DreamCarrera

The hood bonnet on my 2000 C2 is stuck and I cannot get it to pop open. I found the emergency release cable, I had to take off the right front wheel well liner to find it, but it will not open the trunk either .

I also tried having someone pull on the release lever while I carefully pried up on the hood but that also did not work.

The last time I closed the trunk it closed very hard and I could tell something jammed but I am not sure what happened. I believe the whole latch mechanism may have shifted sideways or maybe the carpeting is stuck in the latch. When I look at the hood from the front of the car it appears that the trunk lid is shifted slightly towards the passenger side, the gap between the hood and fender is larger on the drivers side. This makes me think that the latch mechanism may have shifted and is not allowing the latch to release the catch on the underside of the hood.

When the release lever in the car is pulled I can hear it pulling on the latch at the front of the hood so I do not believe the problem is with the cable.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. TIA.

Loren

Step one will be getting it open - it will likely take two careful people. One to lift the other to push side to side. Then you will want to look at this DIY for adjusting the latch.
Adjusting Hood Latch Mechanism

Kims996Cab

The exact same thing happened to me. I followed Loren's advice, which included using a plastic kitchen spatula to carefully pry (right at the latch) while pulling on the emergency cable.

Once it popped up, I followed the RennTech DIY for adjusting the latch, and it worked better, closed easier, than ever before.

As a side note, other than a stopped up cab drain tube, this is the only mechanical repair my car has required in the 3 years, 45K miles (77K total) I have owned it.

redridge

how about pressing down on it while another person lifts up on the release... maybe it will relieve some pressure on the lock mechanism...

Tool Pants

Just did this on a Boxster. Latch was not working properly.

Owner pulled up on the lever while I pried open the lid with a small pry bar. Cloth was to protect the paint. If you are using your fingers you might want to try something else.

DreamCarrera

Thanks for the advice guys. I tried all the things mentioned and still no luck.

Loren, I tried your approach but I could not get the hood to move left or right very much.

Any other suggestions? I am very desperate at this point. My next step, I guess, is to take it to the stealer. TIA for any help.

redridge

ok...outside the box thinking...maybe the cable isnt attached to the release lever. Can you confirm that when the release lever is pulled, it is actually moving the lock mechanism of the hood? Can you hear it moving when trying to open... if not then the cable might be disconnected.

DreamCarrera

Redridge, thank you for the response.

I can hear the latch moving when I pull the release lever in the car however I can't hear it move when I pull the emrgency lever, and I can't be sure that the latch is actually moving when I pull either one.

I'll try having someone pull the lever in the car while I look with a flashlight to see if the lever is acually moving. I don't think you can see this with the trunk closed but I'll give it a try.

I can't believe that I cannot get the trunk to open. I have read about many cases of problems with the 996's trunk latch but I have never heard of a case where it was jammed to the point that the trunk could not be opened(even with prying).

I fear that if I take it to the dealer they will damage either the paint or the car in trying to open the trunk.

chsu74

Perhaps you can try to see if the whole trunk latch mechanism is loose. See if you can feel the trunk latch moving up and down...

I had this problem two months ago and ended up replacing the complete latch for $132 in part cost and 1/2 hr labor.

It turned out that the latch that is bolted on to the front hood of the car was not tightened completely so everytime you closed the latch, it pushed the latch further down. I now have a spare trunk latch...

Chuck Jones

I had the same dogone thing happen...with all the groceries in there...after three days of trying everything I ended up taking off the front bumper by taking all the screws off from the underside and inside the sidelights....that leaves you about 4 screws inside the front hood that you cant get to....so I just pulled and tore the plastic tabs. (yes...it hurt to know I was breaking the tabs)...no big deal really....but once the bumper was off I could see that the cable release would not release the latch. Nothing would have worked. The latch ended up somehow being jammed against the front part of the the mechanism casing so that friction prevented it from moving. It wouldn't move using the main cable, and the emergency cable wouldn't budge it either. Once you're in there, you can take apart the mechanism and using a narrow pry bar, move the latch mechanism away from the side of the housing....then used silicone grease to get it to move freely. I also used the incident to move the emergency wire cable so it comes out the front rather than stashed behind the passenger headlight. Probably best that you replace the entire latch mechanism once you're in there....I bought one out of a wrecked 99. Do you have the mechanical release? If the main cable is broken, I have a new one I bought but never used.

DreamCarrera

Thanks for the info. Chuck. I may need to use your approach because I am still unable to get the trunk open.

Is the latch mechanism fully visible and accessible once you remove the bumper cover? Also, how much force did you need to use to pull the bumper cover free from the screws? I believe my car(2000 C2) has two screws under the hood which help hold the bumper cover on.

My car does have the mechanical release. If my cable is broken I will contact you.

Thanks again.

Chuck Jones

OK...I just went out and looked....and there are four of those simiple half-turn plastic retainers that are notched and you give them a half-turn to release the plastic cover that only serves to cover and esthetically dress up the area around the latch....those will pull loose when you eventually get to the point where the front bumper will come off.

There are only two screws...sort of speed type screws....that hold the top part of the bumper up tight against the body on the inside of the hood. These two are the ones that you'll end up tearing the tabs on....but when I put them back together, there's just a small narrow tear that doesn't affect your ability to tighten the screws in order to keep the top part of the bumper secure. The compression of the screws hold it in place regardless of the fact you had to tear it loose.

That should do it for you. Just remember to take out those hidden screws that are inside the area of your sidelights...I think there are two on each tide....one behind the wheel well liner and the other up inside the sidelight.

Good luck....and don't drive yourself to drink if you have to tear a tab or two. I watched Loren work on my car and told him it was like watching a brain surgeon do surgery with a hammer. We have a tendency to treat these things like porcelain figurines. They're really pretty durable.

Chuck

michael.s.under

Great info Chuck, you ARE the man!!!

CosmosC4S

Dream Carrera, I hope you have the hood opened by now.
If not, here's just to confirm some of the info already given above.
I was right there this evening, installing my front bumper cover back onto the car.
Decided to investigate the emergency release cable that was there.

So I had the hood opened at that time, I pulled the cable, there was a click.
Then I laid the hood down, and it closed. So I pulled the cable again, no worky.
I went to press the hood release button (mine's electrically controlled) inside the car,
That opened the hood!
I went back up front to close the hood and it latched closed. Pulled the cable manually again, the hood opened this time.

Sorry if it sounds confusing...I thought it was strange the hood didn't open the second time I pulled the cable manually,
and had to reset the lock mechanism with the electric hood release button, before it will work again.

So...I dunno, maybe that strange piece of info might help you think of something? Maybe not.
Good Luck, and if you need the DIY to remove the front bumper, HERE is a link.

Chuck Jones

So Michael....give us an update on what you ended up doing with your stuck hood latch. FWIW, today I went over to Silverstar recyclers and they have a complete front latch setup for the manual cable release which works on the MY99. After that I think Porsche went to the e-cable release.

You should be able to take that mechanism out and bend the latch away from the side of the housing....the question becomes one of.....What causes them to do this? It's not an isolated occurrence. Is it better to just go get a new latch, or try to fix this one? I fixed mine and will keep it in there as long as it continues to "pop" when I raise the cable release. The minute it starts acting up again and not allowing the hood to pop up....the I think it's best to change it out.