Anyone having trouble with a bad battery or am I just unlucky? After about 1,000 miles the battery on my 2020 OB Ltd went completely dead. Local dealership tested the battery out and said it was defective. Adding insult to injury, dealership claims there are no spare batteries in my local area (Seattle/Tacoma). After 1 week with a loaner car they locate a battery in Houston and tell me it's going to be another 4 days till they have it on site to install in my car. At this point I suggest they just swap out a battery from one of the new 2020's on their lot. My service guy says the batteries in those cars could have the same issue. He recommends I wait for the "new and improved" one coming from Houston. I reluctantly agree to wait longer. Long story short--it seems there is low level of confidence in the batteries installed in the initial run of 2020 outbacks. After doing a little online research, battery issues may have have plagued various Subaru models for a few years now. Just wondering if anyone else has so more background
dkirivng
2,161 - 2,180 of 2,188 Posts
We recently acquired a '23 Outback Onyx and we love it so far, but I feel the battery is a bit weak.
Not sure If it has been mentioned/covered before on this thread, but has anyone ever purchased the iWire aftermarket battery grounding kit?
Not sure If it has been mentioned/covered before on this thread, but has anyone ever purchased the iWire aftermarket battery grounding kit?
Why would I attach a ground to my plastic intake manifold?
Did you watch the whole video? They grounding kit is obviously not going to be mounted on plastic components.
I asked because I always see older '90s-'00s imported JDM vehicles bring such grounding kits installed on those cars, particularly in Subaru models. I thought maybe this same process could help our car's ignition system here. I haven't seen many folks do this here in the US though.
I asked because I always see older '90s-'00s imported JDM vehicles bring such grounding kits installed on those cars, particularly in Subaru models. I thought maybe this same process could help our car's ignition system here. I haven't seen many folks do this here in the US though.
Joined
·
1,057 Posts
Your 2023 is adequately grounded, and an overpriced wire loom won't make the battery perform better. What sorts of things are you seeing that makes it seem like the battery is weak?
When I'm starting the car it doesn't feel like... it wants to immediately start, it's a bit "sluggish" per say. We bought this car used with 17K miles, so the battery hasn't probably been replaced yet. I'll measure the resting and starting voltage tomorrow with my multi-meter tomorrow.
I'd like to get one of those battery load tester from Harbor Freight, always good to have one of those around.
I'd like to get one of those battery load tester from Harbor Freight, always good to have one of those around.
I did not watch the entire video. Based upon your question, I went back and watched the entire video. The narrator does not address modern plastic intake manifolds. I then went to the iWire site and they do not list anything for our vehicles.
Joined
·
1,057 Posts
That's a good idea. An engine that turns over slowly could absolutely be a sign of declining battery health. I think looking there is a good start.
I've diagnosed grounding issues on old cars before, or on aftermarket equipment that causes issues. They sell grounding straps at the auto parts store for a few dollars, but I highly highly doubt that a 3 year old car is already in need of an electrical correction. Save your money for a nice tool like you said.
Joined
·
220 Posts
Been shopping around for a 2025. Is this something I should be worried about or has this issue been resolved being a 2025?
Joined
·
1,057 Posts
I have had zero issues with the battery after two years, as have most owners. It seems to be a roll of the dice and some cars have the issue and others do not. It could be related to driving routines or storage or a million other variables, but it hasn't been 100% figured out why specific owners encounter this problem.
05 GT wagon(sold), 09 Spec B(sold), 18 3.6R Outback, 2024XT
Joined
·
3,975 Posts
Seems like the cars like to be driven for distance. If you only drive a couple of miles and shut it off. your going to have battery issues. I learned from the mistakes of others, many years ago, that cars like to be driven, not for only short distances.
I've been on a Subaru Legacy GT forum for over 20 years. Put 306,000 miles on my 2005, those of us with high miles had far fewer issues with the car. The 05 had all its original sensors, except for the O2's.
Are you really sure you want to give up your 18 3.6 ? Mine had 56,000 miles. I do enjoy it, maybe more than our 24XT.
I'll add in my own experiences. My 24 Outback isn't part of the TSB that enlarged the battery. That being said, I could just buy the parts myself and install it as I don't think there's any reason to believe a larger tray wouldn't fit in all generation 6 Outbacks.
