“Hi David! Car question for you. My battery died and needs to be replaced,” my friend texted me the other week about her 2019 Subaru Outback. AAA had apparently told her she needed to buy an AGM battery or she’d see premature failure, but there were no AGMs available nearby. “He… said that the [standard] battery would only last a year,” my friend texted me in reference to the AAA installation specialist. “He says bc of the auto start/stop feature it will drain too fast.” I advised her to not worry about it, and just have a standard battery installed. She followed my advice. A few days later I received this text: “Omg, my car is dead… again ????” This confused me.
Had I led my friend astray? Had her car’s start/stop starter motor unduly stressed her cheap new battery? I had her text me a photo of her old battery; it wasn’t anything special — just a regular ol’ battery manufactured by Johnson Controls like so many of the others. I googled Subaru Outback 3.6R start/stop, and found this thread — apparently her car doesn’t even have start/stop! So her basic battery should have lasted three to six years, no problem, even in the chilly Rockies.
“Sounds like you have a phantom drain of some sort,” I responded. Something was killing her battery overnight; I asked her if she’d left a dome light on or perhaps the headlights. She told me that, with 99% certainty, she had not. Hmm. Sounded to me like the vehicle needed to be taken into a shop; something was wrong with the electrical system. I did some Googling and found this thread on Reddit:
Included in that Reddit thread is a link to a settlement website titled “Subaru Battery Settlement,” which states on its front page:
A class action lawsuit was filed against Subaru of America, Inc. (“SOA”) and Subaru Corporation (“SBR”), collectively the “Defendants” or “Subaru.” The lawsuit alleges that the Settlement Class Vehicles suffer from a design defect in some vehicles that can cause battery drain; and that Defendants have violated certain consumer statutes and breached certain warranties. The lawsuit seeks certification of a nationwide class of present and former purchasers and lessees of Settlement Class Vehicles to pursue these claims.
Defendants deny the case claims. Defendants maintain that the Settlement Class Vehicles are not defective and that the Settlement Class Vehicles function(ed) in a proper manner, were properly designed, manufactured, distributed, marketed, advertised, warranted, and sold. Defendants claim that they did not violate any warranties, statutes, or laws. In the instances in which such repairs have been necessary, Defendants maintain that they have provided warranty coverage where appropriate.
I sent this to my friend. She replied: “If this is a known issue shouldn’t they do a recall or something?”
Fast forward just a couple of days, and — almost as if the company were dropping eaves on our conversation — received this notice in the mail from Subaru:
“Affected vehicles are equipped with a DCM and may experience a dead battery resulting from the DCM continually trying to access the cellular network due to deterioration of the internal memory,” Subaru writes in its notice titled “Warranty Extension for the Telematics Data Communications Module (DCM) for certain 2019 MYLegacy, Outbacks vehicles and 2019-2021 MY WRX/STI vehicles sold or leased in the United States.”
Subaru is warrantying all affected cars for a year from this notice, or for 8 years and 150,000 miles from the vehicle’s warranty start date. The company will either replace the faulty DCM if the owner has an active STARLINK subscription (STARLINK is a multimedia subscription that connects the car to the internet, allowing you to track the car, lock and unlock doors, make calls using the onbooard SOS button, and more), or they’ll bypass the DCM for those without an active STARLINK subscription. Subaru will also pay to charge/replace a battery drained as a result of the DCM failure.
Here’s the wild thing. The above notice isn’t the only DCM-related warranty-extension Subaru has sent out recently. In late February, Subaru sent out a similar letter for owners of 2016-2018 Legacies, Outbacks, Imprezas, Crosstreks, and Foresters, as well as 2017 to 2017 Subaru WRXs:
“In response to some customer concerns of a dead battery resulting from the DCM continually trying to access the 3G cellular network, which is no longer available, the extension will cover this concern should a customer encounter it during the warranty extension period,” Subaru writes about its eight-year, 100,000-mile warranty on the DCM. The notification will also give those outside of those constraints a single year from this notice to replace the DCM free of charge.
“Affected vehicles are equipped with a DCM and may experience a dead battery as a result of the DCM continually trying to access the retired 3G cellular network and have not received a previous DCM update,” the notice continues.
