[J__D]

Hello guys,

I have been viewing this site, very helpfully for nearly a year now, I own a 06 Cayman S tip, and love the car (wish I had manual mind, but tip was required)

Anyway, I have recently come into a major problem, im hoping the US guys have seen this before and help out.....

Cayman was not driven for couple of weeks, and got in the car, went to start it and nothing for starters (initially thought battery had died) then tried again, then the starter motor ticked a few times, then suddenly engine grabbed a spark, started for about 5 secs, then completely stopped. After that, nothing.

I thought it was the battery causing problems as mentioned, however, the indicators work, all the lights come on when open the door, and the alarm was going crazy, however, I cant open either bonnet/boot, the window auto-opened, but doesnt close, and I am completely stuck as to what it is.

I had to call RAC to get the Cayman to garage (Camtunes in West Byfleet) once again, that was problematic, as the cars a tip, and obviously can't get out of the garage as cant get it into gear, its stuck in Park, so altogether unsuccessful. (manage to get it there in the end though)

Camtunes havent been able to work out what it could be, and have said that they have never seen it before. Any suggestions / experiences of this before?

Maybe ECU issues?

Any help would be appreciated

 

[vrecaro]

sounds like there's just not enough voltage in the battery. Enough to turn on some electronics but not enough to boot the entire system. Try charging using a battery tender that plugs into the cigarette lighter. It'll take awhile, but once there's enough voltage, the hood can be opened and you can access the battery. You'll still need to reset all the faults afterwards though, using PIWIS tool, as some warning lights might be on.

Good luck

 

[Nitro8472]

+1 on vrecaro's suggestion. You may also try another porsche battery to decide quickly whether it is the problem or not, that is if you can open the front hood!

 

[J__D]

+1 on vrecaro's suggestion. You may also try another porsche battery to decide quickly whether it is the problem or not, that is if you can open the front hood!

Thats the unfortunate problem, cannot yet open the front bonnet, even using the jump cable link in the fuse box

 

[K-Man S]

Thats the unfortunate problem, cannot yet open the front bonnet, even using the jump cable link in the fuse box

I was about to say that you need to use the jumper in the fuse box, but if you've attached a battery charger or another batter to that and it still doesn't have enough power to pop the hood then something is wrong.

There is a mechanical hood release in the front wheel well, but it is hidden and hard to find. There are some pics of it somewhere on this site but for the life of me I cannot remember where. If you can't find it then your dealer may need to dispatch someone out to help you as the fuse box jumper is supposed to prevent this from happening.

I suppose if you are still stuck you could follow the procedure in our articles section for removing your front bumper but I think the problem there would be getting the headlights out without being able to open the front trunk, while possible, you are likely to break something, so again probably best to wait for the dealer if the jumper isn't working and you can't find the emergency cable, or try a cigarette lighter based charger as someone else said, but if the jumper isn't working then that might not be working either.

With the jumper are you sure you had a good connection to both the jumper and the body of the car to serve as a ground?

 

[J__D]

With the jumper are you sure you had a good connection to both the jumper and the body of the car to serve as a ground?

Well it wasn't only me that tried. The garage where is it at (Porsche specialists, may have even now been rebranded as official Porsche too) tried and didn't manage to make it work.

They are apparently stuck, and are keeping it in the garage until they have a "brainwave" as to what their next move can be.

 

[Nitro8472]

This is what Ken was referring to. http://www.planet-9.com/cayman-boxster-electronics/37495-dead-battery-key-stuck-tried-everything.html#post403333. This will release the hood mechanically, please keep us updated!

The good news is, since you cant unlock the hood its probably a battery problem and will hopefully be simple!

 

[J__D]

Ahh thats interesting, thanks for the link. Would the alarm be firing off though if the battery is too dead for the bonnet release?

Could it possibly be an ECU fault? The garage suggested the immobiliser could have shut the car down completely into a "freeze" mode. Does this actually occur?

 

[K-Man S]

Ahh thats interesting, thanks for the link. Would the alarm be firing off though if the battery is too dead for the bonnet release?

Could it possibly be an ECU fault? The garage suggested the immobiliser could have shut the car down completely into a "freeze" mode. Does this actually occur?

No, there isn't any such mode that I am aware of unless someone installed an aftermarket item on your car. Thanks to Nitro for finding that older post about the wire/cable you can use to open the hood. Your shop should know that though.

 

[[email protected]]

yeah you need a new battery.

 

[Dunebasher]

My money is on the battery for certain.

The items you mention that do work take little power to operate. Once you can get the hood open it will be easy to prove.

 

[[email protected]]

A manual hood release in the driver's door jam would have been a novel idea on the part of the Porsche "engineers".

 

[P987]

A manual hood release in the driver's door jam would have been a novel idea on the part of the Porsche "engineers".

You are giving Porsche the idea of making this an option.

 

[J__D]

To conclude :

Cayman all fixed, glad to have back! Anyway, apparently the battery had completely died (something we had all worked out) but apparently the problem wasn't only the battery, what had happened was that due to the battery dying, the "central control unit" had "gone to sleep" according the the garage.

They said that normally the jump / recharging the battery should wake the central control unit, but for some reason it didnt, so the whole central control unit was changed and now everything working!