car will not start/ then does suggestion?

[John Rankin]

My 2014 CT 200h has been temperamental lately.  Open the car door and there are no lights on the dash. No power, press the key fob and I can hear the car lock and unlock.   The start button has neither a yellow or green light. Press the brake and you can hear the car making electrical sounds.  Eventually, the engine symbol on the dash lights up.  After a few minutes, the dashboard lights up with every symbol, the monitor displays a startup mode and displays a message to not turn off car until updated.  After a few seconds, the car starts properly. This has happened several times.  I've never lost the presets on the radio, but I  have to reset air and temperature control as they go back to a standard setting.

  Today, the car failed to properly turn off.  I pressed the parking button, then the start button and it appeared to turn off. Since, I knew I was using the car shortly, I came back and the car Battery was on. The radio playing, etc.  I pressed the start button and the car ran, as always, ran without issues.   Any suggestions?

 

[Spock66]

1 hour ago, John Rankin said:

Any suggestions?

Check the 12V Battery in the first instance.

[Herbie]

Yep, check the 12V Battery. 

You should be able to go to any car accessory shop that sells batteries, or most garages, or even somewhere like Halfords <cough> and ask them to load test it. It's usually done free of charge because it only takes a couple of minutes.

If you use a standard multimeter it will only show you the 'standing' or 'off-load' voltage and it may look good, but once a load is applied that voltage may drop like a stone, for instance if there's a bad cell.