Ascent battery change
 

The battery Subi puts in the ascent is a known problem. The car is 3 years old but I don’t want to tempt fate. A direct replacement is the Everstart Max 35n. It gets good reviews. I asked them at WW if they have a way to change it without losing all the radio settings. They said they plug into the cigarette lighter. Well it doesn’t have one. I’ve seen a gizmo from Amazon that hooks up to keep from losing settings. I can’t for the life of me find it now. Does anyone know what it is?

just hook up a battery charger to your battery wiring clamps, apply a constant 12 vdc to the cables, and swap batteries.

That was my first inclination. Seems too easy.

ive been told that hooking a simple 9v battery to the leads while changing will keep all the presets and ecu learnings. No personal experience however

That's far too simple. We like complicated. We need a Rube Goldberg contraption that combines timing, strength, dexterity and flexibility to work (or possibly fry the radio if you don't get it just right).

Well in my life between my wife and I we’ve had 14 cars. I’ve always done it myself. The insane clown posse at the Stealership wants 450 to do it. My ass

One of these should do the trick

https://www.amazon.com/Connector-Battery-Memory-Keeper-Saver/dp/B07KCN69LJ/ref=asc_df_B07KCN69LJ?tag=bingshoppinga-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=79920806880888&hvnetw=o&hvq mt=e&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=&hvtargid =pla-4583520383684705&psc=1

HAHAHAH, ROFLMAO! $450? Do you have to remove the front clip to get to the darn thing?

No, 15 years from now when your new Ascent will be owned by wanna be hippies it will be known as an Ass-Scent. :D

My wife has traded cars every 3 years for her last 4 cars. May go with some type of hybrid. Moving to south Fla so a black vehicle doesn’t make sense either.

Here’s my latest experience:
I have a 2018 Subi outback 3.6R. Love the car. Great power and great handling (for a mid size wagon).
About 2mos back, I had issues with it not starting. Was cranking slow for a few weeks prior to that.
It started to get cool here, and one morning it just wasn’t gonna start.
Hooked up a charger for a while, and no issue - started up.
Actually was able to drive the 996 for a couple days, and then - no go on the Subaru again.
So I took it in to Advance Auto parts to have them check the battery.
“No Problem”. You’re only down about 20 CCA.
So I pressed them a bit more - “Yeah, these cars with all the HMI screens don’t deal well with slight reductions in battery life”.
Bought an optima battery and dropped it in - no issues at all.

Here’s the cool thing:
I expected all of my preferences to disappear. (I physically removed the battery to take it to the car parts store, so the car was disconnected for a couple hours). No preferences were lost. My radio and all other settings were where I left them.
-With one exception: The stupid tire pressure indicator ‘units’ change to kPa whenever the car is disconnected from the battery. And on this model - finding ‘how’ to adjust that required a YouTube search.

All better now. We’ve been in the low teens a few times since, and no issues. I think the Optima was a great choice.

Oh - and I really like the Outback. This is #4 for us. First with the H-6. And yes - it has the CVT. No issues, drives great.

Not sure is the Acsent is much different - but it may be. Those came out just as I purchased this car. Good luck!

LOL! After reading the $450, I went to youtube looked for the "how to" on the Ascent battery. Man, they aren't called "stealerships" for nothing.

(edit) Also seems the frequently dying battery is common. Here's one guy's solution:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbS1Um-6Qq4

Exactly, we have a 2018 3.6 Outback Touring. I'm so glad we went with the 3.6 instead of the 4cyl!
Good to know. I like AGM batteries. I'll keep the Optima in mind when/if we start to have issues with ours. We've had the battery go dead two or three times. The rear interior light has had the switch bumped from "on when the door's open" to just "on" and that little light will run the battery dead. Fortunately, it's still working great after being charged back up, but I'm sure that didn't do the battery any favors.

Yes, love the 3.6L H-6. Also think it's cool that we've got 2 cars and they are both H6, 3.4 in the Boxster and 3.6 in the Outback. It's got good power too. So far, I'm also liking the CVT, no issues. I've done a little towing, just a u-haul to get stuff that wouldn't fit in the back or on top. It's a trooper through it all.

I was curious so did a quick search. Apparently, there's a TSB for the dead battery, and the solution is to update the software. I didn't dig very deep, and didn't see what the software changed.

Steve-
So glad to hear that there are others here that appreciate a great daily.
I hit a deer with mine last year in November. Really a bad one - and I thought the car would be totaled. (Most of the airbags went off, bumper, grill, hood, both headlights, radiator, both front fenders, and a whole bunch of interior parts because of the airbags.). Alignment was fine - no structural damage.
Was really ticked off for a while because they didn't take a total loss.

But-
I worked with a really good, local, independent shop.
They sourced all new parts from Subaru and did a great job.
Planning on keeping it for quite a while. I test drove the XT Turbo when I thought I'd need to shop a new car. Nice, but lots more low-end torque with the H-6.

By the way - I also have an H-6 in the daily as well as my 996. Both 3.6 in this case.
We are strange in our affliction....

Happy holidays, everybody!

When I read this post yesterday I texted my buddy who has an Ascent back in KC MO. Asked if he'd changed the battery as his is 3 yrs old too. Didn't hear back from him.
Then today he calls me up, Facetime. We talk for a while and he brings up the battery text. Says he got himself a 2022 battery. Attached to a new 2022 Ascent!
Turns out his dealer pestered him about coming in to look at the new ones. They offered him more than he paid for his when he bought it used. It only had 3k miles on it then and had come from Phoenix. Original owner found it to be too small so traded it in. Fully loaded with a $49k sticker price. He got out with a new car for $5k off list and his trade plus his payments have gone down $200/month. His trade had only 30k miles on it. He said the dealer only had about 10 used cars on their lot too. He's happy as a clam about the whole deal so that's fine.

I'm sorry but I think it takes less effort to redo my presets than figure out how to not lose the.

I got an everstart max 35n which gets good reviews for 91 installed yesterday. Had to go to 3 separate WW stores before one had the memory device. Only saved $360.

Good for you. $360 saved is $360 earned. Still stupified by the stealership quote. Sure explains why people seek out good independent shops.

Varies from car to car...if the resets are only radio and clock, no problem. But that's not the case with all cars. Tire pressure sensors, window controls, mirror controls, door & trunk locks, and more....

More than one poor soul has found himself facing a steep stealership fee for a system reboot.