OEM battery not too bad?
 

I have completely abused this battery. It's been run flat probably more than 2 dozen times. Jump started or charged as many.

This is the original battery when I bought the car, 2012. So in a few weeks 4 years on.

Still jump starts fine and will hold enough charge to start for about a week.

Anyone else satisfied with the OEM battery? Seen a lot of negative things about it but from my experience it aint half bad.

I'm afraid I'm a battery abuser too. . Don't use my car much and I can't get a trickle charger to it so the battery runs down.

I use a Snooper jump starter to get it going and it's 2 years into its life.

We had a discussion on batteries dying in a thread a couple of months back and I spent some time digging through here. What I found was that BRZs seem to have battery issues at about a 10 to 1 ratio over FRSs. Now, since the ratio of FRs to BRZs on here is also about 10 to 1 that really is a significant trend. Presuming that both cars have the same OEM battery and the only real difference is all the electronic goodies the BRZ has I can only conclude that one or more of those goodies is creating a parasitic draw that drains batteries faster than the FRS. Hardly scientific and I can not prove my theory but there it is.

I was going to say that I have abused my battery too; however, I'm a BRZ driver... Car is driven once a week now after being a daily driver for the first few years of ownership that stopped in December. I guess we'll see how next winter goes but I know that I've had to jump it once and she still starts right up when I get in it now!

OEM battery is fine as long as electrolyte level is maintained. All the cells on mine cook off at about the same rate. I top it off with distilled water about twice a year.

Somebody drinking it? year and a half and have never had to add a drop.

Shit, Tcoat's onto me!

Dude! That is not what they mean when they say "do acid".


http://mirgif.com/geometrija/tonnel10.gif

ooooo pretty...liiiiights....

http://i.imgur.com/WcIpAp7.gif

Hmmm... must be variations in the voltage regulator. I bet my charge voltage is higher than yours.

I see a ton of powder build up on the negative terminal - I cleaned it off and slathered the terminal and post with silicone paste, but it's back. I read it might be due to overcharging. Since that powder is copper sulfate, if the electrolyte level drops that means even if I add distilled water, I'll have to replace the battery sooner rather than later, right?

Pic back when I cleaned it 8 months ago:
http://i.imgur.com/W8JNwri.jpg

The powder is due to electrolyte leeching through the compromised seal around the post. This is purely a mechanical failure. Once it starts, there's no stopping it. When you get a new battery, be sure to do everything you can to avoid tweaking the posts.

The level does not drop from that little bit leeching through the seals. It drops due to electrolysis - splitting the water molecule into atomic hydrogen and oxygen. The concentration of sulfuric acid increases as the water is lost, and decreases due to sulfation as lead sulfate builds up on the plates.

Distilled water can be added but once the plates start sulfating, that's pretty much the end of the road.

Yeah my battery was dead dead after about a year and a half, switch to duralast gold. I enjoy the better cranking power of a better battery anyways. The stock battery would struggle to start the car under certain conditions

Still tastes better than the rot gut gin at the liquor store.

Its the underglow everyone keeps installing.

....sounds like youve done it before mr. Coat.

2hr of music and mine dies. 1.5yrs old. POS

And how would you know????

Lol


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Just bought a new one last week. Original battery from 2013 model. Worked fine on cold start, was only getting hard to turn on heatsoak. I'd buy it again if not for the convenience of Costco

WOW you got four years out of a battery! Thats pretty damn good. I've not been able to get three years out of a battery. I just concluded they are all pos. The biggest problem I've seen with batteries over the decade is corosion. I've not noticed any in the FRS but I've only had it 5 months

I'm at about the 4 year mark with mine as well, no issues, but I have averaged 48 miles per day since purchased (with most weekdays being around 90) so it stays pretty well charged. Also, I almost never run accessories with the engine off.

Admittedly, I hadn't checked mine in a while, guess I need to add that to my to-do list for this weekend.

In the reverse of this situation I have not had to replace a battery in a car in almost 20 years and have been impressed with how they have stayed corrosion free.

Based on your description above it sounds like you DO HAVE a problem with your battery in the first place. Or you are just not too bright screwing up in a way that can cause you to "run flat probably more than 2 dozen times".


That's kind of like saying "The flame retardant in my racing suit works Great! IN the dozen times I have had to extinguish it while on fire, it went right out".

Mine lasted 1.5 yrs... then it started leaking and fucked stuff up... replaced with a shorai lw battery, because racecar

Mine lasted 4 months, then it started leaking everywhere, And i said hell no get that piece of crap out of there and then had to clean the tray and around the tray very thoroughly to ensure it didn't eat anything. And I installed a Die hard(worked at sears at the time), and i didnt expect this battery to last very long, but it sat for 5 months and through winter and I took the cover off and it started right up, didnt even crank slow.

Still on my factory battery. Strong as day-one.

?

My car sits a lot and the battery goes flat. :iono:

Not sure how the is similar to me being on fire multiple times. Flamer:flame::evil::evil:

I'm not sure that having a battery that survives going flat a lot means it is a good battery.

I'll try a different analogy:


"Those run flats are the best tire I've ever had! The two dozen times I have had a flat, the sidewalls held up just fine!"

If that's the case, get a good tender and keep it plugged in. You will have problems with any brand because lead-acid self-discharges and the plates sulfate. Either DD, or keep it floated.

The inevitable has happened, I managed to kill my battery, just 4500 miles under its terminals! Subaru has exchanged it under warranty. The replacement is a Varta sealed unit.. I have also invested in a quick terminal release widget as I don't use the car much, planning to disconnect the battery in such cases.

If it sits, no matter what the brand, get a tender on it.

I can very much recommend the Battery Tender Junior. I left my car on this for 6 months while I was deployed. My only preparations for long term sitting were this battery tender and some Sta-bil in the gas tank. The car started up immediately when I returned.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000CITK8S/

I can't get power to a battery tender. Has anyone used solar panels and if so can they be connected from inside the car?

Would have to find a connection to the unswitched +12V rail. I don't have any experience with panels but am curious.

I have wondered if the cigarette lighter socket works as a route for a trickle charger....

That would work only if the socket were active with the key turned off. Honestly never tried it to see.

I think it is described as a power socket by Subaru.

It dies when the key is in the off position. Not sure about the one in the glove box.

As mentioned by @Tcoat we've had threads about this. I'm on my third battery, all covered under warranty. I admit the third may have been my fault though; but they still covered it so I give Subaru credit.

I think the glove box lighter is the same. turns off when car is off.