Dead Battery Guide Real Life Experience

[Ferraris]

I'd downloaded and printed Tom's guide just in case this happened to me and a couple of days ago it did. My fault really, I'd just had the Porsche Dashcam installed but noticed they hadn't enabled Park mode. There was no way to enable it in the Porsche app but I eventually found the installation guide and it needs to be enabled by setting the dashcam into dealer mode and accessing it through a browser. The instructions made some reference to only turning this on if your 911 had the Lithium battery so as mine did I turned it on but ignored the other setting which turns off the park mode radar after an hour. Next morning a brief warning of a low battery which I ignored before it shut down entirely a few minutes later.

So out comes the guide I get the trickle charger to the fuse box but whilst the positive clamp will attach I can't attach the earth clamp anywhere. The door nearest the fuse box won't open enough to allow me to connect to the door catch because I don't have space that side of the garage and the clamp won't reach the drivers door (LHD).

So although I thought I was prepared I was foiled by one cable being too short!

So the solution to this will require connecting a 2nd jump cable to the charger's earth clamp and then connecting that to the open door catch.

The breakdown service were able to jump the fuse easily and get to the battery with a portable jump starter so I was wondering if anyone had experience of using the small domestic jump starter devices (essentially a lithium battery in a case with a jump cable attached? I'm assuming that would be sufficient if I wasn't close to power to open the frunk and boost the battery?

[Tom]

I'd downloaded and printed Tom's guide just in case this happened to me and a couple of days ago it did. My fault really, I'd just had the Porsche Dashcam installed but noticed they hadn't enabled Park mode. There was no way to enable it in the Porsche app but I eventually found the installation guide and it needs to be enabled by setting the dashcam into dealer mode and accessing it through a browser. The instructions made some reference to only turning this on if your 911 had the Lithium battery so as mine did I turned it on but ignored the other setting which turns off the park mode radar after an hour. Next morning a brief warning of a low battery which I ignored before it shut down entirely a few minutes later.

So out comes the guide I get the trickle charger to the fuse box but whilst the positive clamp will attach I can't attach the earth clamp anywhere. The door nearest the fuse box won't open enough to allow me to connect to the door catch because I don't have space that side of the garage and the clamp won't reach the drivers door (LHD).

So although I thought I was prepared I was foiled by one cable being too short!

So the solution to this will require connecting a 2nd jump cable to the charger's earth clamp and then connecting that to the open door catch.

The breakdown service were able to jump the fuse easily and get to the battery with a portable jump starter so I was wondering if anyone had experience of using the small domestic jump starter devices (essentially a lithium battery in a case with a jump cable attached? I'm assuming that would be sufficient if I wasn't close to power to open the frunk and boost the battery?

Those little jumper packs 'can' work, but..... Most of them have a safety feature that makes them deliver no power at all unless a battery is detected. If that safety mode cannot be turned off, they won't pop the frunk and they won't wake up the battery, because in neither case will it detect a battery. Some, but not all, of those units have a reliable way to turn off that "feature" and instead just deliver the 12 volts all the time without regard to whether it detects a battery. I know on the trickle chargers, they claim to have an over-ride feature to deliver 12 volts all the time, but I was unable to get that to work on two different chargers (from two different brands). So I'd look for a jumper pack that has a dedicated safety-off switch -- i.e., a true safety-off feature that isn't an after thought buried deep in an operating system after pushing some cryptic series of keys....

Glad the guide came in handy. Haven't looked, but suspect there is bare metal up above the gas/brake pedals for future grounding... Cigarette lighter outer barrel is a ground too, with plenty of capacity to pop the frunk.

[Ferraris]

Thanks for that, I'm not sure the pedals are reachable from the passenger side with my cable but the cigarette lighter is a good idea, I'll try it.

Might also be worth adding a note to the guide that you shouldn't close the door if the battery is dead as I believe the window will not drop/rise without power.