Dmitri

I just picked up my car from being repaired at the body shop, and the trunk light doesn't work any more. I'm guessing they disconnect something to keep from running down the battery while working on the car, but don't know what or where. Any help appreciated. Thanks!!!

sharmat

The trunk light has a connecter that attached to it.
You are right they probably disconnected it while working on you car. Or else they forgot to do that and it burned out while they were working on your car. I would take it back to them and tell them to re-connect it.
The connector is behind the large black plastic moulding that covers the CD/NAV area. And is held in by multiple screws. They can be removed with a phillpshead screwdiver. It's not a big deal to just check it out but you should point it to the shop that they missed something.
If its a burned out bulb you will have to get behind there to change it anyway.

Edgy01

It sounds like something got disconnected. Remember that both the trunk and the engine compartment lights WILL turn themselves off after about 2.5 hours on their own to keep from drawing power indefinitely and killing the battery. The service shops should know about this so that they don't have to disconnect a light like that during a routine but lengthy time into one end of the other. (I routinely will leave my trunk or engine area open for a day or two if I have things to do in there, knowing that the car will protect itself.)

jhbrennan

That's correct - it will even turn off sooner if you arm the car - I do this when I hook up the battery maintainer - turns off in about 20 minutes.

Dmitri

Thanks, all.

The shop indeed disconnected the trunk light. It looks like they also killed the battery. They had the car for about 4 weeks to repair damage to the bumper from a rear-end collision. When I picked it up, they had to jump-start it and told me to drive it around for awhile so the alternator could charge the battery. I guess I didn't drive it long enough, because the next morning, it was dead again. I got it jump started again, and then drove it for 2 hours on the freeway. That still didn't do the trick. The Porsche dealer recommended that I hook up a trickle charger overnight and give that a shot. No luck. The battery was dead again this morning. I planned to take it somewhere to get a "deep" charge today, but when AAA came to give me another jump start, they put a meter on the battery and said it wouldn't take a charge; that it had a bad cell. Arrggghhh!

So, it's back to the dealer for a new battery. The good (?) news is that when I went by the dealer on Saturday to pick up a trickle charger, they said that if the battery was dead, they should be able to replace it under warranty.

On a somewhat related topic (related to the repair), when the body shop replaced the rear deck lid badge (although the lid wasn't damaged, they painted it to blend it into the bumper), they didn't take measurements to replace it as it came from the factory. The result is that the "S" is too close to the "Carrera" badge. That bugs me. While I'm mulling over whether to de-badge the car, does anyone know where I can get precise measurements for the location of the badge?

Thanks, again.

THPorsche

I hope your body shop did a great job on the repair because
1. They forgot to reconnect the trunk light
2. Killed your car's battery
3. Messed up the badge

Edgy01

Try this, from the workshop manual

Dmitri

This shop has worked on other cars for me, and they actually did a very nice job on the repair; just not so great on prepping the car for delivery this time. The dealer did me (and the shop) a favor and swapped out the battery under warranty.

Dan - thank you very much for the detail from the shop manual about the placement of the badge. Hopefully, they'll get it right the second time around!