white out

First off, whomever designed the locks on the Frunk/Engine cover for the '99 cars has a special place in hell reserved for him.

Second, I spent an hour last night trying to find the front release cable through the right blinker. That was USELESS. So using my superior skills of trying to figure out how to open a very basic trunk. I decided to look at the source, the latch, from under the car. Here's my method for opening the trunk.

My car does not have the 3rd radiator, but it has the cut outs on the bottom of the bumper cover.


It is real tight, but you can wedge your head under the bumper cover and look through the radiator cut outs and see the cable running along the bumper beam.


Use a coat hanger, reach up through the cut outs and pull the release cable down.


Once the frunk was open I placed the cable in the bumper supports so that in the future I can reach under the car (ie not crawl under) and pull the cable.




SPECIAL NOTE - careful with your head, it is a tight fit under the front of the car. I gave myself a black eye from wedging my head under the car.



yes, my bumper cover is in bad shape - previous owner street parked it in Chicago and liked to tailgate.

alpine003

I wonder if it was the Lincoln Park area. It saddens me to see people there with more money than brains(also posers than real enthusiasts) street park their cars that are $100k or more everyday. This while stupid people that can't parallel park ruin both bumpers and the snow plows throw up all sorts of snow/ice/salt on the cars, not to mention dumb drivers that knock off side mirrors and bikers that can't ride worth $hit place nice scratches on the sides. [Rant Off]

Glad you found the cable. Mine was tucked and coiled up under my headlight. Thank God I found this out when I was taking off my headlights to clean them or else I would've never been able to get to it in a real situation.

white out

Yeah, definitely worth moving it to a reachable location while doing maintenance than getting stranded.

The bumperettes were used on my car. The front plate mount was also beat up. All minor cosmetics that are easily repairable with a re-spray, but PITA none-the-less.

Hurdigurdiman

Kill two birds with one stone.....Go in and clean the crap from between the rads and the condenser both sides and you will find the frunk release cable en-route on that diy job... As you have the full bumper off the car, re route the loop end of the cable to come out at the front of the car in the air scoop. That way it can be opened from the front. Easy as falling off a log.

white out

My write up was more for those who get stuck in the situation after the trunk has locked. But yeah, moving the release cable while the front bumper is off is a great idea.

irie1029

I just slightly recharged it throug the cig lighter about 5 min then popped it with the button.

alpine003

If you can get in the car, you can just jump it through the fuse box without having to wait.

peterbigblock

Only if you have another charged battery handy, and a set of jumper cables. If not, then it's either the release cable or a fire axe. Stupid of Porsche to make the hood latch electro-mechanical anyway. Is there any reason? Has anyone ever not bought a sports car because of the cable-operated hood latch?

white out

First car I've ever had that when you have a dead battery, you cant get to a jump point or the battery itself.

alpine003

As long as you have a key to open your car, you can access the fuse box and jump point there to open your frunk. It is a two step process but better than nothing I guess.

aviography

We had a local member with a 997 reporting at the GTF yesterday that something else electrical was wrong with his car which prevented him from using the fuse panel connection points to jump start the car, had to get the car towed.....

So it's good to pre-plan these things.

On a separate note, I found the secondary release cable for my trunk to be under the left tail light housing, the million dollar question is that while I have a mechanical release for the trunk beside the driver seat, IF I needed to use the secondary trunk release which is under the left tail light, how do I get the trunk open to remove the left tail light before gaining access to the cable?!

alpine003

Lol, I was thinking about this too, considering this is the default way they come from the factory IIRC. I haven't looked closely enough to see if you could get a coat hanger under the taillight or not. But even if it did fit to fish it out, who is gonna have a coat hanger on them in all situations?

aviography

^ I'm sure there is a logical German answer from Stuttgart to answer this question.

I'm just too thick to know what that is.

white out

As you know, there is only one key hole for both doors. I was worried about electrical drain on my car while looking for the source of my battery draining. So I had the frunk open, battery connected, locked the car, disconnected the battery, shut the frunk, found out the mechanical release locks when the car is locked.

But yeah, if the battery was connected, the way you stated would be much easier.

Sneaky Pete

Guys keep in mind the 99 frunk only opens by the a cable......it is not electric. That changed for the 996.2