My boss has an 01 Forester. His battery died while at his folk's house last night. They jumped it, and as soon as they jumped it, all the lights in the car, dash, turning lights, etc all started blinking at once in unison. He says it happens with the key in, or out of the ignition. Last night he had to disconnect the battery so it wouldn't die with all the blinking lights, but he says if he connects it again, the lights go back to blinking. Anyone ever hear of this?

 

I don't know about Subarus, but I've read and seen it when the Mini battery starts to show it's old age, strange things start to happen. In my case the parking lights started to flash for no other reason.

 

+1 have him try a different battery if he's still on the original's. might fix it.

 

I had a Saab do this years ago. The voltage regulator would cut the power to the lights and eveything completely when the voltage dropped to a certain point, then the battery would recover whiel the drain was gone and when it got back to a point the voltage regulator said OK and would switch the power back on. I t would sit and cycle back and forth. Not quickly but same idea. Battery was bad.

Could be a short somewhere too. If it's got a thermal breaker. It could be breaking, cooling off and resetting,then heating and triping again. I'd borrow a battery first to see if that's it.

 

My dad's bike will only fire on 1 cylinder if the battery is dying or the cable is loose. Not quite a Scooby but still a weird electrical problem that is battery related.

 

All that your boss needs to do is hit the remote & the flashing will stop. Alternately he can cycle the ignition switch of & on a few times. The info he needs is in his owners manual.