Thanks to all who responded. Since my last posting the problem has become much worse, and it became painfully obvious that what I was experiencing was not normal. The vehicle is now at the dealer being serviced.

It is often taking three or more tries to get it started now, and nearly every light has come on at one time or another. It also started "surging" in normal driving conditions (no acceleration no deceleration) with the tachometer & speedometer jostling back and forth. Like I said, it became painfully obvious that these issues weren't normal.

Thanks again for all of your comments. I am new to internet forums, and am amazed by the way that the internet makes the world a much smaller place.

I will let you know how things work out.

 

Update:

My MMH came back from the dealer a few hours after I took it in, and it is apparently in perfect working order. I've been driving it for 5 days since the service, and have not had any more problems. According to the dealer there is a screw that is supposed to secure a ground wire, and that screw had been cross-threaded at the factory. As a result, the ground wire wasn't making good contact, which was wreaking havoc on the computer system. All the dealer had to do to fix the problem was tighten the screw properly. Sounds strange, but it appears to have worked.

 

Thanks for the update.

Computers DEMAND good stable clean power.

I had a car that would freak out every once in a while. It was traced back to a slightly lose battery cable.