2016 SUBARU OUTBACK — Complaint #2082278
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING:EXHAUST SYSTEM:MANIFOLD/HEADER/MUFFLER/TAIL PIPE filed April 11, 2025
NHTSA complaint #2082278 (ODI reference 11654163) concerns a 2016 SUBARU OUTBACK and was filed on April 11, 2025. The owner reports the failure occurred on October 15, 2023. The vehicle had 171,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Michigan based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as engine and engine cooling:exhaust system:manifold/header/muffler/tail pipe, 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 engine and engine cooling:exhaust system:manifold/header/muffler/tail pipe 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 2016 SUBARU OUTBACK shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2016 Subaru Outback. The contact stated while the vehicle was occupied and parked at residence and attempting to start the vehicle, there was an abnormal sound coming from the underneath the vehicle. The contact stated while driving at various speeds there was exhaust fumes entering the cabin of the vehicle. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where it was diagnosed and determined that front exhaust manifold connected to the catalytic converter needed to be replaced. The contact stated that the technician inspected the vehicle and became aware that the exhaust pipe was rusted. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure but offered no assistance. The manufacturer informed the contact that there were no recalls associated with the VIN. The contact related the failure to a Service Program Bulletin: WUJ-95R (Exhaust Pipe Front (EPF) Bellows Cracking); however, the VIN was not included in the bulletin. The contact was referred to the NHTSA
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 2082278 |
| ODI Number | 11654163 |
| Date Filed | April 11, 2025 |
| Failure Date | October 15, 2023 |
| VIN | 4S4BSACC1G3 |
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.