Subaru has an entire page on its website titled “3G Network Retirement” in which it states that customers had between mid-March of 2021 and February of 2022 to bring their old 3G STARLINK systems into a dealer to be replaced with a 4G system for free. From that website:
STARLINK® Safety & Security – 3G Network Retirement
STARLINK Safety and Security connected services rely on a wireless connection, and in some older model year Subaru vehicles, these services use a 3G network. In February 2022, the current wireless provider has elected to retire this 3G network, which will affect services such as Automatic Collision Notification, SOS Emergency Assistance, and remote vehicle features in those affected vehicles.
Subaru retailers are offering a complimentary update for affected vehicles that have an active STARLINK Safety and Security subscription. This update will allow continued access to these important STARLINK Safety and Security services. If an affected vehicle is not updated before the 3G network retirement date, the subscription will be canceled.
If you didn’t update your STARLINK, Subaru writes on that website, the results would be: “You will lose access to services such as Automatic Collision Notification, SOS Emergency Assistance, Stolen Vehicle Recovery and Remote Features such as locking and unlocking your Subaru vehicle.” It doesn’t seem like Subaru anticipated “your car will keep trying to connect, even while you’re sleeping, and your battery will drain.”
How exactly this happens, I’m unsure, but this post on Hacker News by someone with a username “siftrics” states:
STARLINK intermittently tries to phone home by hitting 3G towers.
Now that 3G is shutting down, the digital communications module (DCM) gets stuck in an infinite loop of
1. Phone home, expending battery charge 2. Fail, because 3G doesn’t work anymore 3. Go back to step 1
This effectively remotely drains the battery of every Subaru Outback built between 2015 and 2020.
Even if you drive your car every day, its battery will die and you won’t be able to start it.
The internet is filled with Subaru-dead-battery posts, demonstrating how widespread this issue really is. Here are a couple of Reddit posts:
There are plenty more posts on Reddit:
And there are many on Subaru Forums:
And my coworker Jason even got this text message from a friend:
Yikes.
While I can’t know for sure that my friend’s battery drain problem is a result of the first DCM problem (I’m betting it is), there are clearly lots of folks dealing with both of these, and it’s good on Subaru for sending those noticse out and making them right. [Ed note: Maybe I’m onto something? – MH]
The battery on my wife’s 2020 Forester died. She got a jump, and took it to the dealer. They checked everything over, uploaded new software, installed new battery, and told her ‘no charge’. There was a class action lawsuit about the software causing the batteries to go bad or some such thing. I don’t care what it was it save me $350+ for the new battery.
Subaru – hot garbage designs, hot garbage electronics. I had one in 2013 (legacy) that I leased new and had multiple times it nearly stranded me because the battery was weak as all hell. I resorted to charging it with a battery tender every time I got a crank that sounded like it was one start away from leaving me out in the cold. I dumped that lease at a loss to me – luckily maybe $600 loss because of the ridiculously rabid fanbase for Subaru here in CO.
It also allows STARLINK, or anyone hacking into it, to track or lock/unlock doors whenever they want.
How about I determine when you can track or lock/unlock doors? My car, after all.
I’m surprised DT wrote this instead of Hardigree. Hard to believe Matt would miss an opportunity to dump on Subaru.
The “alternator doesn’t fully charge to save gas” philosophy seems likely to cause problems as batteries and alternators age. Though Subaru used similar reasoning to justify some really odd shift patterns on my 4EAT.
But, as their slogan says, “Sacrificing a noticeable amount of driveability to achieve an unnoticeable increase in fuel economy is what makes a Subaru a Subaru.”
So is it a “Smart Alternator”? Most stop/start vehicles also have a smart alternator, which is maybe why the tow truck driver said what he said to David’s friend. I believe that we can thank European regs for the smart alt to comply with air quality requirements.
alternator is controlled by the ECU. Subaru had a software update for the same thing in 2017-18. And, their panasonic batteries are very underperforming, to say the least. my 17 WRX never had issues because i always leave the headlights on, and that tells the ECU that it needs to keep charging.
Also, a lot of auto manufacturers are doing the same. I hear some complaints from people that use their pickups that they often end up with dead batteries because the ECU tells the alternator not to charge.
From a subi forum:Yes, some Subaru models have a smart alternator, including the 2017 Outback, 6th generation Outback, and Ascent. A smart alternator, also known as a variable voltage alternator, allows the vehicle to control the alternator’s output voltage based on operating conditions. The goal of this system is to reduce electrical and mechanical load.
Another forum mentions that you can defeat/address this buy putting a small continuous load on the alternator like a tail light.
At this point, I have to say it’s just Subaru doing Subaru things.
So what about all the other cars that had 3G systems (namely VW)?
