Slow draining battery on Subaru Forester 2005

[BillG]

My 2005 Forester's battery drains slowly over several weeks. I put a slow charger on it to recharge, but it continues to slowly drain its charge. I read that the car has certain electrical functions with its computer that continue working even while not running. However my 2010 Forester doesn't have this same problem, so I suspect there is some short somewhere in the system that is causing a greater drain on the battery's charge. Any suggestions on how to diagnose this issue or how to locate a short?

 

[DragonWagon]

do you have a meter? youre doing to need one. see how much its drawing when not running, then start pulling fuses until you get the one that's causing it. from there youll have to physically trace out the problem circuit. these are always my least favourite type of problems, good luck

although i am curious, is it only going dead only after sitting or is it also dying when youre out and about using it?

 

[BillG]

The battery is only dying after sitting for long periods of time. This is a 2nd car and isn't driven often.

 

[bmart]

You could just leave it on a trickle charger (cheap) or charge it monthly on a smart charger (also cheap).

 

[BillG]

You could just leave it on a trickle charger (cheap) or charge it monthly on a smart charger (also cheap).

Thanks, that's exactly what I've been doing.

 

[Dick Foster]

You could just leave it on a trickle charger (cheap) or charge it monthly on a smart charger (also cheap).

 

[Dick Foster]

What he said.

 

[DragonWagon]

What he said.

he does say in the post it still goes dead despite trickle charging

 

[BillG]

No, possibly I wasn'y clear enough. It doesn't go dead with trickle charging - I use trickle charging whenever the battery charge gets low, as determined by how slow the car starts. So I charge it about once a month and it takes a couple of days on thge trickle charge.

 

[Dick Foster]

I would just leave it on the maintenance charger. That's how I good care of my rock crawler when it wasn't being driven enough to keep it charged.

 

[oldgraydog]

How close is your key fob ? My battery woes stopped when I put my fob into a closed metal contained like an ammo box this blocked the signal to the car actually produced a cheap faraday cage .

 

[Dick Foster]

How close is your key fob ? My battery woes stopped when I put my fob into a closed metal contained like an ammo box this blocked the signal to the car actually produced a cheap faraday cage .

You also buy Faraday bags that are made specially for car key fobs and key rings. My keys are on a Faraday key ring now. They are made to protect your key fob from being scanned which is something car thieves are doing these days. They also have them for smartphones.