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Battery Issue

904 views 2 replies 3 participants last post by  tirerob 
#1 ·
I've had a few issues with my 2012 Hatch WRX and the battery. when I have to go out of town for more than 3 weeks (happens often since I'm in the military) my battery will be dead when I get back. I jump it and drive it around for a while and its fine till I go out of town again. I had my car in for maintenance at Subaru and asked about it. They said that's a common problem with the WRX because of all the "functions with the ECU that are always on". The dealer checked the battery for dead cells and said its fine. They suggested I get a battery maintainer/flow charger to keep it charged when I go out of town. I asked a few friends with WRXs and STIs and they seem to have no issue. So I bring it to you Club WRX. Is this really a common problem or is the dealer feeding me BS? :rolleyes:
 
#3 ·
If your gone for several weeks on deployment at a time you could use a trickle charger. They have smart chargers out now that cycle the battery to keep the cells healthy. Or charge it fully for a day or two when your not driving just before you leave then disconnect the battery. Seems like a pain but cheap. More expensive is ditch the lead asid battery and go with a Optima yellow top deep cycle battery(several hundered bucks). They are designed to withstand slow discharging and hold up over time with phantom and vampiric draws like the ecu and electronics. Could even rig in a capasitive battery to start up the car once per charge to get the alt going....but gods the price. A ten farad capasitive battery is like five hundered bucks....so yeah not for me. I've even seen people rig semi/heavy equipment battery switches under the hoods for exactly the same reason. Car only drives once and a while. But still. You will need to make friends with your charger. The alternator can't recharge the battery well by its self. If its discharged fully, you will need to make sure its fully charged up. This alone might prevent it from dying out in ya.


Myself I am running a 34r( reverse terminal... Because the wires don't stretch long enough in a bug eye and I had to spin the battery around) optima red top. I have let it sit in stupidly below zero Montana weather inside the garage of out. Sometimes for days on end. Started every time and the only battery mod I have is a fancy battery hold down haha.
 
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