Lainey

My +1 said the same thing. Let's face it, sometimes new technology is a bit of a challenge for some of the older folks. Not those here, of course.

Hertz Donut

Farmtruck (our beaten-up old Nissan Stagea) has been restricted to paddock duties for a few months now, so over the weekend I handed my 17yo son the OBD-II reader and its operating manual, and told him to sort out the airbag light and CEL. Within 10 minutes he'd diagnosed both, and fixed the airbag light. Once we've bought a new cam position sensor he can fit that, then replace both broken rear tail lights, and it can go back on the road. A good clean wouldn't go amiss either.

He's already cooking up a plan to convert it to a pickup. So proud.

robb

I watched 2 episodes of Columbia this weekend lol.

zeroptzero

Batteries do have a shelf live and the production date is usually stamped on them somewhere. I would say the battery would not be more than a year old at time of production, everyone uses just in time production so the batteries must be pretty fresh when delivered to the assembly plants, likely quite a bit less than one year old. So your battery could be just over six years old range.

With it being a Subaru battery I'd say it has a quickly approaching end of life, I thought there was an issue with Subaru batteries a while back, maybe a class action suit ? Bad batteries tend to show up in dead of winter, if you have not had an issue yet I'd say you are okay so far. I condition all of my vehicle batteries just before winter each season as an extra step of prevention as they are so critical in cold weather conditions

robb

There was a Subaru recall and class action lawsuit with the factory batteries, it was one of those deals where some cars had the issue other didn’t. Reportedly it has to do with Starlink but I think there were other issues as well.

zeroptzero

My son got stranded in a parking lot one cold winter night with a dead battery, I have no idea how it happened the car was less than 3 years old in the 2019 WRX. I went straight to where he was and we put in a brand new battery from Canadian Tire which was open that night. That was before I had heard of any battery issues with Subaru, but I just wanted peace of mind to get him home safely. I ate the cost.

robb

I remember you posting that and it seemed strange to me that the battery died after driving a short distance but in looking up the problem they say that is how it happens it dies after short drives. In my experience when I have had a battery go it will be dead after sitting all night and if I jump it in the morning it will be good until it sits again. Usually if a battery drains after driving it is a bad alternator or a short somewhere.

Scooterboy

My sister-in-law and her husband had a Subaru and every time they went to start the car the battery was dead. They were stranded at Boston Logan airport a number of times and were afraid to go to the store for fear of a dead battery. Subaru replaces the battery a number, three I think, of times and still had the problem. The Subaru dealer they went to couldn't find any problems! One time when they stopped here I checked for any vampire draws but found nothing. They dumped it for a KIA hybrid.

robb

It may be kind of aluminum hat thinking but maybe not, I have read that Subaru programmed the alternator from the factory not to fully charge in order to save gas but that doesn’t explain why some cars do it and some don’t.

zeroptzero

Yeah that was so weird, he drove the car daily with no issues, that night he just went out for a short drive - about 5 miles one way in town. He just went to start it and it was dead. We got it started with jumper cables and I then I just replaced the battery. It never acted up again after that.