The dreaded Check System message

[nowster]

I sold my old 58-plate MK2 Jazz to a cousin back in 2021. The cousin has spent six months in hospital and I've been looking after some things for him. To save the battery, I'd disconnected the earth terminal on the battery, and going over and reconnecting it and running the car for half an hour every few weeks.

Now, it's not been run since the week before Christmas (when I put £15 of E5 in it and gave it a good run up and down the local motorway), and it's been particularly wet here for the last few days.

This morning I reconnected the battery. It started first pull, but when I pulled out onto the road, up came "Check System" and "Check VSA" and the car went into limp home mode, with revs limited to about 2000 RPM max.

Bother! (and stronger words.)

I got it back in the drive and let it rest for 10 minutes, going to consult the manual (which wasn't particularly useful). I checked the oil (perfectly between the two marks), then started the engine again.

Check System came up again, but no Check VSA (I guess that one won't kick in until the wheels move), but no rev limiter. I didn't try moving it this time as I was now running late for the next thing I was going to do today.

Apart from taking it to the local dealership (about 10 miles off), does anyone have any suggestions?

[embee]

Unfortunately a code reader which can tell you about VSA etc (i.e. anything other than basic OBD2 stuff) is going to be expensive. However there are plenty of anecdotal examples of folk sorting such issues without specialist equipment, for example https://www.civinfo.com/threads/vsa-abs-code-fault.428784/

If you are going to run it reasonably regularly every few weeks and give it a decent run, I'd be inclined to leave the battery connected. Providing the battery is half decent it should cope with those sort of intervals.

[nowster]

If you are going to run it reasonably regularly every few weeks and give it a decent run, I'd be inclined to leave the battery connected. Providing the battery is half decent it should cope with those sort of intervals.

I was finding that the battery was draining with the car only being run once every four to six weeks. I concede it might need a new battery at some point.

[Kremmen]

I'm a low miler as well.

I've relied on a CTEK charger on my Civics and the Jazz. If I don't use the car for 2 weeks I give it a CTEK until it turns green, often 6 to 8 hours, and never had any battery issues.

My 9G Civic was almost 9 years old when I p/x'd it and still on the original battery.

[nowster]

Update:

I'd left the battery off since I gave up on it due to lack of time on Sunday lunchtime.

Yesterday evening I came back to it. I reconnected the battery and started it (it started first turn but struggled a little).

No errors or warnings on starting.

Rather than move it immediately, I revved it to 2,000 RPM and waited for the blue "cold engine" light to go out. There was also a fair bit of condensation inside which needed to be shifted.

When the light had gone out and the windscreens were clear, I gingerly took it out of the drive and round the block. No problems.

Feeling adventurous, I took it on a ten mile round trip up and down the local motorway. Not a peep.

I've left the battery connected as I plan to give it another run later in the week.

Of course, if I hadn't got a Bluetooth OBD-II adaptor coming today, it might have been a different story. 

[Kremmen]

If you have a drive I'd certainly recommend a CTEK to give the battery a full check and recondition.

[nowster]

If you have a drive I'd certainly recommend a CTEK to give the battery a full check and recondition.

Not my car, not my house...

[Brakballe]

It's  a basic rule on most modern cars that do NOT disconnect the battery for longer periods. You drain out the memory of several important parts of the ECU and car system. Put it on a maintainer instead. They're cheap as dirt..