite as inventive though, used stainless cable (sources from the Boeing Surplus Store when they were in operation so it could be 747 cable!), and followed the same path. Test it, works like a charm!

[IXLR8]

Originally Posted by Mike J

Yup, I put a few in - not quite as inventive though...

Mike, I was going to run just a cbale, in fact the Porsche one (which is nothing more than the stainless steel cable you get at your hardware store), but decided to run it through a bicycle cable casing for a more finished look. In the end, I also used a brake cable from a bicycle as well which was looped at the other end using a cable crimp.

Having the cable run through a casing makes sure it stays out of the way of anything.