Car: 2017 Subaru Outback Limited Parasitic drain: Current draw on battery with car turned off.
If the car sits idle for more than a week, it may not start. The battery has been drained. I bought a jump booster to make sure the car could be started when this happens. The original 380 CCA battery got replaced with a 650 CCA. Still have the problem that the car may not start after sitting for a week. I'm having to use the jump booster even with the new bigger battery.
There are lawsuits against Subaru regarding their using undersized batteries that cannot handle the load. The car can be driven for 2 hours on a trip, the alternator works, they stop somewhere and turn off the car, return to the car in less than an hour, and the car won't start. Since I replaced the battery with a much larger one (yeah, 380 CCA is an insult to owners in north states with real winters), the issue with me is not with an undersized or even an old battery without sufficient capacity to start the car. When I use the jump booster, it is just long enough to start the car, and then it gets disconnected, so it is not charging up the battery. Once I get the car started, it starts fine for weeks until it happens to sit idle for about a week.
A battery load test returns a good status. It should, especially on the new battery. That measures depth of charge, not the drain on the battery while the car is turned off. When the battery is not drained, the car starts fine. Plenty of capacity there. A week later, turning the key doesn't even make the engine groan. Seems like if the car won't start that it doesn't even try.
Does a battery load test include testing the alternator to determine if it is putting out enough current to recharge the battery after a start? The battery measures 12.6VDC when not running. When running, the battery voltage measures 14.8VDC because of the alternator. However, voltage won't tell how much current can be delivered by the alternator.
14.8VDC pushing 40 to 120 amps is a lot different then 14.8VDC pushing into a tiny 2 mA load.None of the interior lights are on. In fact, I flipped the switch on the dome and cargo lights to make sure a door wasn't mysteriously becoming ajar and the door/tailgate switch wasn't turning on a light.
I'll have to wait until a bit warmer weather arrives to disconnect the positive cable on the battery and use an ammeter to measure the drain when the car is turned off. I'm wondering what to expect for the parasitic drain on the battery when the car is turned off. I thought around 30 ma was considered the maximum parasitic drain load on a battery with ignition off and should be good for about 3 weeks before the battery drains too low (not dead, just not enough capacity) to start the car.
I have an ancient analog Amprobe ammeter that goes up to 300 A but scales down to a 40 A range. If the drain is lower, I have a digital autoranging DVM that handles 10 A. Starting with the Amprobe, I won't have to worry about opening a door and spiking the battery load to 2 A. I could even test what is the active battery drain when the ignition is turned to On but the car not started. Wonder how much that will be. In fact, it appears some electronics are erratic when trying to capture their parasitic drain. You have to catch them when they latch on, but they eventually go off (and on, and off, and repeat). Apparently turning the ignition on and off (and perhaps repeatedly) will latch them active for awhile.
If the parasitic drain is super high, I don't relish have to wiggle under the dash to pull out a fuse, wiggle out to check the meter, and repeat until the drain suddenly drops. Did the dealer ever do this type of testing looking for which circuit had the highest parasitic drain? Obviously not since the no-start problem remained.
Hmm, I just remembered I have an OBD-2 device (OBDLink LX Bluetooth, see
The dealer says I should attach a battery tender (aka maintainer). Yeah, mask the problem. Same shit they pulled for the head gasket failures by pushing their special coolant with leak-stop goop.
Another query: how far away is far enough to where you lay or store your key fob in your house to keep the car from sensing it? I park the car in a disconnected garage. There could be times when the key fob is on the kitchen table near the side door that is opposite the garage side door. My guess is the key fob would be about 20 feet away from the car at a minimum, and farther most of the time.