Subaru Hit With Class Action Lawsuit Over Battery Drain That Won't Quit

Subaru is facing a new class action lawsuit over a battery drain defect that allegedly keeps killing batteries even after they've been replaced.

The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, claims the problem isn't the batteries themselves — it's a parasitic drain in the electrical system that keeps pulling power from the battery even when the car is off. According to the lawsuit, at least one electronic control module fails to enter low-power sleep mode after shutdown, which slowly bleeds the battery dead. Plaintiffs say swapping in a new battery doesn't fix it because the underlying drain is still there.

The lawsuit covers a huge chunk of Subaru's U.S. lineup:

• 2021–2022 Subaru Outback
• 2021–2024 Subaru Forester
• 2021–2023 Subaru Legacy

• 2021–2023 Subaru WRX
• 2021–2022 Subaru Ascent
• 2019–2023 Subaru Crosstrek
• 2019–2024 Subaru Crosstrek Hybrid
• 2022–2025 Subaru Forester Wilderness
• 2019–2023 Subaru Impreza

Plaintiffs from New York, New Jersey, California, and Texas all describe the same pattern — cars that won't start in the morning, or worse, shutting down or stalling in traffic. Owners say they've paid out of pocket for diagnostic testing, roadside assistance, towing, and repeat battery replacements that never actually solve the problem.

This isn't Subaru's first time around on this. A separate class action over battery drain on 2015–2020 models was settled back in 2022, with Subaru agreeing to cover the first battery replacement for up to five years or 60,000 miles — while insisting the cars weren't defective. The 2026 lawsuit argues the root cause was never addressed and just kept killing new batteries on newer models, too.

In October 2025, Subaru issued a service bulletin telling its techs how to properly test for parasitic battery drain, since technicians had been defaulting to "just replace the battery" without checking the electrical system. In one case cited in the lawsuit, the owner of a 2024 Outback had a larger replacement battery and bracket installed — suggesting even Subaru knew the original setup wasn't cutting it.

There's no settlement yet, so there's nothing to file. But if you own one of the affected models and you've been paying out of pocket for batteries that keep dying, you'll want to be ready when the payout drops.

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