Years ago, VW promised to upgrade their 3G systems to 4G/LTE/5G whatever. Then they delayed the date the upgrade would be available. Then they delayed it again. Now they say that they don’t know when they’ll get to it. At the same time, they promised 5 years of free subscription service, but none of that is actually helpful if the modem doesn’t work. Entering my 2019 Alltrack 6MT’s VIN at the link below gets me this pop-up:
” Due to unanticipated difficulties, the timing to release any technical solution is uncertain at this time. We will update this page when we have more information.”
https://carnet.vw.com/#/modelyr2014-2019
No idea about parasitic battery drain. My battery died this past summer, but that was after 4 years of use and over 50k miles. Hard to tell.
I hate batteries with a passion. I’d much rather have a damn hand crank to start my engine, or a damn 110v cord so I could just plug my car into an actually energy dense battery pack to turn it over. I’ve replaced so many goddamn car batteries I am absolutely sick of it.
Oddly enough I do like electric vehicles, I just prefer trams and trains to battery powered electric vehicles, but if I have to have a car reliant on batteries, I’d rather have a BEV that ditches the 12v battery than ANY new car that keeps the 12v battery.
I think a cool add-on would be a battery-disconnect switch. But, um, how would it get connected back without battery power?? Hmm… I guess another battery. But what happens when THAT ONE dies?? And my radio presets!! I haven’t really thought this through…
There are mechanical battery disconnect switches…
Ok, but is that on the outside of the car? Or, does one have to use a mechanical key to open the door to be able to hit the reconnect switch on the inside? Mind you, I prefer that.
Depends on how it is either built from the factory or installed. Some cars have them on the outside, some have them on the inside, some people just install them on their battery leads so they have to pop the hood to do it.
I have disconnect switches on several cars but they are all old. Amazon and any auto parts store sell them.
Newer cars with anything computerized sort of don’t like that. They seem to think they have been stolen or something.
My cars its mostly a not wanting it to catch fire when squirrels attack situation. Or anti theft.
Yeah, I’ve had similar experiences jump starting new cars, they usually do not like it.
My son’s Prius, when the battery has drained from non-use (he travels for months at a time), will lock the doors immediately upon juice reflowing. And this sucks because the key fob is usually inside at this precise moment. Solution is to lodge a towel on the door to prevent it from being shut. (It is parked on a somewhat steep driveway).
None of this should be happening at all.
I regret to inform you that most BEV’s have a 12V battery… including Tesla. Worse, they depend on the 12V battery to start the car. So you still get to replace a 12V battery in the car. My 2012 Ford Focus BEV is on it’s third 12V battery.
No one seems to make the ridiculously small 12V battery other than Ford so I keep replacing it with the Ford brand battery . Fortunately Ford seems to know this battery sucks and the third one now has an unlimited non-prorated warranty – so I’ll keep swapping the 12V every 4-5 years, but won’t be paying anything for the next one.
Now a minor rant. I HATE maintenance free 12V batteries like this Ford one… I could likely extend the life of the battery just by adding distilled water… but noooooo, I have to replace it when the stupid indicator goes red and battery dies…. which just means it needs distilled water…. which I can’t add… sigh.
I knew that, but in the future it’ll likely change.
Is this Ford battery warranty documented anywhere? Yesterday I had the 12V replaced in my 2017 FOrd C-Max Energi and I was told it had a four-year warranty.
I’m in Canada. The receipt I was given clearly stated non-prorated warranty for life of original purchaser. The desk jockey said it was a new policy for replacement 12V batteries. Not sure if that is Canada only?
Maybe call the parts department and ask what warranty replacement batteries have?
For the life of me, I can’t understand why people are still buying these heaps instead of just getting a freakin’ Prius.
The AWD system is a hell of a lot better than the one in the Prius, and there are no Prius Hatchbacks anymore. The good news is that the Prius AWD issues can be solved via a software update.
Just go two wheel drive. AWD is a placebo used to con ignorant car buyers out of their money.
Like, what do you think it does?
How do you really feel? Driving in the Rockies and Wasatch in winter requires it. Subis sell very well there and VT. and PNW. But they are not as good as they once were. But maybe we should all drive Prius’ comrade.
Right, because judging what American consumers buy is clearly demonstrative of function and value.
(in case the sarcasm isn’t immediately clear, I’m joking)
Snow performance is tire, not a drive system that predominantly runs on the power of imagination.
Wes,
Agreed,Im retired and drive an extended E 350 van part time for FedEx in Northern Wisconsin usually around 250 miles a day .
