Impreza problem after battery change !?!?

[knob]

The wife has an Impreza 2010 and after a 1 wwek vacation, the car battery was dead. I bought a suitable battery for the car and replaced it. The Impreza worked without a hitch for one week then after 2 days of not working her check engine light went on and her swirve system also, on her way back the auto cruise also stared to blink none stop and wont shut off... I read that after a battery change you might have to reset the electronics, I tride with the remote as they indicated with no result and could not find the reset button beside the hatch resease as they indicated ! Can someone help.... what could be the promblem? Can a new battery be deffective after 1 week ?

[brus brother]

Go to your local auto store and have them scan for codes. Here in the US chain stores like Autozone scan as a free service.

When a code is thrown, the CEL light will come on and the cruise control will be deactivated (blinking light)

Report back with the codes.

Edited September 6, 2016 by brus brother

[coryl]

If I was a betting person I'd say it was your alternator. Your alternator charges your battery and may not have been working correctly and is possibly why your battery was dead after a one week vacation in the first place. Batteries regulate voltage as well, and if not charging/charged correctly from a bad battery or a faulty alternator then you get all kinds of voltage issues and your car acts possessed which can be quite dangerous as it can affect all electrical/ECU including braking, etc.

Edited September 6, 2016 by coryl

[coryl]

Also do not drive a car acting up like this as you could do damage with irregular voltage and you could also get yourself killed if systems are failing because of it. Tow it to a mechanic.

[coryl]

Also just disconnect your battery to shut off all the blinking lights.

[coryl]

A quick way to figure out if it's your alternator or something else in your charging system would be to test your new battery. The new battery should have been fully charged when purchased and if it's draining a week later again then you have your answer. If the battery is fully charged then check for the codes as already mentioned.

[coryl]

A quick way to figure out if it's your alternator or something else in your charging system would be to test your new battery. The new battery should have been fully charged when purchased and if it's draining a week later again then you have your answer. If the battery is fully charged then check for the codes as already mentioned.

[brus brother]

I too am leaning towards a bad alternator.

Don't mean to brag but, once again, here... south of the border, Autozone will trot out to your car and check the alternator and battery for free.

I hope Montreal has something similar to offer,

[coryl]

Wow that's very good about autozone, but not sure we have that kind of service here in Canada. Not enough competition that makes companies need to go the extra mile unfortunately. I'm in the Ottawa area and have never heard of it but maybe there's something like that in Montreal due to more competition but probably not.

And not meaning to brag, but here in the north we have a better health care system for when our alternators break, our cars become possessed and we get into an accident and need health care. JK. Lol.

 

[matt167]

Any auto parts store with a digital handheld battery tester should be able to use that to test alternator output.. The old Carbon pile testers won't because they just test battery output.

 

Otherwise a Free-$10 ( Harbor Freight/ Princess Auto )DVOM can be used. When systems go haywire like that, it is usually low voltage and/ OR A/C voltage in the system due to a burned out rectefier bridge.. Switch the DVOM to A/C 20v and test the output cable and ground to the alt case.. Anything over .5V is out of spec. Anything over 1.5V A/C can severely damage the ECU or other controller boards.