General (Subaru related ?) tips on infrequent car use ?

[KN69]

Hello all,

  I have a 2017 Levorg GT (petrol), what with the lock down, I was driving the car for 30 minutes once a week to keep the Battery charged.  I went to 

start the car today and there isn't enough juice to start, I disconnected my hard-wired dash cam previously and turned off the auto headlamps.

Back in the day I used to be able to leave my old car (1996 Toyota Corolla) for months as I worked abroad - it

always started up without issue.  I'm assuming that with the car sitting idle there is still a (significant) current drawn from the Battery (?)

There was enough current for the keyless entry to still work, the gauges lit up and the needles did their little dance but nothing more.

With that in mind - does anyone have any tips for keeping a modern Subaru's Battery functional whilst in lock down, only driving the car once a week ?  I was thinking about simply disconnecting the Battery - but I'm afraid that this might affect other systems that need a current to function whilst the car is not running.

Thanks in advance

 

[Jay762]

I have a charger connected and will be fitting one of these to have an easier trickle charge setup

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NOCO-GC002-X-Connect-Eyelet-Terminal/163844526401?hash=item2625e51141:g:~rIAAOSwLZddbTqQ

[SebP10]

We're having this issue with my wife's XV, as she's been working from home since the schools closed and it doesn't get used (although knocking the interior light on didn't help 🙄)

I've been using it for work once a week (I prefer the driving the Levorg!) but it's still not happy. It's now nose-in to the garage on an "Optimate III" trickle charger that I bought in 2001 for the bike (good in its day, but most likely surpassed now), but still showing as charging after 30 hours.

I'm guessing the alarm uses a reasonable amount of power (John N had an issue with his Outback a few posts below), so I would suggest buying a "Smart" trickle charger to keep the Battery topped up. The Optimate came with croc-clips and a fused set of ring-eye leads for easy connection. If the ring-eye leads weren't on the bike I'd put them on the XV (for easy connection as Jay has suggested), but it's my bike 😋

I've also turned off the interior light setting on the top display, so when I walk past it with the keys the lamp doesn't come on for 20s or so. Every Little Helps, as someone said once.

Another option, that I've read on here, is to lock the car with the key. Apparently this doesn't set the alarm (from a post about leaving dogs or kids in the car; probably dogs!) but it should still be immobilised. (Can't think why it wouldn't be if it needs the key inside to start?) Probably worth checking your insurance on this before trying! (Note: not tried this to date.)

Good luck, and let us know how you get on.