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Ascent Trunk Open Battery Drain - Status??

25K views 68 replies 26 participants last post by  Robert.Mauro 
#1 ·
Do we know where this is at Subaru?
Has there been any efforts to chase this down with SoA?
There was a rumor floating around a month or so ago that Subaru was well aware of the issue and was going to release a fix/TSB for this.
Any new info?
Robert, do you know of anything official yet? Can you ask? I can call SoA, I just don’t know if I’d be wasting my time as something may already be in the works.
 
#2 ·
Took the dog out this morning and my lifgate on my 2020 is open about 3 feet. ???????
Nothing missing but battery is dead.
I bought the car new in late November and have 3K miles on it.
What's up with this? Liftback hadn't been up since Saturday.
Charging the battery now and researching I see this is an issue people are having.
I love the vehicle but now I'm concerned this is a glitch that can just randomly happen?
Not happy!!!!!
 
#19 ·
Welcome to owning an Ascent. This happened to me 2 weeks after I bought my Ascent. I went to a herding trial and left my dogs in SUV with the tailgate open. Surprise, when I got ready to leave the battery was dead. Went in to the dealership and their answer was that you can't leave the tailgate open. I put a switch on my battery so I can disconnect it when I have the hatch open. Last weekend I was at an agility trial and had the tailgate open long enough to load my SUV (about 30 minutes, so didn't think I would need to disconnect the battery). Once again a dead battery. Just talked to the service department and they suggested not leaving the hatch open for more than 15 minutes. Really!!???
 
#3 ·
@Keysguy there are several threads about the lift gate draining the battery and a couple more about accidental litigate openings. Just google or use the site search function. There’s plenty to read to keep you busy!
Since it only opened 3ft it sounds like the memory might be active preventing it from opening fully? Try to keep your fob somewhere safe so the trunk button doesn’t get activated accidentally.
My fob was in my pocket last week while working on my other car. Every time I bent down it seemed like my Ascent’s liftgate was beeping and going up or down until I took the fob out of my pocket.
 
#5 ·
OK so here's where I'm at.
Battery re-charged. Liftgate wont latch! :mad:
I manually got the latch to fully close which I noticed it was not. Sprayed in some silicon lubricant even though it was clearly well greased.
Hit the unlock button on all doors at the driver door and it unlocked.
Closed it with the liftgate button, it closed and heard the latch lock.
Open and closed several times and it worked perfectly, opening full distance each time.
One thought has occurred to me. It MAY have been the first time I've left it unlocked when not in use for more than like 15 minutes or so. Maybe I inadvertantly hit a button getting out of it when last used on Sunday? My thinking now is that as long as the car is locked it shouldn't be able to open itself.
We shall see.
 
#6 ·
As xydadx3 said, this was most likely self inflicted, and not the liftgate opening on its own.

Maybe you accidentally hit the button twice which stopped it mid way up. Not latching was probably because of the dead battery and it just needed to be cycled once after the charge.

This is one of those Ascent features we all love to hate, 3 times for me, luckily only 1 dead battery but once was in a hotel parking lot with the cargo area full of stuff for a 3 month road trip. Someone saw it and notified a staff member who told me.

I'm now going on nearly one year and counting since this happened, my FOB mods seem to be working.
 
#7 ·
Gary.........what FOB mods?
BTW----- drove 20+ miles to golf course today, played 9 holes so was there about 2 hours. Good charge, right?
It barely started when I went to leave.:mad:
going to put it on an overnight trickle charge now.
And I am accepting full responsibility this may have been self-inflicted but..............
 
#9 ·
Gary.........what FOB mods?
BTW----- drove 20+ miles to golf course today, played 9 holes so was there about 2 hours.


My mod was to cut out the rubber over the hatch button than wrap a zip tie around it covering the hole over the button. Cheap, simple and effective so far but crude I know.

3041


9 holes today, oh man my clubs will be in the basement for 3 more months...
 
