Strange battery & non-cranking problems - please help ??

[smallhagrid]

This is about our 2011 Outback.

We’ve had a very strange couple of days with it & now it is parked where the towing service put it - and will go no farther until it can be fixed somehow.

Monday 11/14 it started & was used to get to work with zero problems - then after work its battery was suddenly too weak for it to crank.

(No interior lights or anything were left on during work time.)

After having a co-worker offer a jump, it did crank over & start.

It got home OK (~20 miles) - and again had not enough juice to re-start.

Oddly, the battery read 12.7V on the DVM...so it was put on to charge for ~3 hours with our 10A charger - after which it was still too weak & again still came up with 12.7V somehow.

The next day that battery was totally flat - as if there had been something draining it all night.

Later a spare, used battery was installed & it started right up with no problems & no trouble lights of any sort.

Since that battery was years old & marginal at best the OB was driven ~45 minutes away to go buy a new battery - again - no problems indicated.

Came out with the brand new battery - swapped it into the car - and that is when the troubles began...

Attempting to start it had the dash lighting up normally, but when cranking was attempted all that was heard was a very quiet relay type sound seeming to be on the passenger side - but zero cranking.

(Sort of like what happens when cranking is attempted with just a plain steel, unchipped key...)

Thinking the new battery was weak somehow, the booster pack was attached - same result.

Swapped the old battery back in - no change.

Our OB has the genuine Subaru remote starter - so the car was locked & that was tried - it made 3-4 attempts with just the same results & quit.

Being totally baffled - the OBD reader was attached & showed 1 code, for CPS bank A as I recall.

At that point, after trying what I could, AAA was called to tow it home.

While waiting, I spoke with a friend who is a trained mechanic (though only seldom works on Subarus) & he said that to his knowledge there was no super secret decoder ring or other arcane stuff needed - just swap the batteries, and all SHOULD be well.

He also commented that most likely the CPS code should not have prevented it from cranking normally - whether it could then start, or not.

At this point all the above has created concern & of course confusion as doing such a simple thing should have been just that - simple - but turned out so badly.

Hopefully someone here can shed some light upon this situation before the OB has to be towed in for service.

Thanks for any helpfuly replies !!

 

[smallhagrid]

Wow.
9 days since posting & nary a peep in response.
Wow twice.

 

[AMLOR]

Wow.
9 days since posting & nary a peep in response.
Wow twice.

So this is going to be a guess since I am not looking at the car. I also am new to Subies, but they are not all that different than most Japanese cars.
Has the starter motor been tested off the car? The issue MAY not be the battery. You MAY have a failing starter motor.
Messing with the batteries will probably not confirm the condition of the starter motor one way or the other.
Starters, like all high torque electrical motors, eventually fail. In the past I have seen this occur on cars, ceiling fans, A/C blower motors, etc. They all work on the same basic principal, and they all will fail eventually.
Intermittent starting is a common sign of a dying electric motor.
You also did not mention whether you have a Lead Acid or an AGM battery. 12.7 volts is about right for a Lead acid, and a bit low for an AGM. but again; voltage alone WILL NOT tell you the working capacity of any battery, even a new one.
They MUST be load tested to know for sure.
There is an outside chance that the Starter Relay has taken a crap. the relay is essentially an on/off switch. If it acts up, so will your ability to start...
This car is 15 ish years old. That is a LOT of starts...may just be your time.
Good Luck!
AMLOR

 

[smallhagrid]

Thanks for replying after all this time (Nov 16, 2022) !!

As it ended up...
After I had it AAA towed home on that cold night, just for yuks I took my small hammer to it & gave it a couple of whacks - and it cranked right up fine.

So after finding out that it was a non-rebuildable model from someone that does that work, I ordered a new one, had it put in & it has been fine ever since;
Thank Goodness !!

 

[AMLOR]

Thanks for replying after all this time (Nov 16, 2022) !!

As it ended up...
After I had it AAA towed home on that cold night, just for yuks I took my small hammer to it & gave it a couple of whacks - and it cranked right up fine.

So after finding out that it was a non-rebuildable model from someone that does that work, I ordered a new one, had it put in & it has been fine ever since;
Thank Goodness !!

Glad I could help! and in my defense I have only been on the forum since July 9!
AMLOR

 

[smallhagrid]

Thanks Again Amlor.
The OB is a daily driver & needed fixing ASAP.
If it had been OOC more than a few days the problems would have become immense.
Fortunately, between the hammer & fast shipping it got resolved pretty quickly.

 

[AMLOR]

Anytime!

 

[JohnboyIII]

To me this issue may relate to the Vampire Draining of the Battery. There was a period (I have a 2019 Outback), and it was giving me hell - three batteries in a little over a year. Turns out, the Data Link for the StarLink (or whatever its called), is continually in communications with a satellite and back somewhere in the SOA that keeps track of your car for Emergencies etc. For over three years, minimum, Subaru knew what was happening and did nothing - despite some of the Subaru Forums were screaming about it and some guys had fixes for it. I constantly haggled with the Dealer and of course they gave me all kinds of goofy answer - the little light in the ceiling at the rear gate was being left on - the could have been the problem because the tiny computer in the back gate controls all of that, and it could be bad. I just had them take the bulb out. You can hardly realize that that light is on anyway. Well, FINALLY, SUBARU CAME UP WITH A SOLUTION - a very simple rewiring of some of the fuses, so that the StarLink would turn OFF when the car was turned off. NO MORE PROBLEMS. Look around in some more of the Subaru Forums and you will find that this was the case. It is amazing how much good info is on these Forums. The dealers should have someone who makes it is job to monitor all these Subaru Forums - cause they Forum guys often know more that the Mechanics.

 

[JohnboyIII]

P.S. This Vampire sucking the juice of the batteries was a real hassle. Should you park your car in an Airport Lot, then fly off for three weeks vacation in Paris, when you came back, maybe to a pitch dark parking lot, the battery was dead as a door nail. Something in the batteries have been changed. In the old days, you could tell your battery was getting wonky. Today, that doesn't seem to happen, it just goes DEAD, DEAD DEAD. There is no residual power.