Subaru Forester electrical problems

This vehicle has approx. 45,000 miles and the electrical has failed. We have replaced the battery and tested all components in which they then operate fine. However overnight the battery fully drains, leaving us with no vehicle again. This vehicle has no accidents, maintained every 3 months and the health report even shows no issues/errors. No other symptoms have been noted. this car works and runs 100% like it did day 1 up until 3 days ago. Where it has died overnight every day. Luckily my husband is a mechanic as he indicated the last instance of a new battery going in, the dashboard was flashing and going haywire to the point that it wouldnt stop until he removed the battery. He indicated that its likely this would have been an electrical fire if the battery was not removed therefore could have caught on fire with myself and our 14 month old inside. There were no warnings, no alerts, no vehcile safety alerts, the mysubaru app in fact still says we have a 100% healthy vehicle.

On 5/24/2023 while driving with a front passenger, the passenger seat belt warning light, chime and airbag warning came on for no reason. Stopped the car at a red traffic light and turned ignition off and then on to hopefully clear the warning. There was no power to any system. The ignition switch did not work and I could not get the transmission out of park to push the car off the road. Could not activated anything on the dash including the hazard warning. Being in a single lane road, traffic was traveling around us on both sides. We could have been rear ended. I opened the driver's door and all power to the dash came back. It took 4 attempts to start before the engine started. All settings and radio had to be reprogrammed. Stopped at the dealer and they ask if this was the first occurence. (It was) They said if it happened again to bring the car in. The car has been normal since.

On January 1, my wife was returning home from a grocery run when our 2019 Forester’s dashboard suddenly lit up like a Christmas tree--Check Engine, EyeSight, Anti-Lock Brakes, Anti-Skid, and blue Temperature lights all came on simultaneously. The Forester did not lose any appreciable power but the heater stopped working and was only blowing cold air. My wife was only a couple of miles away and brought it straight home. I checked under the hood but had no idea what was going on, so I drove it over to my local Autozone for a scan, and it came back with the 'P26A3' Code, as well as 'P3300,' and 'P2100' (Throttle Control Motor-Circuit Open). I brought our Forester back home, did some online research, and discovered that this code typically indicates a thermal control valve assembly (TCVA) failure. Our vehicle's 60,000-mile powertrain warranty had just expired but fortunately, we live near a reputable repair shop which was able to take the Forester in the next day, confirm the codes and TVCA failure, and then make the repair. Further research revealed that this appears to be a widespread quality control problem and typically costs affected owners between $1,100 and $2,000 to fix beyond the expired standard 35,000 mile /60,0000 mile powertrain warranties. In fact, there is a Subaru Forester Owners thread that runs over 33 pages with 654 posts from other owners throughout the world reporting the very same failure over the past year, nearly always between 50,000 and 70,000 miles. (https://www.subaruforester.org/threads/2019-thermo-control-valve-assembly-and-warranty-merged-thread.823510/) This past week, a friend of mine who's an old school mechanic, took the old TCVA apart and discovered that coolant had actually leaked into the part's internal electronics and shorted them out, causing the failure. He was amazed that the short circuit did not damage my Forester's computer. It's certainly a design and manufacturing defect and a recall should be issued by Subaru.

Purchased NEW , after 5 years battery died ..OK time for a replacement, Les Schwab installed a New Higher Capacity battery. 3 weeks later dead Battery, had it jumbled, Les Schwab replaced new battery. 4-5 weeks later DEAD battery. Made appointment with Dealership (Lithia Subaru) 3-17-2023 in Reno Nv. A hour + away. I waited a few hours for their service department to check out the charging/battery issues. Came back said NOTHING WRONG, need to drive it more ! Drove it a couple days ago , this morning DEAD Battery AGAIN ! I’m almost 70 / Disabled and live in a very Rural mountainous area and need a dependable vehicle… especially in the SNOW. HELP Please!

Eye-sight system shutdown and the car, although it was drivable, ran rough. Since there is a huge reliance on the monitors as they are designed to "forward think" to aid the driver, this was a major disruption to the driving experience. Not knowing what the disabled components affected, was a huge cause for alarm. Upon seeing the check engine light come, my wife brought the car home and I hooked up my device to read the code (P26A3 - showed up). Then I looked up that code and was directed to multiple incidents where that very same thing has become frequent on this model and a few others like it. We called the Winston-Salem NC Subaru Dealer (Flow) and they suggested we bring the Forester in for a check. Once they checked the vehicle out and confirmed the code we mentioned, they told us the "TCV" problem was found on our vehicle and they have seen others with the same problem. They even had the parts in stock to make the repair that day! They kept the parts and said they were going to be sent back to Subaru of America for analysis.Interesting detail: once we drove the repaired vehicle, it ran better than it ever had and the only work they did was to fix the TCV issue (according to the repair paperwork).