E368

Okay, here's the deal. My car is in a parking garage, with a dead battery, and I have tried all of the typical solutions to get the trunk open with a dead battery, no luck. Battery must be shorted out.

I need it towed home, but having a hard time finding a company to tow it from inside a parking garage due to height limits. Plus, it will not roll because I cannot shift into neutral due to dead battery, which furthers the issue of having it towed.

Question: Is there a manual release button somewhere for getting the PDK into neutral? This way, I could at least push it out of the parking garage for the flat bed tow truck.

Thanks all in advance!
Ben

Wayne Smith

A lot of people have a difficult time getting the pull out tab method of opening the frunk to work.

First, this doesn't take a big power source, but a battery tender (which is looking for a load before it supplies power) will not work (see Note two paragraphs down).

Second, after fully pulling the red tab at the fuse box out, make sure you have a truly good ground connection. There are bare metal places you can attach to around the steering column. Make sure your positive connection is secure at the tab. Check for voltage across the connections.

Third, only the key FOB will work. The switches by the side of the seat are not operable with the tab pulled out. In fact, most of the circuits are isolated when the tab is pulled out. Maybe even the battery??? Note the end of the first step ... if the battery was still attached then the battery tender would work. It doesn't. If the battery isn't connected then shorted or not it wouldn't be causing a problem.

Then, for the future, look into the various write ups on this Forum as well as videos on YouTube regarding adding an alternate cable to release the frunk. I've done several of these for friends and found some worked better than others. Ultimately I bought a bunch of bicycle brake cables (with sheath) on line. The sheath allows the cable to operate without snagging. Note to some of my friends ... I still have updates to do.

Back to your question ... I know of no manual override. Shifting gears requires solenoids to move. That requires power.

An alternate would be to jack the car up one side at a time and place the tires on dollies. But if there is any slope at all this could be a very bad idea. I would highly advise against it.

As a last ditch idea, pull the left side front half of the front fender line off. There is a cable that can be pulled very hard that might open the frunk. The JR engineer that designed this method should be relieved of duty IMHO.

krazykarl

I don't have a PDK to confirm, but the 997.2 driver's manual notes the following:

PDK selector lever emergency release
In the event of an electronics failure, the selector lever must be released for towing.
1. Lift up the rubber mat in the oddments tray.
2. Insert a screwdriver in the opening and press down until you feel it reach the limit position.
The selector lever can now be moved to position N.

The picture shows a tiny notch right in front of the selector and under the rubber mat. Another option to get it moving while in park is to buy/rent four wheel dollies, assuming there is room to get them under the wheels.

Wayne Smith

Learnt something new. Thank you. The tray is the one under the climate control button panel. And yes, this trick works. And the car will roll.

Neat!!!!

E368

Thanks to the both of you! Great info, now back to the parking garage to try these methods.

ADias

Yes, that's the procedure. I hear (but have not confirmed) that the new 992s do not offer that.

E368

You guys ROCK! Went back and found the PDK release, but also this time took a spare battery with me for the trunk release instead of using a charger. That worked! Got it open and found the ground cable on the battery terminal to be loose. Tightened and car started right up.

Now, this still puzzles me. When I first tried the trunk release method using a charger, I also tried hooking it straight up to my other car's battery while it was running, and that still did not work. Any thoughts on why?

Anyway, car that has been stuck in my wife's work parking garage for the past two days is now home as of late last night. Huge thanks to you all!

CAVU

you most likely did not make proper - and + connections with the jumper cables or did not hold the remote down long enough.

Glad you got into the Frunk.

E368

Lol, this car has been our daily for almost 6 years now, and owned numerous VW Beetles before this, and I still can’t get used to calling it a Frunk. Ha.

Wayne Smith

The extra frunk release cable is something I've done on all (I think I've caught everyone) of my friends' cars. While you hope you never need it, it's nice to know it's there.

I've been storing a car for a friend for the last 8 months. My car has had driveway time. Read that as no tender. I've used my release cable a few times during that period.

ADias

Chargers/maintainers regulate their output voltage/current based on the type of load they sense. Chargers/maintainers are not standard power supplies. As far as connecting the other car's battery to the fuse panel... that should work, unless your connections were not good.

CAVU

Well then, we should not have replied so quickly and kindly. Instead there should have been a long drawn out shaming, questioning of your character and loyalty to the Porsche brand! Better go check those wheel center caps to make sure they are pointing at the valves.

E368

Lol, true dat!

However, in my defense, page 97 of my owner’s manual refers to it as a trunk.

ADias

I call it a trunk too, and have been around 911s for many decades. Trunk is what it is. Sure it's in front. I refuse to bastardize the language.