Outback won't start. Won't do *anything*

Apr 22, 2007 9 Replies

My wife returned from a week in Europe today - she flew to England then on to Spain and back to Newark, NJ from Spain.



When she tried to start her '07 Outback wagon nothing happened. The dash didn't light up at all. Folks at the parking garage hooked up a jump box but that didn't do anything either. She wound up calling Subaru Roadside Assistance. After far too many hours they showed up and couldn't get the car to do anything either. So, they towed it to a dealership in NJ where it will sit for a few days.



I suspect the immobilizer "feature" is the culprit, but this has never happened before so I don't know what behavior to expect. Is the "do nothing" response what should happen?



I'm left wondering about two things: did someone tamper with the car while it was parked, or could some aggressive airport security X-ray scanner have fried the RFID chip in the key?



Any thoughts?



TIA



Jason


Failed fuselink.....check to see if it blew AND WHY...or if it simply failed. It's the first link in the electrical system.

Left a door partly ajar...interior light on....flattened the battery?

Been there ....done that

Unless the flattened battery became a dead short somehow, that wouldn't explain why the jump box didn't at least bring a light on.

The main fuse seems to be the most plausible explanation.

Is it possible someone tried to vandalize/steal and crawled underneath and cut a battery cable? Maybe they sorthed the fusible link?

weird.

Carl

New subes suck.

Not that we needed to hear details of your wifes fabulous trip. car alarm go off until it was done or what.

If that had happened, jumping it should have worked. It didn't. Nothing happened. I think either the immobilizer kicked in for some reason or the master fusable link burned out (why?).

Jason

The immobilizer on most cars anyway is a relay to the starter motor, or I suppose someone may have gotten the ignition involved. I don't see how an immobilizer would ever prevent lights from even coming on or kill all power since that sortof defeats even the alarm system from functioning.

-- Todd H.

2001 Legacy Outback Wagon, 2.5L H-4 Chicago, Illinois USA

A 3d possibility: the helpful buckos at the airport hooked up their jumpbox with leads reversed.

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