Dead battery.
 

So it has been cold here in Colorado and I think it caused my battery to die. I have another vehicle that I drive if there is snow on the ground, but today was nice so I decided to take the BRZ out. It was only about a week ago that I last drove it. Is this typical? Should I be shopping for an Optima battery to replace the factory one? Plus, my dash no longer says what gear I am in (manual trans). How do I get it to do that again? Thanks in advance!

Your battery shouldn't be dead after a week no matter how cold it is. The car also isn't old enough for it to just need to be replaced. Though I suppose it could be a defective battery. I'd be more inclined to think you accidentally left a light on.
Yet another reason I'm going all-LEDs soon :P

That's the thing. I couldn't find a light that was left on. As long as it is not a known problem I won't worry about it unless it happens again. Anyone have ideas on how to restore the gear indicator?

Mine does the same. the battery is weak.

Mine sat outside in co also during the last snow and fired up just fine after a week of sitting

Edit: Desktop version:
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL50fh9-_9A"]2013 BRZ FRS: How To Set Shift Light and More HD - YouTube[/ame]

Thanks!

Stock battery is hit or miss. Several of us have seen it lose charge quickly.

I've got an Optima yellow top now.

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The car will shut off any lights accidentally left on after 20 mins.

Really, why do you need an Internet post to help you determine if your battery is bad. Go to an auto parts store and get it tested.

did you arm your car with alarm? but if you have warranty, you should always go back to dealer to claim it.

When the battery is disconnected, the Gear Indicator and Rev light/indicator will go back to default, which is off. Fortunately your radio stations will stay the same. But for your situation its a dead battery rather than a disconnect. There might be a parasitic draw somewhere like a light left on somewhere that will drain your battery. Anything above 50mA (0.050A) is too high of a draw with car off.

It was to see if it was a common problem and whether or not I should replace it with an after market one. Not all batteries are built the same. Some factory batteries are down right cheap.

My 13 BRZ doesn't do that. I left the dome light on far hours once.

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Battery could have a bad cell and not be holding a charge properly. Perform a load test on it.

Interesting, either I misread the manual or it lied. Now I'm gonna have to dig that up again.

I went and had mine tested. I won't post the results and the rest of the story because it might upset ckkone.

I think the 20 minute auto shutoff only applies to headlights.

Yeah, only shuts off the headlights.
The trunk button got pushed while in my pocket one evening just after I got mine.
Next day the battery was flattened by the trunk light.
It recovered with a battery tender and is still working fine today.

Also in CO, also came out to find a dead battery however, mine was sitting for several weeks while I was out of town.

Left it on a charger for a few hours. Came back after another week and it's reading 11.75 V

I have it on the charger again but I fear that it may be too far gone.

This is actually very interesting, it's happened to me twice already as well. The last time it happened I drove from work to my girlfriends house. The car sat there for 30 minutes with nothing on what so ever and wouldn't start, once we gave it cables it started right up. We must have defective or weak batteries.

3 bad cells
 

Mine sat for a week and is now dead. I took the battery out and ran it to Auto Zone and they said it has 3 bad cells. Bought the car band new a year ago. Lightweight battery here I come if the dealer wont warranty it.

Dang, guys, I get antsy if I leave my car alone for more than one day.

Yep this battery is weak if you leave it for more than a couple days.

Also, does anybody know if it's necessary to top off the OEM battery after a couple years? And if so does anybody have a tutorial.

the stock batteries have caps on the top to add distilled water to each cell when it gets low. It is hard to tell what the water level is but there is an upper and lower line on the outside of the battery. I just can never get a clear view of where the water line is. Anyone have a trick to tell?? (on my old cars I would bounce them and see how the water moves, but the BRZ is too stiff to bound up and down by pushing on it, plus you run the risk of denting in the sheet metal!)

Mine had a bad alternator. Sputtered and died while in neutral. Lights would flicker whenever the car would try to start.

Never bounce or otherwise whack a wet lead-acid battery.

Inside the inspection/fill hole, there is a split tube that reaches down to the top of the fill line. You can see the meniscus touching it when you have the proper fluid level.

