Owners have filed 277 complaints on the Subaru WRX, covering 2015–2025. The system named most often is Engine (57 reports). Worst years by volume: 2017, 2015, 2018; cleanest: 2025, 2023, 2021. 21 reports describe a crash, 7 a fire. On average the car was 3.1 years old when the problem happened.
What breaks on Subaru WRX
Grouped by the system owners named — percentages are shares of all 277 WRX complaints. Open any row for the full reports in owners' own words.
Engine 57 Read
Front end collision vs deer on interstate at approximately 75 mph. 4-5 minutes after the accident the engine caught on fire. The car is a total loss. No one was injured. We all were out of the car at the time the fire started
Driving my car as any person would, at the 3519 mile mark on the odometer the engine low oil light came on, it took (1.5Q) of oil to top it off. This is a brand new car no one buys a new car to add oil to it, then to get told by the dealership that it’s normal for up to (2Q) of oil to be added because it’s the only…
Oil pickup tube was clogged with rtv that was over used to seal the oil pan, which causes less oil flow into the engine and can cause failure
Electrical System 56 Read
Driving and on a turn between 35-40 mph my wrx freaked out. The dash light up like a christmas tree, the lane tracking along with the adaptive cruise control indicators flashed, and the dash said eyesight unavailable. It felt like I couldn't control the car and almost felt as if it accelerated on its own. I hit the…
Likely secondary air injection pump and/or its related relays, CEL P2444 came on 3 separate times. November 2024, brought it in to get replaced under warranty, came on again the day after picking her up in December 2024 due to faulty pump, didn’t get to bring her back in until March 1st 2025, fixed part again, brought…
The Seconary Air Injection pump stayed on for days. Burnt a hole in the side, relay possibly damaged, and now setting off other components and computers
Power Train 52 Read
Defective throw-out bearing and fork in the six speed manual transmission completely burning the clutch in 3 months to 3000 miles after repair with replacement part. This is completely unacceptable in a brand new vehicle after repair at dealership. Purchased 2018 wrx with 13,000 miles on february 17, 2020 and it is…
Driving kids home from school and while making a left hand turn through a large intersection, when shifting from 2nd to 3rd gear I heard an immediate pop and then it lost all power in third while sounding like a bag of gravel under the car. I could have easily lost power while merging on a highway instead of a lower…
On February 3, 2026, while driving approximately 80 mph on Interstate 10, the manual transmission shifter bypassed the 6th gear detent entirely and moved toward the reverse gear position, creating an immediate and severe safety hazard. I prevented full reverse engagement only through physical intervention. Had the…
Steering 17 Read
1, At about 12000 miles the car's windshield wipers stop working. And did not ever work again for the past several years. Wipers which was checked the motor was replaced to admission to the key was replaced and wiper still don't work. 2, About 24000 miles Was turning the vehicle around on a inclined road in the…
The contact's son owns a 2018 subaru wrx. While making a left turn at 25 mph, the front driver side wheel remained in a turned position after the driver attempted to straighten the vehicle. The driver lost control of the vehicle and collided with a tree. The air bags failed to deploy. The driver suffered a broken nose…
In january 2019 at around 10pm pst my 2018 subaru wrx experienced a serious malfunction. At the time of this incient I was in a secluded, wooded area without cellphone service, as well as being at least 30minutes to the nearest store. This could have been deadly. I was going down a hill at 35mph, it was rainy and…
Visibility/wiper 13 Read
Windshield cracked to the point of requiring repair from pinhead size chip that barely left a mark. The windshield is being replaced but photos are available upon request. The crack quickly spread to the outer edge of the windshield, causing further risk to the structural integrity of the entire windshield. The…
I was de-frosting my windshield early in the morning when I watched a crack start at the base of the driver's side windshield and travel up the window and back down to the base of the windshield. The car was not moving, there was no impact to the windshield at all. I contacted the Subaru dealer and brought the car in…
Windshield cracked for no apparent reason. Car was stationary
Air Bags 10 Read
My car was recently in a high speed crash with a curb. The axle broke immediately and no airbags deployed followed my the entire engine compartment catching fire
Avoiding a vehicle in blind spot. The vehicle in front of the truck in front of me hit his breaks causing the truck in front of me to hit his breaks, I clip the right front fascia into the left seat corner of the truck. The air bags did not deploy and the seat belt tensioner did not work. I pulled over, turned my…