I've been driving the Outback for just over 2 years. On short trips I typically turn on the headlights and on longer trips I leave it on auto. I haven't noticed any struggling while starting the car. I use a Topdon BT100 battery tester and I've seen charge levels as low as 23% and as high as 100%. Battery health is roughly around 70%.
I'm still debating on grabbing the larger tray and install the larger battery or just stick with the existing size and get an AGM version when my OEM version needs replacing.
There isn't any reason to replace the battery at the moment so I'm just continuing to monitor the situation.
Joined
·
1,958 Posts
I just proactively replaced the flooded stock battery with an H5 AGM Clarios (made in Germany) from Walmart on our '24, since I don't like flooded batteries. And it's much better than the stock one. I didn't see the need to add more weight with a bigger battery, since I always charge my vehicles weekly. So I just put the equivalent one (H5), even though it costs exactly the same ($179) as the H6, and even H7. And it performed perfectly fine on the 2 long trips we've made so far, so happy with the change. A $200 battery is absolutely no reason to not consider a vehicle, but to each his own.
Hey MaxCapacity 👋🏻 I’m a LegacyGT forum member myself. We still have our ‘05 OBXT with 237K miles on the chassis and still running! 🚗 I swapped the motor at 212K miles though.. those ej20x are great engines.
Joined
·
4,039 Posts
So, I set up my Noco Genius 10 today and it went right to the green pulsing light which indicates that it's fully charged and basically just optimizing at this point...
Think I should send it through the repair process? Or just let it be? Maybe the voltage sag on the interior electronics is artificially showing a lower number than what's actually ready to go.
I may try it on my other vehicle (Honda Pilot) to see if that actually charges it up a bit.
Think I should send it through the repair process? Or just let it be? Maybe the voltage sag on the interior electronics is artificially showing a lower number than what's actually ready to go.
I may try it on my other vehicle (Honda Pilot) to see if that actually charges it up a bit.
My wife leaves the light switch set to running lights all the time on her MY23 as a defect work-around so the alternator always charges the battery when the engine is running on short trips. I drove this car the other day with the same light switch setting, and I noticed the headlights automatically came on at dusk. I didn't expect this because the manual doesn't mention this feature. It only mentions the auto-headlights feature when the light switch is on "Auto". This is good news. Are other people seeing the same behavior with the running lights setting?
Another feature of the "Auto" light setting is that the headlights come on after the wipers are on for about 30 seconds. Have other people noticed whether or not the running lights setting has the same feature?
I don't get to drive my wife's car much to test this, but I want her to be safe.
Another feature of the "Auto" light setting is that the headlights come on after the wipers are on for about 30 seconds. Have other people noticed whether or not the running lights setting has the same feature?
I don't get to drive my wife's car much to test this, but I want her to be safe.
Interesting - I have a 2020 Onyx XT and with running lights on (not auto) it doesn't turn on at dusk so maybe it's a change with the 2023 refresh? Also my headlights don't turn on after 30 seconds of wiper.
I run with the Running Lights/Parking Lights on 24/7. The Daytime Running Lights (DRLs) are on as soon as I'm out of park AND the parking brake is off. I've never seen the headlights brighten to Headlight Mode, automatically at dark. I've always had to either switch to Headlight Mode or go to Auto Mode. I'll go to Headlight Mode when I'm on a long trip, want Fog Lights, or want brights.
So I think I was correct in my assessment of the ‘23 Outback’s battery being kind of weak. As I mentioned before, the car starts kind of sluggish, compared to our ‘25 Forester which fires up right away. I load tested the battery today and came up with these results: before and after the load. I tried taking the picture as perpendicular to the tester as I could to give a reliable as possible reading.
I also measured the Voltage with the Multi-meter:
Resting Voltage was 12.46V (I'd like to see this at least 12.5V)
Operating Voltage after starting the car, went up to 14.25V
I also measured the Voltage with the Multi-meter:
Resting Voltage was 12.46V (I'd like to see this at least 12.5V)
Operating Voltage after starting the car, went up to 14.25V
Attachments
The function might of been disabled in the settings. You can enable it under
Settings | Car | Auto Light Sensor | Wiper Link.
As long as it's on the Auto position it will turn on the headlights after the wiper cycles though several times and turn off the headlights after a minute the wiper stops.
2,161 - 2,180 of 2,188 Posts
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
