NHTSA Complaint #11427135 — 2015 SUBARU OUTBACK
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM issue reported to NHTSA
Complaint Details
| ODI Number | 11427135 |
| Vehicle | 2015 SUBARU OUTBACK |
| Component | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM |
| Date of Incident | |
| Date Filed | |
| Mileage | N/A miles |
| Crash | No |
| Fire | No |
| Injuries | 0 |
| Deaths | 0 |
| Vehicle Towed | No |
| State | MD |
Consumer Description
My vehicle was purchased in September 2014. Approximately the night of March 9, 2017 my daughter apparently turned on a dome light, which remained on the rest of the night. My car had approximately 45k miles on it. The next day I attempted to start the car, nothing happened. The battery was so dead that even connecting to another vehicle for 20 minutes resulted in no change. I purchased a new battery on 3/10/2017. On 7/10/2021 with approximately 100,000 miles I was at an airport for pickup. I turned my car off upon arrival and waited for 30 - 40 minutes with the key in the ignition. I think that resulted in some lights remaining on. When I attempted to start my car to depart the airport it gave an indication of attempting to start but there was not enough power to facilitate the action. I needed to briefly connect my car to another for enough power to start the vehicle, which has run apparently fine since. Now I have to be vigilant to ensure no internal lights are on for more than a few minutes regardless of situation. Recently I read this article, https://www.motorbiscuit.com/dead-batteries-new-subaru-lawsuit-claims-least-five-models-defective-batteries/, which seems to be the situation I am in. It seems that two batteries in a period of 7 years and approximately 102,000 miles seems a bit excessive. A non-technical analysis leads me to think either Subaru is not putting an adequate power supply in at least their Outbacks, maybe other models based on at least the linked article, or something is wrong with the electrical management system resulting in drains on the battery resulting in significantly shorter battery life than found on other vehicles, which results in additional cost to consumers to replace batteries assuming they die at a convenient time and other costs are not incurred.
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