2019 MITSUBISHI OUTLANDER — Complaint #2026319
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about STRUCTURE:BODY:HATCHBACK/LIFTGATE:SUPPORT DEVICE/STRUT filed September 20, 2024
NHTSA complaint #2026319 (ODI reference 11615588) concerns a 2019 MITSUBISHI OUTLANDER and was filed on September 20, 2024. The owner reports the failure occurred on September 20, 2024. The report was geocoded to Maryland based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as structure:body:hatchback/liftgate:support device/strut, 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: 1, 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 MITSUBISHI OUTLANDER cohort independently describe similar structure:body:hatchback/liftgate:support device/strut 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 MITSUBISHI OUTLANDER shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
I was approaching my car and used my keyfob to open the trunk. As it was opening, I was thankfully facing away from the trunk when the rod from the right tailgate lift support flew off, hitting me in my shoulder blade. It sounded like a gunshot. While there was no puncture, due to my thick t shirt and the rod hitting the bone of my right shoulder blade, the pain was severe. Before I realized it was the tailgate support strut, i genuinely thought I had been shot, due to the sound and the pain. Had I been facing my car, the rod would've gone through my face. Had it hit my eye, I indubitably would have lost that eye or my eyesight. There was no warning. I have never experienced anything out of the ordinary with my trunk door or the mechanisms to lift it. This easily could've severely injured me or someone else, or damaged property significantly. Upon inspection visually, the non-threaded end of the rod appears to have snapped off. The hydraulics were so strong that the 5mm thick metal sna
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 2026319 |
| ODI Number | 11615588 |
| Date Filed | September 20, 2024 |
| Failure Date | September 20, 2024 |
| VIN | JA4AZ3A38KZ |
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.