Hi All

Has anyone had any problems with their battery?

Just got back from a weeks holiday to find the battery was completely flat on my 2005 wrx. Has anyone had the same problem?

Would not have though that his should happen on a two year old car.

Is this a common problem and if so any recommendations for a new battery.

Thanks in advance

Paul

 

Funnily enough I had the same problem in Dec - was off work so didnt use the car (its an 05 as well) for a couple of weeks. Tried to start it - would turn over but not start. Ok didnt help that I had left the interior map light on (I think)
Charging it made no differance, got it jump started and drove to Halfrauds and replaced the battery. V annoying to say the least !
And yes its fairly common thing on Subaru's - alarm and tracker if fitted have a quite a high drain on the battery - especially this weather as all journeys lights, wiper, heaters on etc.

Richard

 

Lots of people have had this problem, especially if you have extra alarms/security. You could first try fitting a more powerful battery (60Ah instead of the standard 48Ah) although this didn't work for me, so I now connect a CTEK battery optimiser whenever I'm not going to use the car for a few days.

It tops the battery up whenever it drops to 95% of full charge, which is every few hours with my car. When I connect it to my bike, I never see it go into charge mode, which shows how quickly the car battery drains!

Never had problem since, although it's no good to me if I leave it in an airport car park for a week....

Also, read speedmeister's thread. His battery has died and has been replaced by a calcium one from Halfords with a 4 year guarantee (£85 fitted). Hopefully this is a better one than the original.

 

Had the same prob with mine but I'd left the interior light on ! Battery charged up again OK and that was a year ago - now it's 3yrs old and battery is all OK. I was told that switching on the headlights when driving activates the alternator and keeps the battery charged at a higher level and less likely to drain after being left for a week.
Tim

 

I remember reading on here that if you leave the interior fan on a low setting all the time this too kicks the alternator into a higher charge rate. 05WRX too

 

Thanks Guys for the replies

I think it will upgrade the battery after my finances have recovered, spent up over Christmas.

Cheers Paul

 

AndI leave the side lights on too.

My car gets used once in a blue moon and I use the CTEK conditioner that Mark mentioned earlier. Starts first time every time, even after standing for 8 weeks in the current weather. Swear by them.

 

That explains why when I turn it off the volts drop temporarily !

 

Doesn't it have something to do with the Tracker?

 

A known issue with Scoobs I'm afraid . I had to replace mine on my old WRX (52 plate Bugeye) after it packed in after approx 3 years. I bought a more powerful battery from Halfords and never had anymore problems with it .

Wolfie.

 

Advice here.

 

LOL, get yourself one of these and save 10kgs too..!

https://www.scoobynet.com/group-buys...y-odyssey.html

 

Had exactly the same thing happen on more than one occassion. Finally got myself a Bosch Asia Siver series battery from Costco. I came back from China before Xmas after 3 weeks away and car jumped to life exactly as you would expect it to.

Bosch Car Batteries

 

had the battery replaced under warranty on my wrx just before the 3 years was up
2 years on and its been fine so far

 

^^^^
sounds like Subaru had a dodgy batch of batteries ~05..!

 

As mentioned above I've just had mine replaced but after 4.5 years. It did go flat about 6 months ago though for no obvious reason and was ok after jump starting until now.
Might as well take it to Halfords for a free drop test- a hand held gadget that tells you if the battery is knackered or not. Mine showed up as "unserviceable".
Good luck!

 

Don't you think that Halfords might have a vested interest in every tested battery showing up as unserviceable? Not that they would of course.

 

Had the same problem in my P1, needed a new battery and a new alarm control unit, apparently it was causing the battery to drain. Luckily it was still under warranty.

 

Have been reading this and thought I better try my 05 STI as it has been sitting in the garage since before Christmas and guess what the battery is flat.Will put it on charge overnight and my cousin is going to check it to see if there is a faulty cell tomorrow.

 

Now now, let's not be so cynical!
Took the family Galaxy in for the same test a couple of weeks ago and they said it was fine and it was failing to start because of too many short journeys. We heeded their advice and took it for a long run and it's been fine since.
The hand held gadget is made by Bosch I think and you're invited to view it's verdict. I don't think the staff at Halfords really care if the company makes a profit or not!

 

Ended up having 2 replacements done on my MY03 STi when it was under warranty. The dealership replaced it in the end with a top spec VARTA jobby. Now have a battery conditioner connected up and on a wall timer everyday just in-case. This is a known problem that Subaru know about. When I looked on here the issues for this were either or and:

Battery not being charged due to the alternator being a such not charging hte battery as nothing in the car was switched on for it to work. I.E sidelights or fan

The RAC Trackstar drains them due to a faulty circuit board

The batteries the dealership supplied wern't up to scratch

 

this has just happened to me about 2 hours ago!
went to start the car and it didnt!

Cant beleive it, it happened last week as well and I got some one to come and see what were up with it ( it was free, so I thought might as well check it).
He said its a bit low but does NOT need changing.
Im going to buy one of those chargers tomorrow , hopefully it will work.

Its just one of those things that you dont really expect to go on a newish car.

 

That's exactly what I thought it was.

Can the circuit board be changed to stop it draining the battery?

 

The last time I looked into this issue, which was well over a year ago. I believe some people actually had their Circuit boards replaced by their dealerships under warranty. Maybe worth a search on here and/or Google to see what the outcome was.
All I can say is that when i brought this issue up with my local dealer they were playing it down and therefore why I ended up having 2 battery replacements. Touch wood the current Varta jobby which I have had in the car for over a year has held up.

 

Mine was dead after a 6day stand this morning.. sat in the garage, dead with the alarm going mad for 10mins.. ended up putting another battery on it to start her, then swapping the Bosch one back on..

MY02 STi, with a Bosch Silver (2months old), Tracker, Alarm + Immob, PSi ECU Monitor, Turbo Timer (although I don't think that uses any power when the engines off)..

I take it I need to invest in a booster pack ?

 

If you are like me and only use your scoob on and off each weekend, it would be worth it rather than have your neighbours complaining. The one I ended up buying for mine was from motorworld. It's basically looks like a Nokia Phone charger with the two battery clips. Seems to work for me.

 

Thanks,

Will have a look at those, but generally the scoob will be used every couple of days.. so should not be a regular problem, but don't want to get stuck somewhere without power, so the mobile booster packs seem a good idea. Going to get a 400amp one after work tomorrow, hopefully will be powerful enough to start her..