Roughly 60 stops a day.
The rural area roads are dirt in the summer and fall,snow in the winter and mud in the spring.In the past three years I’ve been stuck twice and both times was on a unplowed backroad with wet heavy snow so I was where I shouldn’t have been to begin with.
Theres plenty of steep hills and off camber turns even though it’s flat compared to Vermont where I grew up and learned to drive 55 years ago on bias ply hard as a rock recap snow tires.
A lot of this rural area has no cell phone coverage so youre on your own if you get stuck.
Good tires and common sense make all the difference in the world.
AWD is a crutch and a waste of money for most people.
In certain areas you’re legally required to have AWD or 4WD (IK they’re different, the law doesn’t though) for a good part of the year. Where I used to live for approximately 1/4th of the year I legally wouldn’t be able to take a mountain pass I regularly took without 4WD/AWD and snow tires.
AWD is a lot better in the snow that 2WD, and you get to learn that on windy mountain passes. When your state is flat (which yours likely is) you think that 2WD is all you need because the roads are 2 dimensional, you have no off camber turns, no steep hills/mountains, etc.
For a traditional ICE car AWD divides the power between 4 wheels vs dividing it between 2 wheels, which for one minimizes the slippage of said wheels.
In truth though in the snow 2WD W/O a locking diff is 1WD, AWD without a locking diff or two is 1WD, 4WD without a locking diff or two is 2WD, Traditional AWD with a locking center diff is 2WD, Toyota Hybrid AWD is 2WD, 4WD with a locking diff is 3 wheel drive, AWD or 4WD with two locking diffs (front and rear) is 4WD.
I don’t know of anywhere that requires awd. There are several that require chains if you don’t have awd/4×4.
That being said, having grown up in and around the Rockies in Canada, awd is nowhere near a need. A decent set of snow tires and 20 cents of skill will get you far further.
In the Sierra Nevadas in Nevada they have signs that when flashing state that 4WD and snow tires or chains is required.
If I had empty roads in the snow I could be by with 2wd and quality snow tires no problem, however there are a lot of idiots who can’t do the speed limit with snow tires, and or they have chains on so they’re going between 5-15 MPH and in those conditions where I cannot pass and I lack the necessary momentum to make up for the lack of AWD/4WD, I prefer AWD/4WD and snow tires.
If you know how to use momentum to your advantage, and can keep up momentum, you can get very far with 2WD and snow tires.
*’I could get by with 2wd and quality snow tires no problem’…
Yeah, Donner Pass etc require AWD or 4WD (California is vastly, vastly far behind with its legal definitions) if you want to drive through in winter without first fitting chains (you still have to carry them). The state also refers to M+S tires as snow tires, which is obviously laughable.
I remember years ago, like in the 80s a friend had a sedan with a Detroit Locker rear axle that would pass all the 4wd pickups with open differentials stuck in a trivial amount of snow.
Of course a manual transmission and a bit of brake and clutch technique beat everything.
Besides them kicking on when exiting a turn they’re great lockers.
“Like, what do you think it does?”
It reduces my braking distance by a factor of 2. Or so I’m led to believe. 😉
And if you drive a 2019 Subaru, your braking distance is actually zero.
What’s the problem with the Prius AWD system, besides rear power being limited to the power of the motor (40hp?)
Watch the TFL slip test videos on the subject. Once the front wheels are spinning unless you disable traction control and put it into sport mode the rear wheel drive won’t kick on.
40 horsepower is more than enough for the rear wheels to push the car on their own, it’s just bad software that keeps them from doing so.
Is it a software fix from Toyota, or aftermarket?
It requires a software fix, doesn’t matter from who though I imagine having an OEM one would be preferable.
The Prius AWD system is actually superior (or at least it was, I’m drawing from previous gen, not the current car which I haven’t yet driven) as it’s actually capable of apportioning power across the rear axle without relying on brakes.
The current gen should be better as it has a ton more horsepower for the rear motor, except it seems just as software limited as the old one.
Having symmetrical axle shafts does a lot for power distribution. With a Prius one of the front wheels will definitely be spinning, the AWD ones should have symmetrical axle shafts in the rear though.
So, wait, you’re telling me that Subarus, cars explicitly marketed to outdoorsy types, might kill your battery if you park it at a remote trailhead without cell service for a week? That’s insane.
it’s beautiful, I think you meant
Um, it also allows THEM to track the car, lock or unlock doors, etc., and sell info to insurance companies.
