Just to tidy this issue up...
It was the battery.
Had the CCA's tested with a handheld unit (by RAC, and also at battery world). Both tests showed battery ok.
Battery World put a proper load on the battery - don't know what it's called, but it's a big box with cables, that puts an actual load on the battery, and measures V, A as the load is increased. Under load (that would still be less than starting load), battery was dropping <10V.
Lower voltages during starting means the various CPU's don't get the messages they should, or detect errors due to low voltage during the startup sequence.
So, new battery, and all good.
Another side note - when the battery is changed, apparently you need to tell the car that a new battery has been installed. Not sure of what this affects, but I was regularly getting "low starting battery voltage" warnings after the new battery had been put in!
Thanks again for your helpful comments! Love this forum! :BigThumb:
Rob
