rysagreg

Hi All -

front hood switch near driver seat on the floorboard does not work all the time. When it doesn't work, the key fob button also doesn't work to pop the hood. Sometimes an hour or two later or the next morning they both work fine! When not working, you can push the switch and nothing, no sound, no nothing.

Has anyone came across this before?

CJWessing

I had a similar issue when I bought my 2002 911 Targa a couple months ago. Ended up taking it to the dealer where they said they had to replace the frunk latch.

What was really annoying was that the door latches were also failing and the interior lights would stay on, so I had to get into the frunk alot to disconnect the battery, and it's a pain to get to the manual release. Ended up replacing both door latches and the frunk latch, and now she's good to go.

Probably should reroute the manual release at some point.

-Chris

rysagreg

Hi Chris -
Thanks for getting back to me. I was thinking either the switch (near the driver seat floor), or latch/actuator up front. It is so intermittent, this past weekend it opened fine at the grocery store and of course through the bags in there. Then 5 min later I get home and it won't open! An hour or two later I went out and it opened fine, just the beer was warm! I'll see if anyone else had similiar problems. I will also look into the latch. I'm a DIY person, so I will google and see how hard or easy it will be to replace.
Thanks again.

silotwo

I had the same problem as you describe on my 04 C2, turned out to be the actuator up front under the frunk. Dealer replaced it, I assume it was pretty simple as the car was in and out in under an hour.

Dennis C

John - every time I see your avatar it makes me do a double-take. Our cars and avatars look pretty damn similar!

YannisFur

2004 PORSCHE C4 has a intermittent front opening problem. First thing in the morning, it clicks open nice and powerful. After that, you can hear a slight hinge noise but it does not open the front hood.
Only on minor occasions, it will click open but on very rare occasions but then only open time. Any suggestions out there ??
Yanni

fpb111

jaftrader

I've had the same problem with my 2004 996.2 C2 and kept putting off fixing. Then my worst fear happened and I blew out a tire and was not able to change it since I couldn't get into trunk/storage. After having the vehicle towed home, I removed the passenger side wheel liner and located the backup, manual hood release. The hood is now open and I rerouted the emergency release to behind the right side light for ease of access.
I just ordered a replacement latch from Pelican, but it has 3 cables releases. The third cable is to the emergency latch and is not easy to remove. I will have to cut it and put some kind of nut on the end. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

TomR9964S

I have the same problem with my 04 C4S. I have stopped using my frunk. My indy looked at it and said the frunk latch needs replacement. Thankfully it failed for him also so he could see the problem first hand. I plan to have it replaced next time it is in for service.

YannisFur

Just had the Actuator replaced. Heard that they get weak with age. Seems to B
working fine. Let's see if it is a permanent solution...

jaftrader

Thanks for getting back to me. I ended up replacing both the latch and the actuator. The latch rubbed against the latch body and had many "witness marks." That caused the Actuator cable to stretch, and not always engage given the latch problem. After replacing first the latch, and then finally the actuator, the whole system is working reliably again. :-)

YannisFur

nickdee62

The actuator is powered by a small "slot car" looking permanent magnet motor with brushes, wrapped in a piece of foam. I disassembled mine and cleaned mine. It now works fine. Its a pricey item.

YannisFur

Thank you. fixed it a long time. Mechanic changed the Actuator and has
been working like new.

foxkart61

After reading your comment .. I figured, I would pull my weak lazy actuator out and see if I could fix it before ordering a new one. Being an Automotive engineer specializing in electrical connections .. I figured there was a good chance I could figure out why this part slowly became weaker and weaker with time, seemed to be heat sensitive and ultimately failed to provide enough force to open the hood latch under any conditions. Once I disassembled the unit AND the small electric motor inside, I found a thermal resistor component buried in that motor near the brushes. This resistor serves as a protection device, that limits current flow to the motor if the motor is used too many times in succession .. as the resistor heats up, its resistance increases. This explains why these actuators become weaker, the more times in a row that they are actuated (if it doesn't release the first time, it won't the 2nd, 3rd.. time!).. and also explains why the actuator is weaker in hot weather. The resistor has spring contacts from the motor terminal and one brush contacting it .. so I pulled that resistor out, and it measured about 5 ohms at room temp .. and its contact surfaces appeared tarnished, even after sanding it slightly, still 5 ohms. So I put some flux and solder to it, a very thin coat of solder on each side in the spring contact region ... then I got 2 ohms!!! A huge difference, that could fully explain this failure .. a crappy design .. a contact surface that will tarnish will time and degrade the unit performance. I put it all back together and POW!! .. it's super powerful now! FIXED. That resistor contact surface might be Nickel plated or was tin that was too thin .. also all the internal motor contacts between brushes and terminal are all bare copper .. this all makes for multiple contact points with far less than desirable contact metallurgy.
Yes, it's a bit of time and work to tear this thing all apart correctly and put it back together, and most people will be better off just replacing the entire unit (~$65) ... I just thought I would share with everyone what I discovered.