[10986]

if this car can activate emergency braking if it detects something, or sense other cars in my blind spot...why can't it tell the hatch was left open too long and shut off stuff? even fords do this, and they can't do much right.

 

[Q-Man13]

Amen.

Learned the hard way. Left the hatch up in the closed garage, after bringing in groceries, assuming the light would shutoff and need a jump start the next morning.

Going to be so aggravating when camping to know you can't leave the hatch open like most campers do for hours on end.

 

[BroDoze]

So is the battery drain issue because of the light staying on? Or something else drawing power?

 

[SkiPro3]

It's because Subaru engineers forgot to include it with the other 4 doors to go into 'sleep' mode after 20 minutes. The CANBUS computer stays powered up at 4amp draw indefinitely. Adding to the problem is that the battery is pretty wimpy; 12v, 52ah, CCA 530A, bci group 35
Considering the load of just lifting that heavy door, accessing the rear hatch several times without running the car and utilizing the alternator is going to kill the battery as well. Leaving it open during a camping trip is bad, but so is opening and closing the door several times during a camping trip. At the end of the trip, you just might find your Ascent won't start.

 

[BroDoze]

Dang, that sucks. So even if your turn the trunk light switch off, just having the hatch open keeps a constant 4amp draw? That’s bad and needs a recall in a big way. Only the act of latching the latch closed powers off the computer?
my wife paddle boards a lot and will leave the hatch open on our FXT for quite a while while airing up the board, hanging out, eating, having the cooler in the trunk etc. Subaru needs to fix that crap ASAP.

 

[SkiPro3]

A recall is forthcoming. But before it's announced, there's a replacement part that has to be stocked at dealer service departments, a ECU located behind the panel on the right side, rear of the vehicle. Once they are distributed, the recall will be announced. In the meantime, Subaru will replace your battery if this condition of deep discharge harms the battery. It's recommended to just go out and buy a decent battery and replace the factory original. AGM's are well thought of for this application.

 

[BroDoze]

Thanks for all of the great information, sorry if Im asking questions that have been asked 1000 times.
I’m picking up our new Ascent tomorrow.

 

[SkiPro3]

No worries. It's all info I've garnered the past few weeks since researching the Ascent. It took me a lot of hours to condense this info down to just a few sentences. There's a temporary way to fool the ECU into thinking the hatch is closed. Look on youtube for the series of videos produced by a member here on how to do that. But since a fix is in the works, I'm just going to replace the battery since they are not long for this world anyways and wait for it to roll out.

 

[packout]

A recall is forthcoming. But before it's announced, there's a replacement part that has to be stocked at dealer service departments, a ECU located behind the panel on the right side, rear of the vehicle. Once they are distributed, the recall will be announced. In the meantime, Subaru will replace your battery if this condition of deep discharge harms the battery. It's recommended to just go out and buy a decent battery and replace the factory original. AGM's are well thought of for this application.

where did you get your information that a recall is forthcoming?

 

[RainDog]

Thanks for all of the great information, sorry if Im asking questions that have been asked 1000 times.
I’m picking up our new Ascent tomorrow.

Greetings,
Welcome to the club! You are asking very reasonable questions. It is a bewildering oversight on the part of Subaru, and one that is probably costing them customers as word spreads.

 

[Kevin Williams]

Not having the power lift gate was another reason I stayed down in the Premium trim. I imagine it doesn't have the power draw problem (though I haven't tested it).
No moonroof either!

Only things I would have liked was the big MFD up front, the front camera and the rear camera.

 

[SkiPro3]

where did you get your information that a recall is forthcoming?

I found it in this thread here;

Battery drain from powered liftgate

Our Ascent has 14,000 miles and my wife and I just finished a 3 week trip doing the Lake Superior Circle Tour while towing and camping in our Vistabule teardrop. Up until now we have been pleased with the vehicle (our 3rd Subaru) even averaging 21.5 miles per gallon while towing. We camped at...

www.ascentforums.com

Specifically mentioned in post #47, but you may want to start at the beginning of the thread to get all the history.

the best news is the gate pcu's will be replaced via recall...they are waiting for the parts,but that could be another 6-12 months..

I'm going to assume that since a fix is coming, that new Ascents coming from the factory may already have the updated part and won't be needing the recall.

 

[[email protected]#$]

A recall is forthcoming. But before it's announced, there's a replacement part that has to be stocked at dealer service departments, a ECU located behind the panel on the right side, rear of the vehicle. Once they are distributed, the recall will be announced. In the meantime, Subaru will replace your battery if this condition of deep discharge harms the battery. It's recommended to just go out and buy a decent battery and replace the factory original. AGM's are well thought of for this application.

Yep, battery already drained at 1500 miles on new 2020 Ascent. I must have accidentally launched the rear tailgate. Came out in the morning and could not start car, but could jump it. Subaru definitely needs to fix this. In the meantime, I replaced the battery with an Optima Yellow Top today.

 

[RobertD]

For some reason my rear lift gate was left open all night. I leave while it is still dark. No light were on and it started just fine. I thought it did turn off the lights for me and saved the battery. Not sure why mine is different.

 

[GaryInMI]

[QUOTE="[email protected]#$, post: 124161, member: 10594" I must have accidentally launched the rear tailgate.
[/QUOTE]

Yes, I've done that a couple of times bending over and my pocket knife pressed up against the hatch button on the fob. I've since put a guard over that button and have had no trouble since.

This past Spring the hatch was open all night, the interior lights had shut off and the battery wasn't completely drained. I still had some interior lights (LEDs) but not enough juice to start. After recharging, the battery has been fine even with the recent cold weather.

 

[ChuckKaty1]

For some reason my rear lift gate was left open all night. I leave while it is still dark. No light were on and it started just fine. I thought it did turn off the lights for me and saved the battery. Not sure why mine is different.

Yours must be a 2020. I think I read somewhere in the 2020 Manual it talks about that. Mine is the same. But if you leave the power on you will have a very low but maybe start able car.

 

[RobertD]

Yours must be a 2020. I think I read somewhere in the 2020 Manual it talks about that. Mine is the same. But if you leave the power on you will have a very low but maybe start able car.

Mine is definitely a 2019.

 

[rockthebeef]

I wonder if the fix will be a full-blown recall or just a TSB. I'd guess it's not enough of a safety issue for it to be a recall.

 

[BroDoze]

My guess would be a TSB as it’s not a safety issue, per se.
Recalls are generally high priority, critical safety-related things.