#8 ·
Once you've fully drained a car battery, it's pretty much dead. Also the OEM battery is known to be questionable anyway. Bite the bullet and replace it with a good battery.

(And this is why I'm glad I have a Premium with a manual lift gate :D )
 
#10 ·
I haven't sprung for a decent battery yet, but I've had the dealer replace two OEM's in 24K miles. Doesn't matter that my hatch-left-open did in the first one -- 6 hours of hatch shouldn't have spent the battery (even our multi-amp-sucking hatch sensors). The OEM battery has some problems keeping up with its own spec. I occasionally check voltage after an overnight sit, and when it starts showing well under 12.0v (maybe 11.8v), I know it will fail a load test at the dealership.

I will keep having them change out for new OEM's until that fateful day when I have no other choice but to buy a new nice battery (late at night, far from a dealership), and I will try to have SOA reimburse me for that one.

We're into the next model year already, so I doubt that any Subaru dealership hasn't seem numerous bad batteries come in. They will know what's up if you tell them it's defective.

F.s.
 
#13 ·
You can get an LED bulb that will definitely reduce power consumption for $6. perhaps this would be helpful. However I do agree that the normal bulb should not kill the battery overnight. God knows how many times in my life the interior lights have been left on and the vehicle started fine, even in Canada where it's colder. Seems like a pain to keep going to the dealer to replace the battery with the same useless product. It wouldn't be worth my time going thru all that.
 
#14 ·
We’ve never had a single instance on accidentally opening the trunk with the fob, knock on wood.

That has nothing to do with, and shouldn’t deter from the fact that Subaru’s got a defective design on their hands with the trunk battery drain. This is a big deal for a lot of people. No other Subaru or other car has this problem, as long as lights are turned off. This a a major lifestyle issue with which this car was purchased for. Days at the lake, camping, pretty everything outdoors.

Please call SoA if you haven’t yet on this -we need THEM to get a solution going for us.
 
#16 ·
I agree, it's not the lights.
I don't seem to have an auto light anyway with the hatch open. After about 30 seconds they dim out.
Only other light I have back there is a small manual one with a toggle swithch and I know it wasn't on.
Gave it a good overnight trickle charge and seemed ok today............so far
 
#17 ·
There’s this thread and there’s a disappointing gas mileage thread. I’m curious if there’s a connection. When the alternator is doing more work gas mileage suffers.
I have yet to have a dead battery, however the battery is now a year and a half old with 29k mi on it. Since this liftgate battery drain was identified pretty early I’ve known not to leave the liftgate open too long but have done it for an hour or so at a time. My mileage has dropped a bit lately but it’s hard to correlate to a specific cause since my driving has shifted to mostly city and I put heavier tires on it. I am however anticipating some battery degradation in the near future and will check for any change in mileage after I replace it.
 
#18 ·
That's an interesting thought xy. As I'm currently hanging onto my OEM batteries and letting the dealer replace them as they go bad, I can track mpg before and after. Lots of noise in my existing fillup data (towing, hypermiling drives, stomping rush drives, long highway trips, stretches of town only). Unfortunately the hypothesis might only get proven by personal observation and feel as this latest battery slides downhill and when I finally get it replaced again.

But really good thought.

F.S.
 
#23 ·
Aside from the tailgate issue, I think the battery is a bad design, or frequently defective. We have a 2019 Ascent Touring, purchased in March of 2019. Our first incident of dead battery had nothing to do with tailgate being left open. My wife came out of a meeting at church and there was barely enough juice to get the door open. AAA rep reported dead cell in battery. Jumped it, drove five miles to home, drove to dealer next day - 8 miles, maybe 15 minutes. They said battery checked out ok but since I had printout from AAA saying dead cell, dealer replaced battery -- with OEM, saying they could not replace with anything else. Called Subaru of America and registered a problem report.