I was heading to work on a stretch of road. I was traveling at about 45-50mph. A car pulled out in front of me and we had an accident. The airbags in the older Subaru of the person who collided with me went off and mine did not. Surprisingly. My head was slammed against the B pillar and a small bruise on my leg.…
Exterior Lighting 10 Read
Headlight deflector burning/melting.not properly deflecting light to properly lighting up the road .they acknowledged the problem but said they would have replaced them if I brought it in before 3 years or 36,000 miles .no not inspected .no indication of symptoms prior to failure
The contact owns 2017 Subaru WRX. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 22V522000 (Exterior Lighting) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The contact stated that while shifted into reverse, the rear-view camera intermittently failed to operate. No warning light was…
The contact owns a 2017 Subaru WRX. The contact stated that while shifted into reverse, the rear-view camera and the back-up lights failed to operate as needed. There was no warning light illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where it was diagnosed that the reverse light switch and camera needed to be…
Service Brakes 6 Read
Factory brake system is weak to slow down. The tree on the road stopped my car faster than the brakes did. Many videos and internet posts document this. Quick google search will provide a lot of information. Many owners with money upgrade calipers from tr model Amazon reviews purchasing brake pads provides stopping…
My son moved my car onto the driveway, stopped it with the foot brake with the manual transmission in neutral. The hill assist was activated, so when he got out of the car the brake held long enough for him to get out of the car and walk away before the brake released, about 2 seconds. The car then rolled down the…
Emergency brake failure. While vehicle was parked emergency brake broke and vehicle rolled onto street causing accident. Have video of incident and can hear brake cable breaking
WRX years to avoid — and the clean ones
Complaints per model year. More reports usually means more cars on the road as well as more trouble, so read the crash and fire columns alongside the count.
| Model year | Complaints | Top system | Crashes | Fires |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Electrical System,back Over Prevention | — | — | |
| 2024 | Engine,forward Collision Avoidance | — | — | |
| 2023 | Air Bags | 2 | — | |
| 2022 | Air Bags | 3 | 1 | |
| 2021 | Electrical System | — | — | |
| 2020 | Air Bags,seat Belts,service Brakes | 1 | — | |
| 2019 | Air Bags,seats | — | — | |
| 2018 | Air Bags | 4 | 1 | |
| 2017 | Air Bags | 8 | 2 | |
| 2016 | Electrical System | 1 | 2 | |
| 2015 | Air Bags,seat Belts,structure | 2 | 1 |
The same model year, different builds
Every complaint carries the first 11 characters of the VIN — plant, year, body and engine. That is a production series, and complaints are spread across them very unevenly.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Distinct production series | 219 |
| Average complaints per series | 1.3 |
| Worst single series | 5 complaints |
| Average age at failure | 3.1 years |
A model average of 1.3 hides a worst series at 5. Enter a VIN above to see the numbers for that exact build instead of the model as a whole.
Owners reported these. Find out if yours is one of them.
- Complaints matched to the exact production run, not just the model
- What the car is worth given what tends to fail on it
- The original window sticker and factory options
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How we count
Every figure here comes from complaints owners filed with NHTSA — 1,100,006 of them, covering 1,982 models built between 1981 and 2026.
A complaint is an unverified report: someone wrote down what happened to their car. It is not a confirmed defect and not a recall. What makes the volume useful is the pattern — when thousands of owners of the same build describe the same failure, that is a signal no marketing brochure will give you.
Two things we do that the source does not. First, we compute the age of the car at the moment of failure from the incident date and the model year. Second, we group complaints by the first 11 characters of the VIN — the production series — so a bad plant run does not disappear into a model-wide average.
Frequently asked questions
What are the worst years for the WRX?
By complaint volume, 2017, 2015, 2018 drew the most owner reports. Bear in mind that popular years put more cars on the road, so check the crash and fire columns too.
Which WRX years are the cleanest?
2025, 2023, 2021 have the fewest complaints on file. For recent years that can simply mean the cars are young.
How many complaints does the Subaru WRX have?
277 owner complaints filed with NHTSA, covering 2015–2025. Of those, 21 describe a crash and 7 a fire.
Are these complaints verified?
No. They are unverified reports from owners. NHTSA publishes them as filed and investigates only a fraction. The value is in the pattern, not in any single report.
Can I check complaints for one specific car?
Yes — enter its VIN above. We match the first 11 characters, which identify the plant, year, body and engine, so you get complaints on that exact production series rather than the whole model.