2016 Outback Battery Dead

dwashel

I have a 2016 Outback with Eyesight. I sat in my car at lunch last week for about an hour with the radio on. When I came back to my car after work (a few hours later), the battery was completely dead.

With cars that I have had in the past this did not seem to be an issue, has anyone else experienced anything like this?

Mr_Shiftright

Is this a stock factory sound system or something installed afterwards? Anything else on, like door or hatch open?

Normally I'd guess you could do this for 4 to 10 hours--but that presumes a fully charged battery in excellent condition, with no other accessories or dome or courtesy lights on, and a "normal" radio maybe drawing 50W or 100W.

dwashel

This is just the stock system. It is possible that something might have been on that I did not notice. The weird thing is that I normally do this and do not have any issue. Since this happened I have been extra cautious on how much time I spend in the car with the engine off

Mr_Shiftright

Well there are a lot of variables that could be affecting this. Best thing I could suggest is this game plan:

1. Have the battery tested---a "load test" to see if it's a weak one or not

2. If the battery passes, then I would do a "parasitic drain test" to see if something ELSE---some other small drain, might have been going on while the radio was also draining the battery. In other words, your normal battery drain with everything off shouldn't be more than say 50 milliamps--maybe 100. But if it's like 400 Ma, then sooner or later your battery is going to run down on you--depending on how long the car sits.

macman4

Listen to see if your fuel pump is running. You will need to get your ear just above the rear tire to hear it. I found my fuel pump running 3 hours after car was shut off. I have 2018 Forester. Another person had the same with a 2013 Forester. If it is running, simply start the car and then shut off. That worked for me. I'm pursuing with dealer or Subaru customer service. They need to acknowledge the is a problem if pump does not shut off with vehicle.