Forward now to incident 2 - wife came out to car after getting hair done. Door opened, but when she tried to start car - all dash lights flashed randomly and car wouldn't start. Called the Subaru road assistance - and got notified they were sending someone from a company with the word Upholstery in it. Sounds like a shop that does towing as a sideline. I got there before the 'assistance' and got the car jumped with portable battery jumpstart kit (after reading the forums, bought a kit for each car). Cancelled the assistance request.

Talked to dealership - to their credit, they ended up giving us a loaner and the service manager drove our car for four days back and forth to work. He didn't have any issues and everything checked out.

Now - incident 3. Packed car for trip, and during the packing had doors and tailgate open frequently. Got the house locked up, and the next step was to start car and begin the trip. Only problem was that the car wouldn't start. Flashing lights all over the dash. Subaru 'Assistance' response was 'well we can have it towed into the dealership.' Sure, packed for trip and they want to tow it into the dealership. Fortunately the service department was still open at my dealership. Won't go into my conversations with them, but within the hour the service manager and a tech were at my house checking things out. I give them credit and thanks - they've been very responsive. It was good to have purchased locally. I had made one attempt to start car with my jumper kit and it didn't work. Didn't want to cause any other issues, but it may have worked if I tried again - was down to 65% and I did have another kit in my other car. Anyhow, they got it started with their own jumper kit and checked alternator, etc. Problem was attributed to simple acts of having opening and closing doors/tailgate too much while packing. All looked ok and decision was made to go on trip and if I had any issues on trip, get another battery and they would reimburse. They said they would replace with a non-oem battery on our return.

No issues on trip. Car even sat unused in parking garage for a week while we were on a cruise. I did leave the car running if I ever was opening the tailgate for more than a simple open/close. When we returned, the dealership installed an Optima Red Top Battery. It's been a little over a month now with no other issues. Question may be asked - do we get better mileage? Can't say. At they same time they replaced the battery, they did two recalls that dealt with ECU. All seems good and we love the car. I have purchased, but not yet installed, Nick Blackman's switch for the fuse that controls the tailgate, just in case I do want to leave the tailgate open for an extended period.

I have not been able to find a reference to show the specs of the OEM battery that came with car, but whatever they are - it's not enough to handle all the electronics, or they are faulty to begin with.

I also want to add that my wife is handicapped and I complained to Subaru of America about not being able to open tailgate if battery is dead. Her electric wheelchair is in the way of the access cover inside, and besides she wouldn't be able to crawl back there to open it. She can walk in/out of a store, home, church, but going to mall, COSTCO, etc, requires the chair. And they want to tow the car to dealership - with the wheelchair inside? That is a non-starter. However, the same issue is in other cars. When we were car-shopping, I asked the same question at the Toyota dealership when looking at a Highlander - "How to get tailgate open if battery dead?". They couldn't tell me. I think the manufacturers should be required to have a manual key access as a backup to open tailgate.

OK - I'll get off my soapbox. Thanks.
 
#27 ·
If your car is acting oddly after the battery drain-down, it's likely that the battery is a goner. Not your fault, just a fact that these batteries get damaged after such a drain.

Alternatives:
1) Tell your service advisor that the car has been having trouble starting, and have the dealership run a load test on the battery. If it's been causing your problems, it will test poorly. Demand a warranty replacement. (Note that the OEM battery has seen some complaints about poor quality. My last two OEM's were bad and got replaced. I keep hoping for a gem, but #3 is starting to show signs of badness.)
2) Go spend some $$ and get an aftermarket of good reputation and high capacity. There are threads in this forum with suggestions. Some folks have gotten Subaru to pay for these batteries, but I think it's not a gimme and you'll have to press SOA pretty hard that you had no choice and couldn't get an OEM replacement etc. (I'm waiting to be stranded at home on a Sunday for just this scenario.)

F.S.
 
