1999 SUBARU OUTBACK — Complaint #393172
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about FUEL SYSTEM, OTHER:STORAGE filed February 8, 2003
NHTSA complaint #393172 (ODI reference 10005527) concerns a 1999 SUBARU OUTBACK and was filed on February 8, 2003. The owner reports the failure occurred on February 8, 2003. The report was geocoded to California based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as fuel system, other:storage, 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 fuel system, other:storage 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 1999 SUBARU OUTBACK shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
THERE ARE SEVERAL ISSUES GOING ON WITH MY 1999 SUBARU LEGACY OUTBACK VEHICLE: 1) THE CHECK ENGINE LIGHT GOES ON WHEN THE FUEL GAUGE DROPS DOWN TO EMPTY ALTHOUGH THE GAS TANK WAS JUST FILLED WITH GAS. 2) THE FUEL GAUGE DOES NOT READ CORRECT. AFTER THE GAS TANK IS FULL, THE GAUGE FLUCTUATES BACK AND FORTH (SOMETIMES THE GAUGE READS NEAR EMPTY, SOMETIMES THE GAUGE READS 3/4 OF THE TANK FULL) WHEN OPERATING THE VEHICLE. 3) THE CAR DID NOT PASS THE CALIFORNIA SMOG TEST. 4) THE RPM GAUGE DOES NOT STAY CONSTANT WHILE DRIVING AT AN EVEN SPEED. ONCE THE GAUGE HITS BETWEEN TWO TO THREE THOUSAND RPM, THE GAUGE DROPS BACK TO BETWEEN ONE AND TWO THOUSAND RPM ON AND OF WHEN DRIVING. 5) THE GAS TANK DOES NOT MAINTAIN PRESSURE EVEN THOUGH THE LID WAS SCREWED ON TIGHT. THE LID WAS REPLACED WITH A NEW ONE BUT THIS PROBLEM STILL OCCURS. ALL THESE ISSUES OCCUR WITH THE CHECK ENGINE LIGHT ON. THE DEALER DOES NOT WANT TO LOOK AT THESE ISSUES WITHOUT HAVING ME PAY THEM TO LOOK AT MY CAR. THESE IS
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 393172 |
| ODI Number | 10005527 |
| Date Filed | February 8, 2003 |
| Failure Date | February 8, 2003 |
| VIN | 4S3BG6856X7 |
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.