New Battery

My 2004 Toyota Tacoma has always gone through batteries quickly.  I haven't ever bothered to hunt down the cause.  I know, shame on me.  Instead, I buy the Gold Level battery from Autozone which comes with a 3-year warranty.  For the most part, my truck will kill the battery within that three year window and Autozone is kind enough to replace it without question.  I had to replace the battery just in the new year after letting my truck sit while on break during The Holidays.  Thankfully, I discovered it because I tried to go to the RC track and play.

The real reason for this post is my new-to-me 2016 Subaru Outback 3.6R Limited I purchased back in July of 2018.  It's fancy.  A little too fancy sometimes.  In this case, I learned the hard way that there is "Off" and "Off-Off" with this car.

The single Off puts the car in Accessory Mode.  What this means is that the electronics are all still on and energized.  The whole car is electronic, so a car battery has zero chance of surviving Accessory Mode if left unchecked.

Well, I let the car sit for a couple of days in Accessory Mode, unaware of it.  The battery was completely dead.  I was only getting 0.22 volts on my multimeter.

So, it was back to Autozone for the second time this year to buy a Gold Level battery for a vehicle.  Thankfully, it wasn't the same vehicle.

The Suby battery is pretty easy to install, it just requires the infamous 10mm socket!  Yes, the very one that every foreign thing needs but always seems to be missing from your socket set.

In my case, I had my 10mm socket, but I needed a deep socket to complete the job.  During the trip to Autozone I made a run to Home Depot and purchased the deep socket as well as a couple other 10mm wrenches to stash in the Suby.

The battery replacement went smoothly and the car instantly started up with a fresh battery.  Another plus: all the radio settings were still there.  As well, the driver seat settings were still there too.  No need to reprogram all that stuff.

I did learn how to make sure the car is Off-Off.  First, put it in park, THEN shut the car off. After leaving the car and closing the doors, use the key fob to lock the car. If you hit the lock button twice, everything turns Off-Off.

Lesson learned.

Until next time, keep it rubber side down!