A dead car battery!

Vin and I both slept in. He was still in his room sleeping when I went outside to get something out of my car. I clicked the unlock button on my key fob but the car didn't respond! I thought maybe the battery in my remote had died, so I released the physical key from the fob and used it to unlock the driver side door.

After opening the door, I clicked the unlock button on the inside panel of the door, but again, no response. It wasn't the key fob battery after all... the car battery was dead!!

The car had been sitting in Vin's driveway for almost two weeks, while I flew to Raleigh and while we drove to West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania. The car doors were all closed and locked, and the interior lights were off, so two weeks shouldn't have been enough time to drain the battery.

I remembered having received a Technical Service Bulletin from Subaru earlier this year. The bulletin mentions an extended warranty due to a battery drain issue with several Subaru models and model years, and mine was included. The battery drain is related to a parasitic power draw on the "OnStar" module, which tries to call the home base whether or not "OnStar" is enabled. I had saved the Service Bulletin letter in the car glove box in case I ever needed it, so I took it out and read the details -- some of which are shown below.

. . .

. . .

I called the Warranty Extension Hotline. They took down my vehicle's VIN and told me I had to contact a Subaru dealer. When I called a local dealership, they explained to me that they would need to first run a test to see if the DCM is really what is causing my battery drain.

The test takes a half or full day and costs $199. If the test verifies that the DCM is causing the drain then they can fix it without any charge. Otherwise, I have to pay the $199 for the test because my battery drain is caused by something else. He also said their schedule was full and they wouldn't be able to get to it for a day or two.

When I asked if the DCM was usually the culpret in the tests he had run, and he told me the cause usually turned out to be something else. That was disappointing to hear, for more than one reason. It sounds like the cars have other battery issues besides the DCM but Subaru hasn't owned up to it!

Vin has a battery charger at the house, so I hooked it up to the car to charge the battery while I did my laundry. I set the charger to draw about 2 amps because if I put it any higher the amber lights started wealky flashing and if I put it even higher then the horn honked. I let it charge all afternoon. The other strange thing is that the needle on the charger pulsed, but I adjusted it to average around 2 AMPs. The battery was still charging when Vin and I went to dinner. 

Vin also took me to a nearby park along the river. It's a nice park, and the river has several pools where Vin can practice his boating in the water. There was an Arab family cooking lamb kabobs in the picnic area. They were very generous and offered us a taste of the meat they were cooking. We initially declined, but they insisted and we gave in. The meat was good!

When we got back to the house, the battery still wasn't strong enough to unlock the doors, so I called Martin, my neighbor back home, for advice. He knows a lot about cars. He thought it was strange that the amperage pulsated on the charger and that if it was set too high the amber lights flashed and the horn honked. His conclusion was that the car was attempting to do multiple things while the battery was charging, and he suggested I disconnect the battery from the car to avoid any conflicts. I thought that was a great idea!

After disconnecting the battery, we decided to take it to Advance Auto Parts and have them test it to see if it is still good. When they tested the battery, it registered at 0 volts -- totally dead. They suggested I leave it overnight and they would trickle charge it all night and test it again tomorrow. If the battery turns out to be bad, I'll return it to the Subaru dealer for a replacement, since it is only a few months old and still under warranty. We'll wait and see the status tomorrow.