Front trunk latch stuck
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Joined: Jul 2023
Posts: 64
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Front trunk latch stuck
My 2006 Cayman had been sitting for the last 5 months or so with the hood unlatched. Battery was dead, so I charged it up... or so I thought. The green "charge" light came on, but it hadn't been on the charger very long. Nevertheless I re-connected the battery and closed the hood. Would not crank over and instrument panel was dim. Battery needs more charge.
Front hood was unresponsive although the rear trunk worked, but barely.
I then tried the electrical hood release at the fuse panel. No luck, but it did spark a bit so power was getting through.
Next, after a fair bit of effort I managed to get to the mechanical front trunk release. It was very stiff (which I think is common). With vice-grips on the wire I pulled very hard and finally the wire came out quite a bit and that was that.
I believe the latch mechanism had rusted over the winter.
I've tried to squirt a little penetrating oil at the latch via the hood gap, but I doubt that will help. The latch needs to be moved a bit back and forth to let the penetrating oil do it's work.
To that end I think I'll buy one of those lithium battery power packs and try putting power to the fuse panel off and on and off, etc. Maybe it will work loose.
In the meantime I thought I'd post here to see what suggestions I might get. A new hood and a sabre saw comes to mind......
Front hood was unresponsive although the rear trunk worked, but barely.
I then tried the electrical hood release at the fuse panel. No luck, but it did spark a bit so power was getting through.
Next, after a fair bit of effort I managed to get to the mechanical front trunk release. It was very stiff (which I think is common). With vice-grips on the wire I pulled very hard and finally the wire came out quite a bit and that was that.
I believe the latch mechanism had rusted over the winter.
I've tried to squirt a little penetrating oil at the latch via the hood gap, but I doubt that will help. The latch needs to be moved a bit back and forth to let the penetrating oil do it's work.
To that end I think I'll buy one of those lithium battery power packs and try putting power to the fuse panel off and on and off, etc. Maybe it will work loose.
In the meantime I thought I'd post here to see what suggestions I might get. A new hood and a sabre saw comes to mind......
Racer
Joined: May 2015
Posts: 269
Likes: 170
From: Victoria
"then tried the electrical hood release at the fuse panel. No luck"
Have you perhaps been misled by the Youtube numbskulls who demonstrate this method by powering the fuse panel and then try to open the hood with the switch in the door sill? This method is designed to work with the switch on the fob, not on the sill. As always, RTFriendlyM.....
Have you perhaps been misled by the Youtube numbskulls who demonstrate this method by powering the fuse panel and then try to open the hood with the switch in the door sill? This method is designed to work with the switch on the fob, not on the sill. As always, RTFriendlyM.....
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Joined: Jul 2023
Posts: 64
Likes: 23
I suspect many of those videos were made to be informative and the car battery was not discharged, so pressing the sill release button still worked for them.
