outback 6 won't crank

[flatsix fool]

My 2005 Outback 3.0 ran fine for its first 100,000 miles, but has been plagued by electrical gremlins for the last 20,000. A parasitic drain forces me to disconnect the battery every night or it would be dead in the morning. But the daily reboot is less of an issue than its refusal to crank.

 

Key in the ignition, fully charged battery, and the starter won't even attempt to crank. I cleaned all the battery and starter contacts, but no luck.

 

Yesterday I accessed the gear shift interlock (that functions like a neutral safety switch), moved the gearshift to neutral, turned the key and...it started!  Drove for 20 minutes, parked in my driveway, turned it off. Tried to start it, and just like before, no cranking.

 

Left it for an hour, found a long wooden stick, tapped the solenoid a few times and...it started..again!

Drove for 10 minutes, parked, turned it off and...dead again.

 

I'm baffled. Could either the interlock or solenoid be the issue, or am I just randomly throwing darts at a target in the dark? I haven't been able to trace the source of the parasitic drain, but I don't think it's related.

 

I'd appreciate any insights anyone out there might offer.

[1 Lucky Texan]

if one of those techniques works 2-3 more times, I'd say you have a place to start troubleshooting.

 

does your CD player work? there have been stuck CDs in the past causing parasitic drain. Also, if you can use an ammeter, start pulling fuses. You might see a major drop when the guilty circuit loses its fuse.

[CNY_Dave]

On my '03 which has 6 CDs stuck in the changer, there was one day where I had to pull the fuse, the changer kept trying to load or eject with the key off.

 

Try moving shifter around with key turned to 'start'.

 

Our forester had a binding shift cable that kept it from moving forwards just enough it would not engage the interlock.

[flatsix fool]

The CD player hasn't been working, but since the radio's been fine, I never suspected a problem there. It certainly does make sense and I feel like a fool for not even considering that the CD mechanicals could be the site of the drain.

 

As for the starting problem, the binding shift cable makes sense too, especially since I'm a committed manual shifter (I've been driving the outback since a knee injury forced me to give up my 5 speed WRX). Will check that out tomorrow.

 

Much thanks.

[Caboobaroo]

It's unfortunate but the stereo and HVAC controls in the 2005-2009 have major issues. We have replaced 4 in the last 6 months due to parasitic draws, inop HVAC controls, inop stereo control, etc.

 

I've also seen a couple issues with the door switches back feeding into the system do to an internal short, causing a draw as well.

[flatsix fool]

1 Lucky Texan and CNY_Dave both nailed problem #1. I removed the console and radio and found two CDs jammed in the changer. One was cracked. I wouldn't think the changer motor would have enough torque to crack a disk and assume it must have gone in that way, but however it got there, it jammed the unit.

 

I didn't want to open up the cd player, and was able to cut the two discs apart with metal shears without making too much of a mess. It's partially reassembled, enough to know that the cd player won't accept a disk but everything else seems to work.

 

My bigger concern is the gear shift cable, since I can't drive the car at all without fixing that.  If it's stretched and can be fixed with an adjustment, I'll be thrilled. But all of the online materials I've found relate to the much more widely used 4 speed transmissions. Mine's the 5EAT that as far as I know was only used with the 6 cylinder Outbacks and Tribecas (and maybe Outback turbos) and the way cable is connected to the transmission is different from what's used on the 4 speed.

 

Mine has a cotter pin securing the fitting at the cable's end to the transmission casing; every diagram and video I've found so far shows two luck nuts on a cable passing through a clevis-style pivot. That 4 speed style doesn't seem to be well liked, with comments posted about the difficulty of saving the rusty cable and the probability that the cable will have to be replaced. 

 

I've been soaking the connections in penetrating oil since Saturday, hoping that when I finally figure out what to do with them, they'll come along willingly. Can anyone enlighten me as to how that cable is adjusted? I can only hope that when Subaru designed the fittings for the 5EAT transmission, they relocated the adjustment to somewhere inside the car where it wouldn't be condemned to rust.

 

Is it possible that isn't a fantasy?

Edited April 6, 2015 by flatsix fool

[1 Lucky Texan]

you could check around the Forums' classified ads for a radio. Folks that upgrade their head units often have original HUs for sale.

 

or check Crutchfield.com for a new HU.