2013 SUBARU FORESTER — Complaint #1852747
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about EXTERIOR LIGHTING:TAIL LIGHTS:BULBS filed November 9, 2022
NHTSA complaint #1852747 (ODI reference 11492886) concerns a 2013 SUBARU FORESTER and was filed on November 9, 2022. The owner reports the failure occurred on January 1, 2015. The vehicle had 70,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Maryland based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as exterior lighting:tail lights:bulbs, 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. No VIN was supplied by the filer, so this complaint contributes to model-year trend data but cannot be tied to a specific vehicle.
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 exterior lighting:tail lights:bulbs 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 2013 SUBARU FORESTER shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2013 Subaru Forester. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds, the headlights and taillights became inoperable. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic who changed the taillight light bulbs approximately 10 times. The headlight light bulbs were replaced 4 times. The local dealer was not contacted. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure however, no additional assistance was provided. The failure mileage was approximately 70,000. The VIN was not available.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1852747 |
| ODI Number | 11492886 |
| Date Filed | November 9, 2022 |
| Failure Date | January 1, 2015 |
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.