2019 SUBARU ASCENT — Complaint #2176105
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING:EXHAUST SYSTEM filed February 12, 2026
NHTSA complaint #2176105 (ODI reference 11717497) concerns a 2019 SUBARU ASCENT and was filed on February 12, 2026. The owner reports the failure occurred on October 10, 2020. The vehicle had 120,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to North Carolina based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as engine and engine cooling:exhaust system, 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 ASCENT cohort independently describe similar engine and engine cooling:exhaust system 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 ASCENT shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2019 Subaru Ascent. The contact stated that while the engine was idling, exhaust fumes entered the cabin of the vehicle. Additionally, immediately after starting the vehicle, there was a loud ticking sound coming from the exhaust system. The vehicle was inspected by the local dealer, and it was determined that the exhaust manifold lines were faulty and needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure, but no assistance was provided. The failure mileage was 120,000.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 2176105 |
| ODI Number | 11717497 |
| Date Filed | February 12, 2026 |
| Failure Date | October 10, 2020 |
| VIN | 4S4WMARDXK3 |
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.