Siluro

A battery in daily use and discharged by no more than 40% of its capacity should last for more than 3000 cycles and may not need replacing for up to 12 years. A battery that is frequently heavily discharged may last no longer than 2 years. https://www.itacanet.org/eng/elec/battery/battery.pdf So if you are constantly draining it below 12v your damaging it and it will eventually leave you stranded. The panel will help but in winter maybe not so much, i have yet to find out. You also got to take into account any short AtoB BtoA journeys that don't manage to put back what it took out starting both times.

I would get battery tested independantly and do as Mr B suggests and measure the draw when parked and modules have gone to sleep. Once you have approx draw you can use my calculation to work out how much time you have. 8 days is either one or both are the problem. The drain could also have caused the battery to be damaged, so the draw is the real problem. 4.8 watt solar panel at best will maybe overcome normal draw as per MrB numbers. And that is if the car is in good sunlight and the windows are not tinted.

12.6v is fully charged. Your doing well. Did you measure it with the panel still attached? I only get sun from morning to 2pm then car is in shade.

Agreed. I skimmed and was replying to DanS reply.

How old are the tyres? There should be a 4 digit code on wall. Once so old they will start to go hard and ruin your road holding. Add low tread depth and wet roads it gets a whole lot worse. Are the walls showing signs of cracking etc need fresh rubber soon regardless of wear. It is the most important part of any car and neglected generally.

TBH I am not sure but it adds strain to all the driveline. If you think about it makes sense. If on same axle one is smaller than the other they will be spinning at different speeds all the time. Do that across all 4 corners and all are spinning at different speeds. I believe it is in the Subaru handbook but who reads that.

The reason you should rotate them is to stop winding up the diffs and causing wear. Rotating the tyres helps make sure the tyres wear evenly preventing this.

But a larger battery does not solve the issue. Just slightly allows the battery to last another day or two. That is not a solution. My WRX draws 0.05 amp once asleep. Quick Calulation (60/0.05)/24 = 50 Days or around 7 weeks to a flat battery. That is for a 60aH battery. So if you have gone to a 70aH bigger battery for example (70/0.05)/24 = 58 Days or around 8 weeks to a flat battery. The larger battery will only buy you week. Not a fix in my book. I am trying a solar panel to reduce the drain (damage to battery as not been used for 8 weeks now) but if you have tinted windows you can forget that. You really need a 20w panel to be able to charge it effectively and that is getting on the large size and is capable of causing a fire, so needs to be regulated somehow. My 7.5w panel plugged directly to the battery has an effect but only if the sun is out, then it can keep the battery at a level. Good luck with that in the UK. AA sell 4.8w (and lower) panels which I cannot see doing much at all.

Well I guess someone out there will want it. Good luck

This has been asked before and everyone recommended don't bother if I recall correctly. Not much you can do with a NA. Edt:

Dang it why did you not buy it out of interest? Money?

Maybe drain the oil from gearbox and check the magnetic plug for large metal parts and the oil. You will probably find some tiny metal on the plug that smears like a paste this is probably normal. But anything larger may give you a clue. New oil may solve it.

I not questioning what you say about the 2.5 (hatch being the worst i believe) as there is no doubt they are weaker than the 2.0 and do have problems stock but how many 2.5 failures are down to idiots which skews the figures a bit. I am not sure but plenty of yank youtube videos with Cobb access ports with random maps downloaded and put into ECU, surely this is asking for trouble too. How many idiots beat on these cars too and expected it to last. I watched one the other day were this bloke sold Hawk STI cause he thought the head gasket had gone. No it had hose leaks and was overfilled with twice the amount of oil. His specialist told him it was the head gasket. The guy who bought it fixed the coolant leaks and drained the oil but it still smoked after a bit. He then cleaned the Intercooler and now it is fine. I did not think it possible to overfill by that much but it seems you can. I jumped the youtube video to the oil part wow. But yes you need an "Oh ****" fund just incase on the 2.5. I have my fingers crossed for mine and toes.

As Scoobies go probably keep it value better than most. In the long run that is a tricky question once the gov tax the hell out of them when we all go electric. When the tax gets too high then you need to find a buyer willing to pay it. I pay >£500 and that is pushing it already for me. Hard one to answer. IMO very few fossil fuel cars will be worth it in the long run.

Check for knocking rear shocks. Common problem and you will end up with this if still original shocks anyway. As for a decent dealer stamp in my book means nothing. I would prefer to have the owner do it himself if capable and can prove it. Unless you get a garage who knows these cars forget it. My local Subaru dealers where caught on dashcam ragging it on test drive and could not even bleed the coolant from the highest point. Complete joke, my Dad has an XV and he lives in Bath and his local dealership is no longer a Subaru dealer anymore due to there poor servicing. In fact no manufacturer dealer is worth taking your car to in my experience, VAG being the worst.