How about, “It’s my car and I’ll tell you when I want it tracked or doors locked or unlocked, etc.?
Notable that their previous “free” 4G DCM offer only applied to those with an active subscription.
“Better get Starlink if you don’t want to wake up to a car that won’t, capiche?” -Subaru, dipping their toe into the protection racket.
Just put in a Jira ticket.
I would’ve thought it was the ol’ FCA/Stellantis “use a bad quality supplier” situation, not something that kind of dumb.
Granted, I also wasn’t expecting the “alternator doesn’t fully charge to save gas” line either.
The fact that the alternators were programmed to not fully charge batteries to save fuel is an absolutely absurd decision. A 100-200W of load is nearly negligible, even at idle where the engine should be producing at least 15kW. Then again this is Subaru, which can get away with nearly every braindead design choice because they have one of the most blindly loyal owners group, on par with Chevy/Ford/Ram truck bros.
That description is a simplification. Essentially everything has been doing something like what these cars do for about a decade now, and when the algorithm is fully baked, it doesn’t fry batteries. It’s one of a smorgasbord of tweaks OEMs will apply to a vehicle to gain a few extra tenths of a MPG to make the number round up instead of down, which gets you full credit the the whole next MPG on label fuel economy.
That’s a fair point, every automaker does play a lot of games with getting ideal fuel economy numbers, and don’t even get me started on the way Tesla had absurd special exemptions and rules for EPA testing for YEARS to artificially inflate its MPGe numbers…
But based on Hardigree’s recent Subaru experience, and that of others I know, Subaru really seems to be half-baking an awful lot of important subsystems. Not enough charging for their batteries, too much RTV for their oil pans.
BMW used to so some variation of it, trying to only charge when decelerating.
It works fine when it’s programmed correctly. My current car has that feature and it’s a 2012.
My current car also has a sunsetted telematics computer that doesn’t drain the battery trying to phone home.
What is up with Subaru these days? They seem to have lost the plot like Nissan.
Or Boeing.
Nissans do this too, unfortunately. I’ve cut the ‘smart alternator’ wire on our Armada, no charging issues since.
What’s really pathetic is Subaru was selling vehicles with 3G connectivity as late as 2021
Lol I was thinking the same thing
Subaru was not using 3G connectivity after the 2018 model year. The document shown in the article indicates that the 3G issue is for certain 2016-2018 vehicles only. Subarus built from the 2019 model year onward use the 4G data connection from new. The issue with battery drain on 2019 Legacy/Outback and 2019-21 WRX-STi is a DIFFERENT problem: a DCM memory failure which can cause battery drain.
Interesting about the parasitic drain. I also think that FHI uses crap stock batteries. my 05 had the same problem with stock batteries.
IMHO Every OEM buys the cheapest everything, from tires to radios. They also charge a premium for it. Check out the tire warranty on your new car. Remember the $1,500 radio in the $5,000 Yugos? If you had time and money and it was possible buying a stripped new car and installing what accessories you want would save you thousands.
Hyundai/Kia EVs faced the same problem with the cars just constantly communicating over cellular that it would train the 12v battery. I wonder it it’s something we may see more frequently as some cars age and their modem malfunction or when their modems become obsolete. The obsolete modem would just search for a signal constantly if a timeout is not setup well.
I’ve said it before but engineers shouldn’t be allowed to touch programming.
not even software engineers?
The problem is I’ve seen that title thrown around at actual developers as well as engineers who ostensibly know how to code. Knowing how to write one line after another and make something that outputs the result you’re looking for is only half the battle. A real developer would know to test for edge cases and handle exceptions.
I know this, because I’m a former engineer and current sysadmin who ostensibly knows how to code and regularly gets put in my place by actual developers but it makes me a better coder.
Especially not software engineers.
As a mechanical engineer I agree, coding is scary, and I’m bad at it.
You’re a rare specimen. Most of the MEs, EEs, and ChemEs I worked with all claimed “programming is simple” as they showed me some cobbled together monstrosity they just finished “programming”. (Most were just Excel macros being passed off as applications.) I’m not saying that folks in one field shouldn’t expand their horizons but they should remain aware that there may be more to it than what’s on the surface.
I know several who are the same way. Whenever I have to code anything it’s very much a “This is an atrocity the likes of which violate the Geneva Convention, but it *does* work”
Mathworks has the industry by the short & curlies because Simulink lets mechanical engineers who understand how things work make code that also works. The most insane engine software I’ve ever seen came from seasoned software engineers who didn’t know what a piston was.
