2018 SUBARU WRX — Complaint #1670711
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about VISIBILITY/WIPER filed June 21, 2020
NHTSA complaint #1670711 (ODI reference 11329882) concerns a 2018 SUBARU WRX and was filed on June 21, 2020. The owner reports the failure occurred on April 15, 2019. The vehicle had 35,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Rhode Island based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as visibility/wiper, one of NHTSA's standardized taxonomy codes used to group defect patterns across make, model, and year.
The filer flagged the following severity indicators: crash: no, fire: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. No crash, fire, or fatality was associated with this report, which places it in the early-warning stream rather than the priority-review stream. Because a VIN was supplied, this complaint is tied to a specific vehicle and not just a model-year cohort.
Individual complaints are consumer-submitted and unverified by NHTSA engineers — the agency's role at this stage is to collect, index, and make them searchable. What matters for federal action is the pattern: when many owners of the same SUBARU WRX cohort independently describe similar visibility/wiper failures, defect investigators have grounds to open a PE and request manufacturer data. Related filings for the same vehicle and component appear below, and the detail page for the full 2018 SUBARU WRX shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
THE VEHICLE WAS IN MOTION ON A HIGHWAY WHEN THE WIND SHIELD CRACKED ALONG THE MOST SUPERIOR BORDER OF THE WINDSHIELD. THERE WAS NOTHING VISIBLE OR AUDIBLE THAT HAD CAUSED THE WINDSHIELD TO CRACK DURING MY 10 MINUTE COMMUTE. THERE WAS ALSO LITTLE TO NO TRAFFIC. THE CRACK WAS LARGE ENOUGH THAT I HAD TO REPLACE THE WINDSHIELD. I AM ONLY REPORTING THIS NOW BECAUSE I SUSPECT THE WINDSHIELD CRACKED SECONDARY TO BEING ONE OF THE DEFECTIVE WINDSHIELD'S THAT SUBARU IS UNDER SCRUTINY FOR. UNFORTUNATELY, I NO LONGER HAVE PICTURES OF THE CRACKED WINDSHIELD; HOWEVER, I HAVE ATTACHED MY RECEIPT FROM SAFELITE AUTOGLASS.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1670711 |
| ODI Number | 11329882 |
| Date Filed | June 21, 2020 |
| Failure Date | April 15, 2019 |
| VIN | JF1VA1A68J9 |
Similar VISIBILITY/WIPER Complaints for 2018 SUBARU WRX
2/17/2026 Mileage 96,000 Subaru case number Case # 260217-2101937 Vehicle intermittently indicates reverse gear while driving forward at speed. Backup camera activates and reverse lights illuminate
WOKE UP ONE DAY TO MY WINDSHIELD HAVING A SMALLER CRACK THAT WAS NOT THERE BEFORE. WAS A COLD NIGHT CRACK HAS SPREAD, ASKED SUBARU IF THEY WOULD COVER THE COST THEY DIDN'T BUT ITS A KNOWN DEFECT IN SU
WINDSHIELD CHIPPED/CRACKED WHILE DRIVING ON A HIGHWAY.
Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.