safetyjoe

Got back in town after six weeks away and my fairly new to me '06 Boxster S had a dead battery from leaving the bluetooth adapter plugged into the 12V outlet (I'm guessing). So, after figuring out how to get my key back out of the ignition (lots of cursing there), then figuring out how to get the red jumper out from behind the fusebox, I was able to use the red jumper to get the hood open. Wasn't able to jump start it with my wife's car (engine barely turned), so I had AAA come with a boost pack and it started right up. I took it out on the highway for an hour hoping to get the battery charged up above 3v since the Battery Tender charger wouldn't even charge it was so low. But, no love there either; Battery Tender still wouldn't charge. So I figured: bad battery.

As I was pulling into Autozone, traffic pulled in front of me and I stalled the car in the middle of the road. The boost pack I had bought that morning was in the frunk. How smart was that? Of course, couldn't get the hood open to indicate I was broken down, or turn on the flashers, so two nice guys helped me push it into the AutoZone lot (nice having a really light car!).

In the lot, even with putting 12v on the red jumper, I still couldn't get it to activate. Previously when I had applied power when it did work, dash lights came on, widows started moving, the spoiler came up, but this time nothing.

So, I've got AA coming again to tow it to my indy. It ran just fine when it had been jumped. Did I fry some something using a boost pack?

zuch

Most likely you didn't have a powerful enough 12V source or you had a bad ground connection. I would give it a second go with a known strong battery. There is also an emergency release cable in the front left wheel well that requires pulling the fender liner out to access. Hopefully you don't have a wheel lock or your wheel lock key is in the glovebox and not in the frunk!

safetyjoe

Thanks for your reply zuch!

It's at the indy shop now, hopefully it's just the battery . I'll post updates.

Schwinn

Generally speaking, if a lead acid drains that far down, it gets "damaged" and will not recover. What's more, if you try driving for too long that way, you can also burn up the alternator because it's not designed to fully charge a battery like that (it's designed to top it off). I would have recommended not to drive the car on the dead battery, but what's done is done.

Hopefully it is just a battery... do let us know how you fare!

PRNDL

Often any battery / charger combo will take *much* longer than anticipated to achieve nominal voltage. With both my Battery Tenders and my CTEK chargers it often takes 12 to 18 hours to just "top off" a traditional battery. If the battery is way below 10 volts, it might take 24 hours at 1.25 Amp from a typical battery maintainer to bring it up to a usable charge, possibly longer. Even a 12 Amp charger can take hours to bring a "dead" battery back to useful voltage. And, like previously mentioned, batteries HATE disuse or deep discharge. It can and often does kill a battery. If I'm not going to use the Porsche for more than a week or so, I make sure to plug the CTEK charger into the power socket in the passenger footwell. So far, so good....
Damm! Good luck.

safetyjoe

Thanks for all of your replies. Turns out that yes, the battery was shot. New battery and all is well.

Now I need to find that thread with how to jump the fuse so that the outlet is switched...

zuch

safetyjoe, These are my notes from when I changed the footwell plug to be switched with the key. This is on a 2009 987.2 so your fuse numbers may be a little different. You will need an "add a circuit", a fuse tap (piece of metal that wraps around the fuse to allow you to connect to 1 terminal of the fuse from the outside of the fuse) and a BLOWN FUSE (any current rating). I add the "add a circuit" into fuse C6, which in my car was "on with key". I pulled the 7.5A fuse out of A8 and added it to the new circuit on the add a fuse. I put the blown fuse back into A8 with the fuse tap attached to the "load side" of the blown fuse. Connect the new output from the "add a fuse" to the fuse tap and you should be all set.

A little bit behind how this works....The C6 fuse, as mentioned above, turns on with the key. It is a 15A fuse. It powers, among other things, the rear wiper (which I don't have on a Boxster). The add a circuit basically splits this circuit into two. You put the original 15A fuse in the side of the add a circuit that feeds the original circuit so as far as that circuit, nothing has changed. The new "split off" circuit gets the 7.5A fuse from A8 which power the cigar lighter. The blown fuse is just a means to hold the fuse tap. You don't want the source side of A8 feeding the lighter socket anymore, hence the blown fuse. With the jumper on the add a circuit, you are now taking power from the source of C6 and feeding it to the load of A8 through the (same as before) fuse in the add a circuit.

Sorry if this is confusing. My car is put away for winter so I can't take a picture at the moment. Yell if you have questions.