The day that I realized that at a fundamental level, engines and computers work essentially the same way was a revelation. Just like the cams, valves, pistons, fuel injectors, and so on can only work in one precise, predetermined way, the electrons that go into and out of the registers are governed by the laws of physics and have to behave the way that they do. Electrical faults aside, a computer will behave as consistently and inexorably as any mechanical object.
That’s why the software that finds its way into cars is so absolutely mind-boggling to me. It would be like if instead of a normal engine and transmission, you had a kerosene range-extender on an electric motor, with a stickshift and then an automatic transmission in series after it.
I’m afraid this is becoming a “350 pound EV that goes 800 miles an hour on a watch battery” sort of thing for me but given that there’s really no technical reason for these systems to suck as much as they do. It’s just a consequence of thinking about computer ‘components’ in an overly simplistic way – assuming they can all just be kludged together and as long as the sausage comes out the other end, it must have worked.
Real engineers do it in FORTRAN.
I’m putting that on a t-shirt.
That took me back a minute. Is it still a thing? We used it in the numerical methods courses I took in the late 90’s/early 00’s.
I can beat that: About 70% of my company’s operations are run on a mainframe. We are not a bank, airline, or insurance company.
They are finally retiring the mainframe this year; but even then, I think the only reason they are doing that is because the world is running out of COBOL developers due to natural attrition (i.e., mortality).
Software engineers writing raw FORTRAN themselves? Not really. But Python has swallowed the world, and some of its mainstream math libraries are written in FORTRAN.
I had one of those Outbacks impacted by this issue. But I replaced the head unit with an aftermarket one to gain wireless Android Auto and Apple Carplay. I needed to remove the DCM module so the double DIN head unit would fit. At least that’s one problem the new owner of that car wont need to worry about.
The was another battery drain issue with the Outback. Sometimes, the motor for the rear hatch would continue to draw power after the hatch was opened. The motor should have switched off and let the struts take over holding the hatch open. I experienced this once after taking too long to load for a road trip. After realizing how long the hatch was open, I checked the battery and it was down to 11.5 volts. I finished loading with the car on a battery charger and didn’t have any issues starting it.
Dead batteries. It’s what makes a Subaru, a Subaru. That’s the new ad campaign right?
Subaru has had this problem for a long time, my 2012 had this issue too.
I think it’s three-fold:
#3. The forums were filled with people who switched to a slightly different battery that had more reserve capacity. It was a direct swap for most people.
I was the oddball with my Outback. I replaced my battery after 3.5 years when it started doing poorly on load tests. That was about 2 years longer than most people got out of the OEM battery.
Yeah funky things like that can happen with OEM suppliers.
When I was a Ford technician, for some reason their Motorcraft batteries would either fail within 6 months or they would last longer than any battery ever made…. it was very strange. There was one case were an ancient Motorcraft battery still allowed an F-series to start/run and it was (no joke) close to 10 years old.
The factory battery on my mother’s ’99 Explorer made it all the way to 2008, finally done in by an especially brutal winter. Even then, it still started, just slower than normal.
haha, wow, didn’t expect to have an example on this thread but there ya go!
maybe that’s the secret mod that all offroaders should do, forget the stupid Optima batteries… just get a Motorcraft!
My 97 Jeep TJ battery from Walmart unbelievably made it 10.5 years and finally shorted out while I was driving last year .My 9 year old 60 hp Kubota diesel tractor battery is the original and on its last legs.
Granted both live in a heated garage in the winter (northern Wisconsin) Ive had some incredible luck.
I do throw a charger on them randomly for an evening just for good measure.
It seems to work for me.
Unreliability: It’s what makes a Subaru, a Subaru.
Damn. I attempted the same joke but yours is better.
I just sent this to my mom’s beau as she has been having this issue for the past 4 months going through several batteries or non-starts after car sits for 3 days
Elon Musk uses Starlink to brick traditional cars, suggests people buy Teslas.
This was a concern when I was car-shopping in mid-2021. I ended up buying a ’16 Sorento (which came with it’s own pros and cons) but that era of Outback was also on the list. Drove fine, I figured I could overlook the CVT but I kept finding parasitic drain concerns – which also happened to a friend with a ’15 OB. Kept reading about troubleshooting, doing things like pulling fuses, not leaving the hatch open, etc. but I just didn’t want to deal with that.
Of course, I traded those issues for a 2.4L Theta II and what turned out to be no immobilizer but I digress…