Dead battery.

[BRZlimited]

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?

[ntron1]

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.

[bcj]

Originally Posted by BRZlimited

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?

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.

[chaoskaze]

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?

[Fastbrew]

Originally Posted by chaoskaze

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

[Foobar]

Originally Posted by Fastbrew

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.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[tahdizzle]

Wait, what do you mean it's "dead"?

[quackman]

Originally Posted by bcj

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.

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.

[Poodles]

Originally Posted by chaoskaze

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?

Normal for any car...

[taiguy]

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.

[PWBRZ]

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.

[Turbowned]

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.

[Jyn]

I left my dome light on by accident for about 3 days in ~30 degree weather. Came back and battery wouldn't carry a load according to Autozone. Had the Toyota dealership warranty it and they gave me a different Toyota battery instead of the OEM one in the car.

Car was ~8 mo. old.

[zc06_kisstherain]

stock battery is kinda suck. mine went out. no click whatsoever! i brought autozone to recharge it but they said they cannot. stupid autozone guy doenst know shiiiit sometimes.
i bought a battery charger and charged it myself at home and car started right up.
just drive or idle for 10-15 min per 3 days or 4 days.