Update - Subaru Outback, Ascent Battery Drain Lawsuit What You Should Know

I have a 2017 Subaru Outback. I'm on my 4th battery. The good news is that my batteries keep crapping out before the warranty expires so they keep replacing it. The bad news is that the problem will persist.

First off I love Subaru and they have excellent customer service. My daily driver is a 2012 Impreza, runs great and never had any battery issues. My gf just purchased a 2021 outback a week and and the battery already died. Consider getting a full service check beforehand.

I just had this happen to my 2021 Outback XLT....when I called the dealership service department I asked them what I would do if my car was parked at the airport for a week or so with me being on vacation....they said I would probably have to remote start it periodically so this doesn't happen?! Are you kidding me?

2020 Subaru Outback, battery started failing approx 8 months into ownership.. I have had multiple situations where i was stranded. Luckily my 2013 Lexus and 1998 BMW will start. How do i join the class action lawsuit. This is not acceptable. This last was when needed to catch a flight....guess what would not start...

I bought a 2021 outback made two trips of 800 miles each. Car had 1.800 miles and the battery died on my 5 times. Just today after changing it snd driving 400 miles it died ar the dealer as soon as I turned it off.
This is bad news.

Less than 5k miles on a 2020 Outback. Battery dead 5 times. Getting "new battery" today from dealer who says I just need to drive car more!! Ready to join lawsuit.

Subaru 2019 Ascent. Love my car, but it's had the electrical thing just show up out of the blue about 3 x year! We have gone to carrying a jump start kit in the back of our car. After seeing this article, I have made an appointment to get it looked at. This time the rear gate has permanently looked, I've tried everything to get it to open. I was quizzed as to, 'did you leave a light on inside' etc. Now I can talk about this battery drain problem and will get after them to fix or replace. How do they fix this problem, by the way?

I bought a Subaru 2021 Outback and it died many times in the first month.
I had Subaru replacing the original battery for a different model free o charge and so far.my car stays weeks in the garage without being driven and I have had no problems.
I did refere to Torque News and they keep saying that this was an isolated problem.
Good luck for everyone was it was very scary for me at First.
I was lucky that I scheduled an appt with them an d I have driver 400 miles without turning the car of afraid to be stranded on the road and when I arrived there I turned off the car and turned them again and guess what, the car did not started. At that point the only way out for them it was to do the right thing and change that battery.

This has happened 3 times on my 2021 Outback. Parked in my garage last time, wouldn’t start after sitting for 4 days. Nothing left on

2021 Subaru Outback bought in July of this year - only have 1600 miles on it and have had to get it jump started three times. I brought it to one dealership when I was stranded out of town and they tested the battery and said it was fine. They insisted I had left a light on inside. I doubt I would have left interior lights on this many times. There is definitely some issue with the battery draining - taking it into the the dealership again after a third time.

2 year old Subaru Ascent less than 20k....cant leave hatch open more than 10 minutes or battery will die. Also if car hasn't been started in more than a day..will need a jump start. Took to dealer they said no issue at all with electrical system OR battery!. and they said "you shouldn't leave your rear hatch open for long periods of time"..!! It appears they know there is an issue and are being told to say this. They said they had to hook it up to a charger to "test the battery and the electrical system". DON'T BUY A SUBARU ASCENT

My 2020 Subaru Outback started to have dead battery issues starting about 1 week ago. Its pretty clear that the problem is associated with "something" draining the battery after I turn off the car. If I leave the car turned off for 12+ hours overnight, I can't start the car. When I disconnect the battery from the car at night, I don't have the problem. I've had the car 21 months/8K miles before this problem started happening. Very frustrating. I now connect a battery charger to the battery at night (2amp trickle charge mode) to prevent a dead battery in the morning (disconnecting the battery works as well but a bigger pain to do so. My local Subaru dealer service is backed up so I won't be able to get them to look at this for another 12 days. If the solution is another OEM battery, then it probably won't solve my issue. Does anyone know if buying a higher quality/AMP battery resolves this? I'm willing to do so if it really works!!

2021 Outback with less than 8k miles. So far battery has died 5 times. Just took it to the dealer and they said everything is fine. They actually blame us for not driving the car more. Unbelievable!. Trying to figure out what my next step should be. Clearly the dealership won't address the issue if they don't acknowledge it.

By 2020 Outback started having overnight battery drain problems after 21 months, 8K miles. I too suspected that I would be told that I wasn't driving the car enough (COVID collateral damage). However, when I took the car in to be serviced, they discovered that the dome light in my cargo area was in the "ON" position (they discovered this via testing the fuse draws when the car wasn't running). Sure enough, when the dome light was changed to the "DOOR" position, the problem went away.

The above problem was occurring for 5-6 weeks. The constant draining and recharging of the battery eventually killed the battery. Unfortunately, the battery took its last gasp of breathe when I was 30 miles from home. I couldn't jump start the battery so I had to replace it by walking to an auto parts dealer and buying a new battery. To make matters worse, when I took the car in for service, the dealership would not honor the new car battery warranty because the failed battery was not installed in the engine compartment (I had the failed battery on the floorboard of the rear seat). I did convince them to test the failed battery which confirmed it was totally dead. This nonsense of not honoring the battery warranty because it was not in the engine compartment is a total joke. What was I supposed to do, switch batteries after I drove into the service department? I've written a letter to Subaru corporate about this. It will be interesting to see what they say (or not).