The owner is your best clue, if buying private. Find one that has been cherished they are out there. As Rosscosm has said regular services, I don't care if the guy did it himself as in my experience garages and even Subaru dealerships have not got a clue about these cars. You need proof that it has been done. Tyre rotation, if the owner can answer this then they do look after it. I meet an old guy who had a Hawkeye STI and he could tell me everything about the car, he had recorded every penny and had spent £47K on it including car, even down to the petrol in liters. That is the guy you wanna buy from. Look for standard but that is going to be tricky but they are out there. Always check for dried coolant around the overflow tank. If bad HG it can push coolant out of this tank which then dries on all the plastic. 2007 models heavy tax £525 per year and it hurts. Drivetrain are noisy compared to normal cars if you have not driven one before, and WRX brakes are awful. If all ready mapped you need to see the dyno results etc. Go for an STI, I wish I had. I still love my WRX. Good Luck

Pictures needed. Welcome

This is the ultimate question. You can find horror stories about most so called specialists and you will see their praise also. Same for mappers. You will get many different opinions on the mappers. I had mine mapped and I later found out the nick name of my mapper (TNT). Certain people would never touch him on scooby forums. I have no issues after 3 years and the thing pulls like a train (car totally stock bar air filter). The one piece advice that I learnt after my map is to have them rolling road it and then road tune it not just the rolling road. This makes sense to me now as the road is where you gonna be driving it. Another reason I presumed my mapper was ok as it was done on RCM's rolling road. I thought if RCM's name is somehow attached he cannot be that bad. Good luck

Oh no another Wagon user. Lovely motor. Welcome

Was there not a recall on these? I had my Hawk recalled and checked by Subaru, I am sure it was for the arms rusting.

Wow that is a heavy right foot. My Hawk WRX worst is 200 miles.

I had a classic sport and it was lovely car. My dad had it from new and I bought off him (this where the Subaru bug started). Only issues after 18 years was rad got hole in it and the cat collapsed. I must admit I would never initiate a scooby wave in that, I always waited for the WRX or STI to initiate the wave. PS. Get headlights done

Your measuring the panel without a load on it. When connected to the car battery it will draw all the current the panel can provide. At this point the voltage will drop to just above the battery voltage. With a <10w panel this will be fine. Anything above this then I agree you would need to regulate for safety reasons as the current output gained now is enough to easily start a fire in an already hot car parked in the sun. I have been running a 7.5w panel for the past week (max voltage no load 21v) which is doing just enough to keep battery level at 12.40 to 12.50 volts which above 75% charged. This week there has been a decent amount of sunshine, in the winter however this may be a different story. Panel size and it effectiveness will also depend on what your car draws when parked, all will be different.

Wow it was late, I need to proof check in future. The current produced from my 7.5W panel falls of a cliff when the panel produces some where below 17 volts without a load (not connected to battery). This is a cloudy day sort of light. This would then only produce 30-40 ma (rough calculation) so the battery would still slowly drain if left for a long period of time. Normal battery drain I believe is 40-60 ma but that is car dependent. More modern cars maybe a lot more. My Hawkeye draws 50 ma when in sleep mode. It draws 0.3 amps for 20ish seconds when the battery is first connected then drops to 0.05 amps. Based on this then a better panel would really be required to keep the battery topped up in the winter months (dull days). Then you get into regulators and bigger or more expensive panels. Gets to the point where it is easier and cheaper to just pull the battery and stick it on a mains charger. My 7.5 watt panel this last week has managed to keep it topped up but it has had some good sunshine. This week the panel has kept the battery around 12.4 volts. I checked battery voltage last thing at night.. Worst day being 12.37v but that is in line with the amount of sunlight. Only tested so far for a week. I cannot see a 4.8w or lower being of much use unless you live in Australia but it will buy you some time before the battery is flat. Edit: quick calculation without panel: (60/0.05)/24 = 50 Days or around 7 weeks to a flat battery. Based on just a continuous 50ma draw on fully charged 60Ah battery. This is for an untouched car parked and does not include ECU wake up draw, or interior lights and so on...... So my 7.5w panel in mid to good light might work on my car. I will keep testing.

I agree. The current falls of a cliff below some where below 167v from the panel. This would turn out to be 30ma, maybe enough to negate normal draw barely. It dishes out 21max with no load. Yes a 15 watt panel may do the job well but still depends on British weather. This just delays the flat battery. Halford sell a fused OBD connector which I used on a cheap panel from Ebay.