Startup Issues - TRAC CONTROL - SAFE MODE
 

Question - my 2000 Jaguar Vanden Plas with 60K miles on it was running perfect and I parked it about 6 weeks ago and went out of town on business. Yesterday, I started it up in the driveway just to run it a bit before starting to drive it again. However, I had the following unepected issues:

1. The engine started but in the following modes - Trac control not avail and Engine Safe Mode
2. Check engine light was also on.

I do have a code reader but a friend has it so I could not read the codes right now.

It did idle well and I let it sit and run for about 1.5 hours. From there I tried shutting it down and restarting to see if the codes would clear which they did not.

So without my meter a few questions:

A. Anyone else have this issue where it was running great, sat for a few weeks then had these sort of start up issues?
B. Any suggestions on what to check since I cannot get my code reader back for about another week.

Thank you in advance for your help and suggestions.

These cars don’t like to sit that long without being used. I highly recommend either getting a battery tender or disconnecting the battery the next time your out for more than 2 weeks. Chances are it’s due to the battery being marginal. You can get the codes from it but I’d recommend charging the battery following a hard reset.

An absolute must to what Addicted stated, I religiously use one on mine going on 14 yrs.

Be sure to verify you don't have any corrosion on your battery cables either. If you do, get new ones, you won't get it out down in the shielding and it will prevent proper voltage for starting and charging and you'll get other ghost codes.
If you do have corrosion, its from low voltage in the battery and the cells degenerating...thus the use of the Battery Tender to maintain proper voltage.

To all - thank you for your responses. I did the hard reset, gave the battery a full charge and bingo, no issues.

I really appreciate the help this site gives.

Thanks,
Dave Mc