KC-CarGuy

​​​​​​​.... pictures or it did not happen. :-)

theprf

2003 and newer cars have a lever in the frunk as an emergency opening system. The emergency opening system uses a second solenoid to open the safety catch. That is most likey what you are looking at.
I think this started in '03... my '01 does not have it and my '03 does.

TheChunkNorris

Mine got stuck closed and it was opened from the bottom. The cable was undone.

ZuffenZeus

prf is correct. I had this feature on my 2003 996. (see picture) If you ever get thrown in the frunk by the mafia, at least you have a slight chance to escape being trapped! hahaha

Eariler cars did not have the trunk safety release that is now standard on all cars. It was a requirement for cars built after Sep 1, 2001.
https://www.federalregister.gov/docu...-trunk-release

Anyway, the manual release cable is different and that's what you need to find.

Dozer_Dawg

That's where it comes from the factory, and I have already looked. Pulled the liner completely while on a lift and looked everywhere. No dice.

Dozer_Dawg

@ZuffenZeus that explains a lot!!! In the absence of the emergency cable in the passenger wheel well (or behind the tow hook) that is what I found when reaching up behind the bumper. Combined with the video you shared, I now know that there *should* be two cables in close proximity to each other. The one in the pic you posted is what I've been feeling because I can trace it from that secondary latch to that boot.

So from what I can tell, that internal handle both electric AND manual; when you pull on that thing, as I have when testing everything out (when I could open the trunk), I noticed it actuates both the primary solenoid for initial release AND manually releases the secondary latch. As it should if you've been stuffed in your own frunk by nefarious people.

So, off to continue the search for the real emergency release cable. My 996 had 8 previous owners, at least one of whom did some really slick mods to the factory stereo, so someone likely got really clever and hid that cable somewhere. I'm going to have to get a little smarter myself...

Dozer_Dawg

Reading back through these posts, THIS is what I'm worried about now - the emergency cable not being seated or having been removed for some reason along the way...

ZuffenZeus

That's what I'm thinking. One of past owners moved it to another location. As stated in the video, that's usually the tow hook port. Another is placed somewhere on the air duct and even some have routed it behind the passenger side marker light.

If push comes to shove, you could always buy a cheap bore scope ($30) on Amazon and use it to noodle around the lock to locate the cable. Happy hunting!

And,.... GoooOOOOOoooOOOOOoOOOOOOooo DAWGS!!!!

Dozer_Dawg

I've seen the air duct mentioned as a rerouting point a couple of times. Can anyone elaborate on this? Pics maybe?

wdb

After studying the picture of the 2003+ mechanism I'm thinking that you haven't found the correct cable yet. As some have mentioned they are frequently relocated, especially by people who have been through the mill with the blasted latch once before (wave!). Many folks say to relocate the cable hoop to the area of the tow plug, but I didn't care for that location at all. Instead I rerouted the cable so that the hoop is accessible at the top of the passenger side radiator air intake. I mentioned this to some other folks and they indicated that they had done the same. I can reach in there and pull it pretty easily.

All a long-winded way of suggesting that you reach around / look around in the passenger side radiator air intake. Maybe you'll get lucky.

ZuffenZeus

Ref. the image below.

The red arrows show the normal way the cable is routed which is back behind the radiators and so when you pull the fender well liner, the cable is accessible. Some people like to reroute the cable to the tow hook mount (green arrow), on top of the air duct (yellow arrow), or even route it through the holes behind the side marker lights (light blue) arrow.

stomish

Hey man! I had this same issue on my 986 boxster, same latch assembly and all. My button doesn't work and neither does my keyfob, previous owner rigged it up and extended the cable so it can be fished out through the headlight/bumper opening, but this proved to be a poor idea since it required a LOT of force to open. Of course, when I bought a new frunk latch assembly, that was the day that cable broke so I had to fight with it. I ended up having to remove as many bolts on my bumper as possible and used the gap between the hood+bumper along with a 10mm wrench I shaved down to fit between the gap. Loosened the bolts to the latch on the hood side and was slowly able to get it open. Absolutely horrible time, would not recommend lol. The reason my emergency cable stopped working is the actuator to the left of the latch never worked correctly. When I use the emergency latch on the inside of the frunk, the actuator will pull the cable to the passenger side, but just leave it there along w/ the latch, making it impossible to pull the emergency cable (or very very difficult). I tried replacing the actuator with a new one and still experienced the same behavior which is very fun lol. For now, I have the cable to that actuator removed so it can't jam my latch again, and I replaced my frunk latch assembly so the emergency cable isn't all messed up. If I fix my immobilizer issue and the frunk latch problem doesn't get fixed with it, I may just wire in an inline momentary switch that supplies power to the emergency latch circuit (since it's on a different circuit vs the normal frunk latch circuit) and run that inside the cabin for ease of use.

Dozer_Dawg

Quick Update:

- tried the jumper method again with a fully charged 12V Optima Red Top. No dice (properly connected/grounded, etc). What this tells me is that the actuator itself is indeed bad and needs to be replaced - which I will do the moment I get the trunk open.

- checked behind the passenger side marker, nothing there. Looked as deep as I could with a bright light.

- did a quick check of the air duct, felt nothing (yet).

Next Steps: get my hand back under there and feel deeper around the air duct and see if I can find the actual cable routed up behind the OTHER emergency release cable I was previously pulling on. After that, I plan to jack up the front passenger side, remove the wheel and liner, and explore again to see if I missed it the first time.

Appreciate all of the helpful comments, pics, and videos thus far!

Dozer_Dawg

Well, my worst nightmare was realized: the emergency cable is gone. Got my fingers up in there and found the hole in the latch assembly housing that the cable should be coming out of, and nothing's there. So, gotta get creative.

I looked around the garage and spotted my shore fishing rig with a somewhat heavy leader. Cut the leader and then cut the swivel weight to preserve the loop on the end. Flattened the loop slightly and managed to somehow feed it through the hole and into the assembly. Going to try to hook that latch and pull it. Wish me luck!

ZuffenZeus

Good luck! It's rare but owners have been known to break the cables and not replace the lock mechanism. Hope you find a work around.