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2004 SUBARU OUTBACK — Complaint #774171

Open-data reference.

NHTSA Complaint about POWER TRAIN:DRIVELINE:CONSTANT VELOCITY JOINT filed March 15, 2010

NHTSA complaint #774171 (ODI reference 10319902) concerns a 2004 SUBARU OUTBACK and was filed on March 15, 2010. The owner reports the failure occurred on March 6, 2010. The vehicle had 90,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to West Virginia based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as power train:driveline:constant velocity joint, 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. No VIN was supplied by the filer, so this complaint contributes to model-year trend data but cannot be tied to a specific vehicle.

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 power train:driveline:constant velocity joint 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 2004 SUBARU OUTBACK shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.

Vehicle
2004 SUBARU OUTBACK
Component
POWER TRAIN:DRIVELINE:CONSTANT VELOCITY JOINT
State
West Virginia
Mileage
90,000 mi

Complaint Description

TL*THE CONTACT OWNS A 2004 SUBURU OUTBACK. THE CONTACT WAS DRIVING 70 MPH WITH THE CRUISE CONTROL ACTIVATED WHEN THE VEHICLE SUDDENLY SHIFTED FROM OVERDRIVE TO FIRST GEAR. THE VEHICLE STALLED. WHEN THE CONTACT DROVE INTO THE EMERGENCY LANE, HE NOTICED THAT THE CV JOINT HAD BROKEN. ONE WEEK AFTER HAVING THE VEHICLE REPAIRED, THE FAILURE OCCURRED AGAIN. THE SECOND TIME THE FAILURE OCCURRED, IT SHEARED 1 INCH OFF OF THE DRIVE SHAFT. SUBURU CONFIRMED THAT THEY ARE FAMILIAR WITH THE FAILURE. SEVERAL MECHANICS HAVE STATED THAT 350 POUNDS OF PRESSURE ON THE DRIVE SHAFT WAS BEING HELD TOGETHER BY A SINGLE O-RING. THE CONTACT DID NOT HAVE THE VIN WHEN THE COMPLAINT WAS FILED. THE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS 90,000 AND THE CURRENT MILEAGE WAS 120,000. UPDATED 04/28/10 UPDATED 05/13/10. *LJ UPDATED 02/17/12 *BF

Complaint Details

NHTSA Complaint ID 774171
ODI Number 10319902
Date Filed March 15, 2010
Failure Date March 6, 2010

Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.