First Off Yes I Did A Search And Came Up With Nothing
This Has Been Bugging Me For A Few Weeks Now And It Seems To Be Getting Worse. Here Is The Quick Lowdown. On Occasion Usually In The Mornings My Car Will Strugle Really Bad To Turn On. The Ignition Will Just Click And Cklick While You Hear The Engine Slowly Tring To Crank Over Eventually After 30 Sec Or So The Car Wil Start To Turn Over And Finnaly Come To Life. Other Times It Cranks Over Right Away. Sat Night I Was Driving Around And Stopped To Put Gas. When I Went To Turn The Car On The Same Thing Again. Click, Click And Eventually It Came To Life. I Remeber This Happend To My Moms Old Blazer Years Ago And It Was The Alternator. But Im Not Sure What It Could Be Especially Since The Car Is An 05 Sti And I Bought The Car Brand New In June 05, The Car Has No Electical Mods Other Than A Bluetooth Hands Free System And An Hks Circle Earth System And It Has 54,000 Miles.

my guess would be the battery but i could be wrong. why don't you take it somewhere and have them load test the battery?

Please don't post in all caps, you see what happens. ;)

It sounds like the battery is very weak. You should get it tested, and charged or replaced as needed. Then with a good battery in place the alternator can be tested to see if it is charging the battery correctly.

How do you test the alternator to see if it is working properly.

First, you have to be sure the battery is in good condition and fully charged or it can affect the readings.
With a voltmeter connected across the battery terminals, observe the reading with the engine running. It should be in the 13.5-14.5V range. When an accessory is turned on (lights etc) the voltage will dip momentarily and then come back up as the alternator takes up the load.
If the voltage reads low, 13V or less with no load or a light load, the alternator may be weak. If it reads even lower, close to battery voltage or less, the alternator may be dead. A high reading of 15V or more indicates a bad regulator, which is inside the alternator.
It's possible to get correct voltage readings and still have a bad alternator due to bad diodes, this mode of failure can only be detected by a shop using a scope.

I have a brand new battery, but i only see about 12.5vs, Looks like i need a new alternator, or atleast a rebuild.

If it's 12.5 with the engine running, then yes most likely the alternator is NG.

yup it is 12.5 with the engine running.

Thanks for the help.

any idea how much new alternators cost :lol:

Yup battery was bad. got a new one from autozone for $50.

Yup battery was bad. got a new one from autozone for $50.

did you check the alternator? 12.5 while running is more then the battery... a bad alternator will often take out a battery, or several, while the owner keeps replacing them.

Two different people posting, Swisha was not the person who reported the 12.5V reading.

Almost forgot. Thanks for all your guys help

i got my alternator tested, its dying/dead. hopefully itll last me till next week and to ohio and back.

i got my alternator tested, its dying/dead. hopefully itll last me till next week and to ohio and back.

It would help to know your location and how far that drive will be, but I'd say you should either get it fixed before you go or get/rent another car for the trip. At 12.5V with the engine running, your alternator is doing essentially nothing and you're running on the battery. The battery will not last long under those conditions, just how long it goes depends on how much current is being drawn from it (i.e. if you drive at night using the lights, or run the AC, etc. it will die much sooner).
Taking a long trip with a known bad alternator is a very bad idea, and even just driving around locally in the meantime may be enough to kill the battery.

03 wrx 45k miles
Cobb stg II
No aftermarket electronics
oem battery

Pretty much the same problems as the op. Every morning since last Friday(except today) I have had to jump my car to get it going. I checked the battery with a multimeter and was only getting 12v with the car running and when it was off. I checked the water level and noticed that a few were a bit low so I filled them up to the line on the battery and then drove home to charge it back up. Next morning...today... the car is sluggish to start but does not need to be jumped. I checked the battery when runnig and now I am getting 15v. The above advice suggests a bad alt so I am having subaru check it out at three. I will let you all know as soon as I find out.

Also..... I can only sit for five min when the car is off while listening to the radio. Any longer and the battery will not start the car.

make sure the lead running from the alternator to the battery hasnt corroded @ either the battery or the top of the alternator. this is what happen to me because the bolt was not installed tight enough.

They said it was the battery. I am heading out to check it with my meter.

12v off 13v on

Red Top?

it sounds like the cable to the terminal is loose. Also I would invest in an optimiun battery that is what I ahve on mine and it is great for turning the car over in cold weather and in the heat.

I had a problem with a new battery. It took 10 months but one of the cells inside the battery didn't charge correctly. Little by little the other cells would have to euqalize the bad one when the car was off. It caused me lots of confusion and I had to jump my car lots.

yeah I think subaru alternaters suck. I had to replace mine at 80k. It stopped charging and everything electrical was stock. It cost me 260 for a rebuilt one from subaru

Mine system holds an average of maybe 13.8 V... Goes up to around 14.9V when first turned on for 15 minutes or so, charging I assume. When sitting at idle at a light, with the AC on, and foot on the brake, the voltage drops to 12.5V, maybe less. Seems the brake lights push it down that far. Been doing it since I've had it. If you blip the throttle even just +500rpm with the brakes still on, it jumps back up to 13.8V, almost like it's hitting some happy current threshold. Good practice for heel/toe driving? Never been a problem yet! On 2nd battery in my 2002 WRX in desert environment. Not to shabby...

I'd like to think LED's would help the underpowered alternator, but it's probably not worth the hassle or expense of finding LED's that don't suck.

yeah I think subaru alternaters suck. I had to replace mine at 80k. It stopped charging and everything electrical was stock. It cost me 260 for a rebuilt one from subaru

It appears that mine died yesterday. Only 10 volts across the terminals with the care running. The batter (Subaru brand) is only 2 years old. My battery charger with an alternator tester confirmed it. I ordered one on line via the Advance Auto on line website. $164 w/lifetime warranty (rebuilt).
regards,
Steve

i got my alternator tested, its dying/dead. hopefully itll last me till next week and to ohio and back.

Now that would be a big mistake. Hope you didn't do it.
Steve