2019 SUBARU OUTBACK — Complaint #1866486
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about EQUIPMENT:ELECTRICAL:INFOTAINMENT:BLUETOOTH/WIFI filed January 18, 2023
NHTSA complaint #1866486 (ODI reference 11502417) concerns a 2019 SUBARU OUTBACK and was filed on January 18, 2023. The owner reports the failure occurred on April 13, 2022. The vehicle had 43,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to California based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as equipment:electrical:infotainment:bluetooth/wifi, 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 OUTBACK cohort independently describe similar equipment:electrical:infotainment:bluetooth/wifi 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 2019 SUBARU OUTBACK shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2019 Subaru Outback. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds, or while the vehicle was parked, the Infotainment system and screen made abnormal sounds with the screen flashing. The contact stated that the Navigation and Bluetooth also malfunctioned. The vehicle was taken to a dealer where the failure was diagnosed as a malfunctioning audio unit that needed to be replaced. The contact stated that the repairs were not completed because the parts were on backorder. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 34,000. The contact stated that the failure mileage was actually 43,000. The issue with the display causes a distraction while driving. The dealer was contacted several times but with no remedy. The dealer only states that they are waiting for the parts but has no provided an ETA.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1866486 |
| ODI Number | 11502417 |
| Date Filed | January 18, 2023 |
| Failure Date | April 13, 2022 |
| VIN | 4S4BSANC2K3 |
Similar EQUIPMENT:ELECTRICAL:INFOTAINMENT:BLUETOOTH/WIFI Complaints for 2019 SUBARU OUTBACK
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.