Someone else said it - use only distilled water.

I'll have to look down the fill hole next time! Thanks

R u running a tune?

Sorry to revive an old thread but this is something I always wondered. If we add distilled water to our batteries wouldn't that freeze if the car was sitting during the winter?

Had two occasions in two weeks when the battery died. Car was sitting out in 20F weather without being driven. Guess I will just call Subi Roadside assistance each time this happens until they decide to put a real battery in it under warranty.

Water in a battery is a sulfuric acid / water mix.
High acid = charged. Higher water ratio = discharged.

The acid mix has a much lower freezing point than distilled water alone.
The battery won't freeze even if discharged to the point that it won't crank.
It's not all water in there even at that point.

I left my car in garage with dome light on for like 2 or 3 day then battery is dead.

It is pretty weak I guess?

Doesn't sound right. I think that dome will cut off after 20 minutes.

http://www.joomag.com/magazine/subar...10946?page=257

Only when switch is on door mode. If you manually turn it on, it kills the battery. Happened to me in the JFK long term parking. Bleh.

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Wait, what do you mean it's "dead"?
http://i.ytimg.com/vi/fJaGZPiCJmE/hqdefault.jpg

THANK YOU for posting this! I was so confused about why my battery was dead today even though I just drove it two days ago (and for quite a while that day). I went to my car and the trunk "opened" fine while I put some stuff in it.... but then the door wouldn't unlock, nor start, and the lights wouldn't work. I try opening the trunk again and it's not opening (I have keyless access). I chalked that up to "Oh, I guess I was able to open the trunk fine the first time bc that was the battery's last breath before dying." But, nope: it's because it wasn't fully closed from when I last used the car, which was to get groceries!

I close my trunk by pushing on the license plate to avoid touching the paint (it's failed to close properly at least once before, and the door-open light let me know after driving off a few minutes later). But now that I know the trunk's light can kill the battery if it's not closed properly.... I'll be touching my paint by closing the trunk normally--pushing straight down from the top.

Normal for any car...

So I finally got this taken care of. It was a tremendous amount of frustration and effort for what was just a dead battery. The subaru dealership wanted the entire car to be brought in, not just the battery. Subaru roadside assistance sent the wrong tow truck twice (our cars need wheel lifts and dollies). I did learn that keyless entry is nice until your battery dies and locks the steering column with it.

Finally the dealership sent a tech out with a new battery and we got the battery swapped and then drove the car along with both batteries to the dealership for testing.

At first they wanted to blame the dead battery on my audio amp. A quick test and some easy deduction showed that not to be the case. However, they were still stumped because the parasitic draw was over 100mA while most other cars in the shop (imprezas, forester, etc.) were around 30mA.

They called Subaru up. Subaru said we don't have a spec for the BRZ but pointed the tech to a published guideline of less than 70mA. After enough fuse pulling they tested a showroom BRZ and it was drawing 150mA. They deemed my 120mA to be "under spec" according to this and ended up replacing the battery.

The lesson here is our cars seem to draw significantly more current than other vehicles while off. If you're going to leave it for the winter, it's best to put the battery on a float charger. I now have a pigtail running out the hood into the garage to keep things topped off.

Here's the official write up.

http://i.imgur.com/bhsFikH.png

Not sure if your battery draw would qualify it for this TSB but it sounds like it:

Service Bulletin # 07-85-14
Bulletin Description: This bulletin will provide the proper procedure for measuring Dark Current (parasitic battery draw) along with the specification for maximum allowable limits. Customer concerns of batteries going dead over a period of time should be diagnosed using this procedure once any obvious contributing factors have been eliminated.

Got this from the following website: http://techinfo.subaru.com/search/index.html
Search Technical Service Bulletins. Unfortunately, the pdf requires a login/subscription to get the full pdf for the TSB.

I lefte mine for a couple weeks in a heated garage and it went dead. I brought it to work to charge and the smart charger apparently indicated a bad battery. I have to wait til Spring to get the car out of storage and warranty the battery.