Just wanted to share that today, while parked in my driveway, I got "Traction Control Failure" and "Stability Control Failure" messages, and could not start the car or move the transmission out of Park. I did the transmission override, and moved the shifter to Neutral, but still no joy. At first the warning lights were amber, then after a few attempts both amber and red illuminated.

With the help of the Search button, and the great members of this forum, I learned to first (always?) suspect the "battery, battery, battery". Sure enough, I was able to jump start the car, and am now charging the battery to see if it holds a charge. The error messages disappeared. There had never been a fault code recorded for OBD II. I learned from so many different posts, that it is impractical to "Thank" them all, so I just wanted to shout-out a blanket "THANKS!", and add my experience to the knowledge pool. I have belonged to many car Enthusiasts forums, and this is one of the best ever.

 

Finally ... someone who went after the battery as a first
step instead of avoiding the inevitable.

 

Damn!!!! You fixed it. Now we have nothing to discuss.

Good job. We all learn from others troubles. Your post may help others down the road.

 

Good to hear you fixed the problem ;o)
You can gaurentee that the vast majority of perceived problems is down
to a below par battery.
These cars use a big amperage battery and 90% of the time are never at full
charge capacity, so they get lazy along with the constant quiescent drain.

I keep harping on about owning a good fully automatic battery charger/monitor to keep these batteries at full charge....not just when they give trouble....they should be on the charger nearly all the time the car is not being used, especially if car sits for more than
three days.
My car get's used about twice a week for 150klm trips and the rest of time is on the charger.
My 12 year old 100 amp/hr Varta Silver Calcium is still churning away quite happily ;o))

 

The charger maintenance is really good to know. I am used to keeping my 'verts on chargers, especially during the winter, but it just hadn't occurred to me to do it with this car. I just bought it a week ago, and the previous owner had said he had not driven it much for a while, so I should have been on the lookout for this. Since retired, I don't drive as much as I used to, so a charger is a great idea! Thanks!