[hater]

So my ex-wife has a 2015 Trax, when she comes to my house to pick up my son the car will not crank. It is making a clicking a noise like the starter solenoid is out. While waiting on the roadside service to show up she says that a light had been on while she was driving the day before. The owners manual says immobilizer operation is the light that was on. The other key is at her house. What suggestions are out there?

 

[Traxy]

Is she sure it wasn't the alternator light?

 

[beeguz]

If you don't have the right key don't fool with it until you do, the car thinks its being stolen.

Sounds more like a dead battery to me, but if you don't have the right key wait why compound the problem with codes.

 

[wendilees]

So my ex-wife has a 2015 Trax, when she comes to my house to pick up my son the car will not crank. It is making a clicking a noise like the starter solenoid is out. While waiting on the roadside service to show up she says that a light had been on while she was driving the day before. The owners manual says immobilizer operation is the light that was on. The other key is at her house. What suggestions are out there?

The exact same thing just happened to me in my 2016 Trax with only 18800 miles. The Immoblizer light had come on and stayed on yesterday so I turned off the car. I did not attempt to drive it anywhere like that. I retrieved my other key for the car and used it with no issues and the Immoblizer light did not stay on with it. I drove over 70 miles yesterday mostly highway. Today my engine won't start, clicking noises when I turn the key...AND the Power Steering Light stayed on instead of the Immoblizer Light this time during a couple of the attempts to start the car. I'm currently charging the battery but so far have not been able to turn over the engine. Any suggestions?

 

[Traxy]

If you lost a cell in your battery you can charge it all you want, the voltage will remain at 11.3V full charge. Although this may still be sufficient to crank the little 1.4l it isn't good enough for all the sensors to function properly and the BCM and theft deterrent modules may decide not to let you start the vehicle for safety reasons. Turn lights on and check the battery for a 13.6 Volt reading for at least 30 seconds. If you see the voltage drop real fast you need a new battery.

 

[BlackTrax]

Had a strange situation with the 2015 LT today. It turned over fine and seemed to start, but would not keep running. This occurred several times, with the car starting, but then stalling almost immediately. Since the car was turning over strongly, I kept at it and on about eighth or ninth try it finally started and ran smoothly.

I drove the car for the rest of the day, stopping and starting numerous times without any hint of a problem. At the moment, it’s running beautifully as if nothing ever happened. Any ideas on what might be going on here?

 

[Montkun]

What's the weather like around you these days? I haven't seen it happen in a long time, however, I have seen cars act strange with drastic changes in weather where condensation has formed on some random part. Throttle bodies, pcv valves, serpentine belts hardening, fuel systems; any of which could cause a situation like that randomly and allow the car to run fine when it's warmed up.

Although this one is just as rare, you may have had a touch of fouling in the gasoline without knowing it. Runs just fine for a while and then a random hiccup period, like your situation today. Hard part is figuring out what it might be, could be oil, water, a little kerosene or even diesel fuel. Without going into the gas tank you never really know.

 

[BlackTrax]

We’ve had a fairly mild winter in New England thus far. Yesterday was a bit warmer than usual with the temperature around 50 degrees F. It’s cooled off again today and we’re expecting some mixed precipitation. I’ll see how things go with the car today.

 

[Montkun]

Relatively the same here in Pittsburgh, 60°F during the day and below freezing at night. Just the ambient moisture in the air has condensed on the inside of the windshield way more often than I expected.

 

[BlackTrax]

Thanks for your responses. The car started fine this morning and ran well all day. Hopefully, it was just a fluke occurrence and that’s the end of it.