2019 SUBARU FORESTER — Complaint #2178006
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about EXTERIOR LIGHTING filed February 18, 2026
NHTSA complaint #2178006 (ODI reference 11718775) concerns a 2019 SUBARU FORESTER and was filed on February 18, 2026. The owner reports the failure occurred on November 7, 2025. The report was geocoded to New York based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as exterior lighting, 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 FORESTER cohort independently describe similar exterior lighting 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 FORESTER shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The electrical system fails, and the battery is not charging sufficiently. When the auto start/stop engages, the car does not restart in traffic. Requested a battery test at the dealership in May 2025; was told it could not be done that day because it would require leaving the dealer service shop. Eventually, the electrical system became unstable, and the car stopped in traffic on 11/07/2025. Replaced battery following OEM specs. In February 2026, symptoms reappeared with a new battery failing on 02/15/2026, resulting in all saftey systems failing in traffic when auto start/stop enages.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 2178006 |
| ODI Number | 11718775 |
| Date Filed | February 18, 2026 |
| Failure Date | November 7, 2025 |
| VIN | JF2SKASC2KH |
Similar EXTERIOR LIGHTING Complaints for 2019 SUBARU FORESTER
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.