2017 SUBARU FORESTER — Complaint #1766350
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about VISIBILITY:DEFROSTER/DEFOGGER/HVAC SYSTEM:CONDENSOR/EVAPORATOR filed September 2, 2021
NHTSA complaint #1766350 (ODI reference 11431491) concerns a 2017 SUBARU FORESTER and was filed on September 2, 2021. The owner reports the failure occurred on June 18, 2020. The vehicle had 21,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Oregon based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as visibility:defroster/defogger/hvac system:condensor/evaporator, 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 FORESTER cohort independently describe similar visibility:defroster/defogger/hvac system:condensor/evaporator 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 2017 SUBARU FORESTER shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2017 Subaru Forester. The contact stated that she noticed that the air conditioner was blowing hot air. The contact stated no warning light was illuminated. The contact took the vehicle to an independent mechanic and was informed that the air conditioner refrigerant was empty. The contact was referred to the local dealer. The contact took the vehicle to the local dealer, where it was diagnosed with needing the condenser to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired but continued to experience failure. The contact stated she had to replace the condenser for the third time in 2021. The manufacturer had been informed of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 21,000.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1766350 |
| ODI Number | 11431491 |
| Date Filed | September 2, 2021 |
| Failure Date | June 18, 2020 |
| VIN | JF2SJAEC8HH |
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.