Last comment: the dome light in the cargo area being in the "ON" position was totally accidental. I didn't even realize it existed and there is certainly no dashboard indicator that its enabled. I've since put a piece of tape over the dome light on/off/door switch to prevent this from accidentally happening again. This most likely happened when I was putting larger objects into my cargo area :(

My father bought a 2017 Subaru outback and had battery dying and the dealership told him he had to start it everyday to prevent the battery from dying. What a joke! My father bought it late 2019 or 2020. He has passed from Covid last December and the battery went dead twice and we replaced it. The 2nd time I took it to the Subaru dealer and said fix it and don't tell me to start it everyday like you told my dad. They said they found a short in the tail gate light. Well guess what the car has a dead battery again. That's 3 new batteries in 2 and a half years. What a joke. My dad paid almost 50,000 for this car cash! What can we do?

In my 2016 Outback, the OEM battery died after 3 years. AAA put in a replacement and gave me a 3 year full replacement warranty.

That battery died after 2 years while getting gas – had to get pushed away from the pump and luckily the guy behind me had jumper cables. That go me home and I got a brand spanking new AAA battery free of charge.

One incident – stuff happens. Two? No way.

I was at Subaru this morning for an unrelated item and the service guy said that everything electrically was okay. The problem is that if the car sits idle for more than 3 days the computer starts draining the battery and that can cause irreparable harm which can eventually lead to premature failure. SOLUTION: Make sure to run the car at least every three days.

REALLY????

Replacing my battery for the second time in my 2019 Subaru Outback purchased new May of 2019. First dead battery and replacement purchased a year after purchase and second dead battery and purchase of new battery December 31, 2021. Now just a little over a year after the first replacement. December 31 2021 Found myself stranded in the snow in the mountains after a brief stop to let the family out to take pictures. We Sat for over 2 hours while 2 different roadside services tried to find a tow truck to come to our aid. No one wanted to come to the mountains. Finally another car with jumper cables helped us out. Luckily I was in a local parking lot the first time.. sadly After reading these comments and knowing our Subaru dealer repair is useless as this is my third Subaru and probably my last now. I Just went and bought another battery. Guess this means every year I just prepare myself to have to buy a new $200 battery so I can trust my cars safety.

The battery in my 2020 Subaru outback ( the 4th Subaru since 1996) died in November 2021. The dealer in Oneonta (upstate NY) told me it was because I left the key inside the car. This drained the battery to beyond jump. We had to charge it for overnight to be able to start it. It died again in a day. We took it to Competition Subaru in Smithtown, NY where the battery was replaced. What will be next? Where we will be left strangled? I lost confidence in Subaru.

We bought a new outback touring and ts been just two weeks and we had a flat battery. This is in Western Australia and here Subaru isn't as popular as Toyota. Wish had stuck around with lexua or Toyota.

I have outback 2020. I already have experienced four times of dead battery. This situation caused so much inconvenience and a feeling of insecurity.

My Suraru went dead 2 times in a week and last week I could not start it with a jumperI I had to call the AA for a heavy jump. Eery time I go to use you the car I PRAY IT WILL start This is my first Subaru and it wll be my last unlast they can do something to settle the problem.

2019 Subaru Ascent, brand new, brought it home, next day go out to run errands. Dead battery. Called On Star as it came with the car for a trial period, they came out an hour or so later and jumped it. Next day went out to run errand, same thing dead battery. Called On Star again, waited 1-2 hours, guy shows up jumps it. Asked me should I be expecting to come here every day? LOL! So 2 days later, planned to visit dealership, contractor at house gave me a jump start. So now 3 times, on a brand new car dead battery. Went to dealership & it took over an 1 hour as they wanted to place the car on their diagnostics machine to see if the battery was the issue. DAAAHH!. So got a new battery. This Subaru is an electrical nightmare, you can here the rear hatch solenoid clicking on and off when you start the car. The locking mechanism can & will freeze the car not to start. If dome light, just 1 is left on, dead battery next day. The back hatch opens up out to the blew & locks on you but gives you warning lights on the dash, something is wrong. But you cant open the back hatch. Stuck in a truck stop for over 1 hour, going threw all the exercises in the Subaru manual. BEST SOLUTION, unplug the battery, just like a computer, let it be dead. Could go on with this electrical miss engineering design that is not safe. Family car, back hatch you cant leave open. So if you have one of those tents that connect to back hatch, its useless. The funny thing is Subaru shows this advertisement for camping. This is electrical nightmare. Go back to simple unlock, lock, & I can close the back hatch by myself without electrical assistance. Because your engineering on electrical current does not exists. Car should be called,”we strand your family”. Love the car, get rid of all that electronically junk. I know how to drive.

I notice this as well. Our subaru outback wagon 2016 vintage, sits for weeks at a time. Drains the battery completely. After charging, I am now going to disconnect the battery negative terminal between uses. Glad I saw these comments.

Subarus supposedly gets high ratings. I hate my Subaru. I have had nothing but problems with it since I bought it brand new 5 years ago. I am going back to Chevy. The worst car ever.