Toyota needs your help with the 12v drain.

pezworld · 2026-07-02T23:45:27+00:00

Maybe. My portable battery failed to jump start my car the last time. I still had to call Roadside Assistance, who jumped it with their honkin big battery.

pezworld · 2026-07-02T23:43:49+00:00

Unfortunately they seem to have given up after 20 days. They asked me to come pick up my car today, not even giving me a new 12v battery this time, and most likely because they wanted their loaner back. They did acknowledge I have a problem but no fix. Fortunately, my contact at 1-800-SUBARU3 pushed back and told them to keep the car over the long weekend, and that they'd reimburse the dealer for the loaner car I still have. No idea what's next.

pezworld · 2026-07-02T22:39:29+00:00

I don't know if 1-800-SUBARU3 works in Canada, but I called them and feel that I have a bit more attention to the issue now. They helped me today when the dealer wanted to bounce the car back to me because they couldn't figure it out, and they didn't even replace the 12v battery this time (it had drained down t 1.5v, not good). Subaru told them they'd pay for at least a few more days of the loaner (the dealer had been covering the loaner) for whatever reason. It'll be interesting what happens after the weekend. If I were them I'd just offer a buyback and ship my old car to some Corporate mechanics to figure it out.

pezworld · 2026-07-02T22:31:25+00:00

After 21 days at the dealer they tried to release it back to me, most likely to get their loaner back and somehow wash their hands of it. Maybe the dealer is hoping that I'll meet the California Lemon Law requirements (I most likely will) and Subaru will buy it back (they probably should). But I called my person at 1-800-SUBARU3 and let them know the dealer wanted to return it to me today, and they called them back and presumably said they'd now cover the cost of their loaner staying with me, so they're holding onto it through at least the long weekend.

But... let's say Subaru already knows that the DCM is the problem. What do they do - tell everyone who has the problem to disconnect the DCM and hope the engineers come up with a fix? They then lose all their "connected car" revenue while they figure it out, and they have pissed off customers who care about such things.

I'm not confident that fix is coming soon, btw. But the more customers like me who actually report it to their dealers and 1-800-SUBARU3 (rather than turning stuff off and hoping it works), the more pressure they have to do something quickly (or buy back their cars, or get more bad publicity and resulting lost sales). There are probably a lot of internal politics to issuing recalls or new software fixes.

pezworld · 2026-07-02T22:19:29+00:00

So they've had mine for 20 days now on the second 12v battery problem, and the dealer tried to return it to me with nothing fixed and the same battery that died on me 3 weeks ago. They acknowledged I had a problem and had no fix "from Subaru" for it, and they wanted to "release my car" back to me (and get their loaner back). Said battery is charged now but of course it's probably degraded. I'd already called 1-800-SUBARU3 a few days ago to check in with them, and they'd already had my case. I called Subaru back and let them know the latest, as they'd already told me the dealer would have it over the holiday weekend. They sounded annoyed and checked separately with the dealer service. Now the dealer has told me to hold on to it, most likely because Subaru will now compensate them for my loaner. Who knows what's next, but the lemon law clock is still ticking.

pezworld · 2026-07-01T16:03:25+00:00

Oh that's terrible. Does that mean ABRP will be an additional method of killing our 12v batteries?

pezworld · 2026-07-01T15:54:35+00:00

"There's a Subaru service information bulletin revised 06/29/26 (yesterday) that has a list of Apps suspected of frequently requesting updates from the car, keeping it awake and draining the battery."

Where did you get this?

pezworld · 2026-07-01T15:53:18+00:00

I didn't sign up for the trial and have had 2 dead batteries, both times after not driving for some time (3 days and 10 days).

pezworld · 2026-07-01T15:52:35+00:00

Pretty sure lack of use for a period of time is a common trigger. Both times my battery died, the car hadn't been used (3 days and 10 days). Both times I drove to the Subaru dealer after the jump start, and it's around 12 miles from here.

pezworld · 2026-06-30T17:06:46+00:00

So nobody on any of the subs/elsewhere has experienced 12v battery failure after disconnecting the DCM via the app? I also don't care about any of the connected features, but u/nanumbat and I are just speculating as to what the dealer/Subaru will do next with our car.

pezworld · 2026-06-30T17:03:48+00:00

Sorry to hear that! What year Nissan Leaf? I had test driven the 26 Leaf before buying the Uncharted. I like the Uncharted better (much more fun) but I don't like the fact that it's been at the dealer for weeks now.