#31 ·
For what it's worth, I put my battery on an overnight trickle charge and have not had any further issues (so far) and it's been a couple weeks. I'm also now fairly convinced I must have bumped the open button on the fob at some point to have caused the initial issue so now car is always locked and I am super aware of the fob.
 
#32 ·
I'm still using the original Ascent battery after the hatch was open over night almost a year ago. I charged it back up then and haven't had any problems during the cold weather. It wasn't completely dead, the lights worked but not enough juice to engage the starter.

If you bump the hatch button, unfortunately it will go up even when locked.
 
#33 ·
I never gotten more than 3 years out of stock Subaru battery, ever. Many, many Subarus of all kinds.
All were garaged, some in a climate-controlled garage.
Crazy though, I have had awesome luck with Walmart batteries.

My Dad’s 2011 Legacy just had it’s Walmart battery give up after SEVEN years. Car has never seen a garage in 7 bitter cold CO winters. His stock battery lasted 3 years. We replaced the Walmart battery with another Walmart battery of the exact same part number and model. Hope it goes for another seven.

I have read numerous places that Walmart batteries actually do very well in the comparison tests. Who’d a thunk. YMMV
 
#34 ·
Crazy though, I have had awesome luck with Walmart batteries.

I have read numerous places that Walmart batteries actually do very well in the comparison tests. Who’d a thunk. YMMV
Google says Walmart batteries have been made by Johnson Controls for the past 18 years. Says that they make 33% of all auto batteries under different names.
 
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#37 ·
My go-to for batteries now is NAPA due to their warranty. Prices are equal or better than competitors. The free replacement period is shorter but the pro-rated period is years longer than others. My experience prior to NAPA was usually to fail JUST outside of the warranty, even with expensive AGM batteries. I'd have to pay the full replacement cost. Now at least I'll get something back with the longer warranty.
 
#38 ·
For what its worth, I've had similar issues with having the hatch open for an extended period of time & drained the battery almost completely. Since I was going on an extended trip & didn't want to take the chance with the original battery, I purchased a battery from the Subaru parts department & had it installed. The original battery was group 35 CCA 530, & had a 2 yr. warranty. The battery from parts was group 35 CCA 550 & has a 7 yr. prorated warranty after 2 1/2 years. So at least my additional purchase has gained me a better warranty.
I believe that after reading various threads, I've concluded that there are two related issues working together. The excessive battery drain with the hatch open causing the cheap OEM battery to fail prematurely.
I don't know about anybody else, but I believe SOA has an obligation to all of us loyal long time Subaru owners to recognize & resolve these issue(s). I have filed a formal complaint to SOA & wish that all others having this same issue(s) will do the same!
 
#42 ·
^^ basically where I’m at. If I do sit with the radio on for a short time I ensure the hvac is off (I do that in any car when the engine isn’t running). I also check the battery voltage on the head unit and don’t let it drop too much. Lately it’s been dropping rather quickly so I’m sure I’m due for a battery soon.
 
#45 ·
This is an intermittent problem for me. The battery drained once, and I was not sure whether it was leaving the tailgate open, or something the kids did. Sat night I left the tailgate open on purpose, after packing for a day trip, to see what would happen. I have a portable jumper and I knew I would be driving yesterday morning, so it would not be inconvenient. Yesterday morning, the battery was fine.

So, I left the tailgate open again last night (tired and not finished unpacking after the day trip), and this morning, the battery had drained. Starting the car was a very minor task, but then I did have to drive it around for 30 min to make sure the battery was properly charged.

There is definitely something wrong, and as others have noted, it involves having the entire electrical system activated when it should not be.
 
#48 ·
Please no. Anyone having problems with a 2019 or early 2020 Ascent hatch killing the battery, please just get your liftgate controller replaced. The new one properly institutes a 20 minute timeout and stops drawing current at the 20 minute mark.

Sorry, I've just seen too many people complaining about having to use hacks to fix this, when there's been a fix for a long time now.
 
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