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981 Boxster - Flat Battery, can’t get in!


Davidbf1.com

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So it looks like. The battery on my 2014 Boxster is flat.

problem! 

The car is in my garage, locked. I’ve tried the emergency key from the remote fob in the drivers door lock barrel but no luck.

any help would be greatly appreciated.

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If it' the same as my 986 you should still be able to open the door with a key but that won' let you open the bonnetto get to your battery but on my 986 there is an emergency cable accessed  by getting behind the front offside wheel arch feel for the cable and pull to pop

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1 hour ago, Toeside said:

No access to the cab or drivers door at all?

Nope, none at all. 

Ironically I’ve just bought myself a ctek charger with the 12v socket fitting, but I’ve had my son’s car battery out and on charge/conditioning it - only started mine up in the garage briefly about a week and a half ago just to check, and it did not struggle to turnover/start.

think I’ll have to call Porsche Assist out through the week.

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I had a similar issue recently where I couldn't get into the car, but it turned out to be the battery in my key fob, not the car itself (my car is 2013).

There's a little flat battery in there which is easy to obtain from supermarkets etc. I changed that in both fobs and all is well again.

However, if you tried the emergency physical key and still no luck then you my indeed be suffering with a flat vehicle battery. Porsche assist, or even the AA should be familiar with this failure mode and how to remedy it in any case.

Also, the emergency key inside the fob does have to often be twisted very hard to open the door (this is the case with BMW at least). That said, be careful as I'd hate you to do any damage.

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Hi temporary chicken, not a remote battery issue, I tried the spare.

the physical key is very hard to twist - did it though, crippled my fingers! But no joy.

going to call Porsche assist later this week.

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Went out to mine today (2013) and found it's battery was dead too. But enough power to unlock and lock the doors with the remote. Not enough to open the frunk though so had to do the jump leads from my spare battery to fuse box trick. Sat on charge for 7 hours. Car now starts.

Now wondering if I need to get a new battery or not.....

Would it be worth a quick call to your local dealer service dept to ask why it's not opening your door with the key? Lets us know the solution in case mine dies completely and I have to do the same

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I thought I would try it too as I've never had to do this since I had a 986, and wasn't sure I could remember all the details from the manual on the 981. I was immediately worried that it didn't work but that is because there is an error in the manual (mine at least, a 2015 981)!

The relevant page is shown below and the relevant points are shown as steps 3 to 5 (this is from the US pdf version of the manual but in the important details, p18 of my UK printed version is the same) :

25488220_1807716995966906_54083114043344

I was at first worried because having (with difficulty, as mentioned above) turned the manual key 90°, it wouldn't come out of the lock. What the instructions don't make clear is that you turn it 90°, then turn it back before removing the key. However the door was still locked.

The more important detail - that is WRONG in my printed UK manual - is that, like the page above, it says to turn the key 90° anti-clockwise in the driver's door, whereas on a UK car (driver's door on the other side!) I found that you need to turn the key 90° clockwise, turn it back, remove it, let go of the handle and then lift it to open the door. Simples! (Don't forget the bit about switching on the ignition within 10s though :)) So I think they've forgotten to amend the instructions for RHD cars.

@Davidbf1.com does this make any difference?

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@Jon61 thanks for that, will try tomorrow eve after work - it’s gone 10pm and I don’t want to inadvertently set the alarm off in the garage - our neighbours have young kids and I wouldn’t be popular!

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@Jon61

well done that man, I’m in!

indeed as you stated, the manual is WRONG - a clockwise turn is required.

so I’m into the car, but battery is totally out - can’t pop front or rear trunk Lids, and of course no paower to 12v sockets means I can’t charge via the Ctek “comfort” adapter. 

So, tomorrow eve/Saturday I’ll follow the procedures in the manual to get power through the fuse box in footwell, and get the fron lid open, access the battery and get it charging.

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Same as I had to do, luckily I had a spare 12v battery to use to pop the frunk. Unfortunately though had the battery on charge for over a day now and its still taking charge....looks like mine might be buggered from the deep discharge :( Going to try another day of charge over the weekend and see before I look into what's needed to change over to a new one

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So, finally got to the point of accessing frunk and battery is now on charge.

none of the cabin 12v sockets worked with the Ctek - presumably because they all power down after 30 mins.

so, accessed the positive “post” that slides out of the fuse box, and handily had the battery from my son’s car in the garage to provide power to the Boxster to pop the frunk.

on charge now but from what I read in the manual, there’s a bit of a process to carry out once the charged battery is reconnected.

 

thanks again to @Jon61 for helpfully pointing out the manual was wrong in respect of using the manual key in the door lock.

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22 hours ago, Davidbf1.com said:

So, finally got to the point of accessing frunk and battery is now on charge.

none of the cabin 12v sockets worked with the Ctek - presumably because they all power down after 30 mins.

so, accessed the positive “post” that slides out of the fuse box, and handily had the battery from my son’s car in the garage to provide power to the Boxster to pop the frunk.

on charge now but from what I read in the manual, there’s a bit of a process to carry out once the charged battery is reconnected.

The 12v sockets should work with the CTEK - so long as you connect it straight after turning the ignition off, when a charger is connected the sockets stay live.

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@Gorsh - yep thanks, need to get mine going first. Charging now although after 24 hours on the Ctek when I checked this morning, the red error lamp was showing (on the charger). Switched it off, left it 5 mins and tried again, charging again seemingly, and now 3 lights (bulk) showing in the charger so hoping to bring it back. Hoping the battery isn’t kyboshed, but we’ll see...

plan in future when it comes into the garage will be ignition off and ctek plugged in to a 12v socket in the cabin.

 

@temporarychicken - seen pics of 986/987 roofs in service mode, but not 981. Is it necessary to have any power for that, or a completely manual process?

 

 

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Mines looking like the battery is well goosed so I need a new one. 12 hours charging and went out for a run yesterday. Got to the lunch stop and said warning low battery start car.

So far this seems to be the best price I've found for a replacement https://www.tayna.co.uk/Exide-110-AGM-Car-Battery-AGM800-EK800-P8200.html 

Just waiting to get Xmas over with before I order. :(

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