I have been taking short 30 minute drives in my 2015 F Type R everyday this week. I usually keep it hooked to my CTEK but since I knew I was going to drive it everyday, I did not hook it to the charger. Yesterday, I noticed that the interior "foot well lights" and the lights at the bottom of he doors were flickering after I started the car until I reved the engine above idle. After it ran for a few minutes the flickering stopped even at idle. At the time, I thought this was strange but everything else was working fine so I ignored it.

When I started the car today for my 30 minute "drive like i stole it" ride, the engine was running very poorly and the interior lights including the flat screen and dash were flashing on and off and a bunch of relays were clicking on and off. By time I got my cell phone out to video this, the engine was idling better and all instruments were lit up.Strangely then when i reved the engine the flat screen and other instrument lights would flicker on and off as shown in the video below but at idle no light flickers. So I have read about similar experiences on the forum but not quite the same. My battery is band new and the car does go into sleep mode after a few minutes as the the emergency flasher goes out a few minutes after locking the car. The only change has been I bought a "Blue Driver" OBD scanner that I have been taking on and off. Am i supposed to do a hard reset every time I use a scanner?

 

If it's not caused by the scanner I'd check the voltage your alternator is putting out. Although if running the engine "cures" it, I'd guess the alternator is working okay. So maybe it is the scanner.

 

If it’s not the scanner, it may well be a loose/bad connection to the battery, either at the terminals, or where the ground (earth) bolts to the trunk (boot) floor.

 

I cleaned the battery terminals and and removed and re installed the ground connection on the boot floor stud months ago when I installed the CTEK so I think these are okay

Is it a "design feature" that the charging system on his car is weak? Does the alternator not put out much current over the rpm range as it really should?

 

I'd stop using your scanner for a while and see if the fault situation continues to occur. Save a lot of guesswork.

 

I checked the battery voltage and its 12.8 volts and with the car at idle, its at 14.3 so i think that the alternator is putting out okay. Should I perform a hard reset to retet everything that may have been effected by the OB2 scanner?

 

Yes. The window auto-up feature and the power hatch might need to be reset but those both take just a couple seconds.