My battery died after a week at the airport

[Anonymous]

I came back at midnight to a completely dead car. A 2015 Subaru Legacy, if that matters. The battery is less than two years old because it also left me stranded in 2017, and I had it replaced.

So I’m getting less than two years out of each battery. This cannot be normal.....what else should I check to see what’s eating these things up so quickly?

[Anonymous]

The guy who came to recharge my dead year-old battery told me I wasn't driving it on long enough trips - I live about a mile from my office. He showed me the battery warranty that described how much driving I had to do to render the warranty valid.

But that was a couple of years ago and it hasn't happened since.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The guy who came to recharge my dead year-old battery told me I wasn't driving it on long enough trips - I live about a mile from my office. He showed me the battery warranty that described how much driving I had to do to render the warranty valid.

But that was a couple of years ago and it hasn't happened since.

This. The alternator needs to recharge the battery. Also, only driving short one mile trips will ruin your exhaust.

[Anonymous]

Or you have somethign in your car that's causing a battery drain. For example, some cars the charging ports stay active even when it's off and maybe you left your GPS plugged in or something?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Or you have somethign in your car that's causing a battery drain. For example, some cars the charging ports stay active even when it's off and maybe you left your GPS plugged in or something?

Why even make this suggestion when she has the answer?

https://blog.nationwide.com/how-to-avoid-a-dead-car-battery/

2. Increase your driving time

Driving short distances is a sure way to kill the battery because the alternator needs time to recharge the battery after it’s been started. Short trips with lots of starts and stops don’t allow time for your battery to fully recover.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The guy who came to recharge my dead year-old battery told me I wasn't driving it on long enough trips - I live about a mile from my office. He showed me the battery warranty that described how much driving I had to do to render the warranty valid.

But that was a couple of years ago and it hasn't happened since.

Can you walk or take a bus?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The guy who came to recharge my dead year-old battery told me I wasn't driving it on long enough trips - I live about a mile from my office. He showed me the battery warranty that described how much driving I had to do to render the warranty valid.

But that was a couple of years ago and it hasn't happened since.

This. The alternator needs to recharge the battery. Also, only driving short one mile trips will ruin your exhaust.

OP here, my commute each way is over a half hour. No signs of a problem until I parked it at the airport for a week. It was hot, but even so, it was in a parking garage undercover.

[Anonymous]

Get th alternator checked

[Anonymous]

We had a 2015 Subaru Forrester, and the battery died multiple times in the first two years. We kept taking it to the dealership, they ran diagnostics and kept insisting the battery was fine. Finally my husband got so frustrated, he refused to pick the car up until they replaced the battery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Get th alternator checked

This. If you are driving enough to charge the battery and it still isn’t charging then something is wrong with the alternator. It’s very unlikely you got two defective batteries in a row.

[Anonymous]

We had problems with a 2015 & 2017 Subaru Outback. It turned out there was a problem with software, which allowed something to drain the battery.

Prior to that being fixed, I bought a much larger battery for the 2015 we owned. Both the 2015 and 2017 were eventually updated (software) so now the battery does not die.

[Anonymous]

Maybe you left a light on and didn't realize it.

[Anonymous]

We are in the DFW area now - we came home to a dead 2017 Outback after being gone for a week. We blamed the heat (it was in a garage, but it was 105+ the week we were gone), but reading this thread maybe not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The guy who came to recharge my dead year-old battery told me I wasn't driving it on long enough trips - I live about a mile from my office. He showed me the battery warranty that described how much driving I had to do to render the warranty valid.

But that was a couple of years ago and it hasn't happened since.

This. The alternator needs to recharge the battery. Also, only driving short one mile trips will ruin your exhaust.

OP here, my commute each way is over a half hour. No signs of a problem until I parked it at the airport for a week. It was hot, but even so, it was in a parking garage undercover.

It takes you 30 minutes to drive one mile??

Can you walk, bus, bike, scooter? Why would you drive that distance?

[Anonymous]

PP at 7:27 is not OP. OP has half hour commute which should be enough to recharge the battery.
Looking into the alternator or software sound like good leads to follow unless they can determine that something else drained the battery.