2015 SUBARU OUTBACK — Complaint #2134042
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING:EXHAUST SYSTEM:EMISSION CONTROL:CATALYTIC CONVERTOR filed September 25, 2025
NHTSA complaint #2134042 (ODI reference 11689788) concerns a 2015 SUBARU OUTBACK and was filed on September 25, 2025. The owner reports the failure occurred on June 11, 2025. The vehicle had 135,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Washington based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as engine and engine cooling:exhaust system:emission control:catalytic convertor, 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:emission control:catalytic convertor 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 2015 SUBARU OUTBACK shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2015 Subaru Outback. The contact stated that while starting the vehicle, there was an abnormal exhaust odor entering the cabin of the vehicle through the vents. No warning lights were illuminated. The contact stated that the vehicle was consuming an excessive amount of fuel. Before the contact purchased the vehicle, the contact became aware that the vehicle had been repaired under recall for the catalytic converter. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the issue. The failure mileage was approximately 135,000.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 2134042 |
| ODI Number | 11689788 |
| Date Filed | September 25, 2025 |
| Failure Date | June 11, 2025 |
| VIN | 4S4BSANC3F3 |
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.