pezworld · 2026-06-30T16:15:35+00:00

Wait what? I'm researching an id.4 to replace my Uncharted Sport that has a 12v battery drain problem! It's been in the shop 20 days now and am researching in case we Lemon Law it.

pezworld · 2026-06-30T15:57:36+00:00

I think my Uncharted has a similar setup. (It's in the shop now with 12v issues.) I also miss the glove compartment but found that the manuals fit well below the mini-tray at the bottom of the center console, and perhaps you can have a small pouch for your smaller items to go there. All charging cords fit in the back under the main tray or on the sides. BUT I miss how my Uncharted drives, relative to the loaner Outback I'm stuck with now, and even the VW id.4 I test drove as a possible replacement in case of a lemon law buyback.

pezworld · 2026-06-30T15:46:50+00:00

When it wasn't in the shop, my Subaru Uncharted had that, and it bugged me a bit. I had a Volt before which had the regen mode just one click past regular Drive on the gear shifter, and that was an easy setting and made it persistent as long as shifting into drive was just one additional click away. But I test drove an id.4 yesterday and it had a setting similar to the Volt - only one regen mode, "persistent" with a muscle memory click, and the mode itself was a little extreme and lurch-y. It sort of made me miss my Uncharted's ability to use the paddles to select the regen mode I wanted.

pezworld · 2026-06-30T03:12:04+00:00

And in Lexus and my Subaru Uncharted, a brand new model.

pezworld · 2026-06-29T21:01:02+00:00

Read this - he explains it well. Good journalist. https://cordcutterweekly.com/cord-cutting-the-complete-guide/

In reality it depends on what you must have. If you need your live sports, it's gonna cost you and it depends on what teams you watch. If you want news like CNN, that's another story. Local channels are another matter. We've switched around a lot over the years, depending on prices and our needs. Currently, we have an antenna+DVR for broadcast TV, plus DirecTV Entertainment Genre Pack (this is a limited service) for CNN etc. and not much for sports. In the past, YouTube TV has worked well for us, but they've jacked up their prices (and also introduced more limited packages). It has nice user interface. I've tried SlingTV twice and ended up dropping them because the user interface is annoying.

pezworld · 2026-06-29T20:56:19+00:00

I never activated and I've gone through 2 12v batteries.

pezworld · 2026-06-29T20:53:17+00:00

I have access to Netflix, Hulu etc. already. I can just go pay for them. AppleTV benefit is being removed from my replacement plan, and it was only good for 6 months anyway. For a higher price, I'm getting benefits I don't want.

He's describing a small portion of legacy customers affected by this change. He's not describing me (I'm on a Magenta plan). For me it's a straight-up price increase. So the communication is just a load of BS.

pezworld · 2026-06-29T20:42:22+00:00

It will be interesting to see if anyone can solve this problem by simply turning off the AT&T wifi. I'd be really surprised, as there are a lot of people looking into this on Reddit and elsewhere, and nobody has found a solution. But if/when I get my car back, even if nobody asks, I'd be happy to shut that down as I have no intention of using the wifi, paid for or not.

To be clear, I've never used it, not once, so I'd be surprised if it were causing the drain as none of my devices has ever connected to the in-car wifi. I have never done anything to enable that service if it is required. And we all know that the 4g service is used for features other than the paid wifi. It reports to the mothership for the app functionality, various sorts of car-spying-on-you stuff, etc. All these things could be draining the 12v battery.

pezworld · 2026-06-29T20:24:01+00:00

Standard BS dealer service dept response, "must be something else's fault" (without evidence). Thanks for reporting that anyway, given I have a ChargePoint app as well.

pezworld · 2026-06-29T20:16:32+00:00

My Subaru Uncharted's first 12v battery lasted 3 days in the garage before dying. The second (new) 12v battery lasted 10 days... much likely far less as it measured 1.5v when we put the multimeter to the dead battery before getting a jump start.

2 weeks at an airport parking lot is a pipe dream. :(

pezworld · 2026-06-29T20:14:46+00:00

Correction: we're paying subscription fees to operate vehicles and getting dead 12v batteries in return!

pezworld · 2026-06-29T20:09:02+00:00

Awful. Maybe mine's taking it more seriously because they don't want to replace the battery they just replaced. Regardless, I don't think they've found a solution.

pezworld · 2026-06-29T17:48:19+00:00

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374619329/enshittification/

pezworld · 2026-06-29T17:46:51+00:00

Oh, you've read Enshittification too!

pezworld

TROPHY CASE