Went to the supermarket to drop of some recycling tonight, and on returning to the car it wouldn't start. All the dashboard lights lit up, but seemingly no current going to the starter motor.
The car has an alarm which hasn't operated properly since I bought it, but I keep the remote in the car and tried arming and disarming the alarm to see if this had any effect. I thought maybe an immobilisor circuit may have been trigerred which presumably would cut power to the starter motor. This did nothing; the starter motor still wouldn't operate.
Next I tried disconnecting the positive lead to the battery (luckily it has a lever type fastening, so I didn't need any tools), leaving it off for about 30 secs and reconnecting, again to no avail, but when I tried pressing the alarm button it operated the central locking, which hasn't been working for about 2 years.
I was about to go to the supermarket's customer reception to ask for help when I decided to try disconnecting/reconnecting the battery again. Tried a few turns of the key and nothing happened again. Then I left it for a minute or so and tried again. This time the starter turned and the car started.
Can anyone shed any light on what might be happening and what procedure I should use to try to diagnose the fault.
The car is a 1992 Peugeot 205 GR 1.4