Subaru Outback 2019 parasitic drain/DCM

[SloaneFrench]

I went through three new batteries since August (it’s February now), the first bought from AAA. After going to a drive-in movie double feature with the radio on my car went dead again. I got a jump and drove it home. The next morning the battery was dead again. I got AAA to replace my first battery with a second new one. Left the car for the weekend but by Monday the battery was dead again. I got a AAA jump start and went to my local automotive shop where I’ve gone for almost 25 years. I had them do a parasitic drain test and learned my previous new battery was “junk” and that’s why they sold me a new battery with a 5-year warranty. The diagnostic for a parasitic drain found nothing. My brother, who really understands cars, was irritated on my behalf that my car had had three batteries replaced over about 4 months. My brother found thousands of driver complaints about their batteries going dead. I called Subaru of America and told them my brother had diagnosed a problem of the DCM, connected to Starlink. As I understand it, Starlink is trying to connect to the old 3G network when the world has moved on to 5G.Anyway, talked to SOA and got a case number and validation that it might be the DCM. I next took it to a good Subaru dealership who did the diagnostic and gave me an estimate of about $981. I called in the info to SOA, and relayed all that the dealer had told me. A day later I got an email saying that although my car was out of warranty, as a good will gesture they would okay getting the repair done, free of charge. A few days later, after some ordered parts arrived, my car was repaired and the to me was zero. While I waited for a repair the dealer pulled out a fuse that makes Starlink go off. It also made only my back speakers work and I lost Bluetooth, too. But it’s worth being inconvenienced for a few days when you know your battery is going to work again until the new aDCM was put in, and the whole car returned to normal.

[solardev]

Weird, when my 2016 Crosstrek needed its 3G modem replaced, it was a voluntary service bulletin and totally free. They did it in a day and I never had an issue with it again.

What is a DCM?

[aynyc → solardev]

Data Communication Module. I have 2015 outback, so far no issue. Not sure where to check.

[solardev → aynyc]

Go to Subaru's recall site and look up your car by its VIN. It should give you a list of issues of different severities that you can choose to address (or not).

Here, I think: https://www.subaru.com/recalls.html

I set up a changetower.com notification to email me every time a new recall appears.

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Edit: For me the bulletin was WQZ61, but that seems to only be for 2016-2017 cars, and doesn't explicity mention 3G, just Starlink.

[aynyc → solardev]

All the recalls have been performed, but none of it is the starlink. Maybe I dodged a bullet.

[solardev → aynyc]

Or maybe it just didn't qualify as a recall and my dealer confused the 3g situation with another Starlink issue. Shrug.

Seems like a simple test is to just try Starlink and see if it still works? I think all the 3g networks should be shut down by now...?

[lauraefred]

You’re fortunate that they replaced your DCM, they didn’t do that for us. They told us that we didn’t go to them after replacing the battery, they look for loyalty from the consumer if we don’t go to them for services they don’t help cover car issues that should be addressed by the dealer. We had to pay almost $900 to get our car back. I’ll never buy another Subaru!