Headlight lenses fill up with water on interior of lenses causes headlights to distort lighting and reduced visibility.
Lights
2017 Subaru Outback Lighting problems
Owners have filed 7 complaints about the 2017 Subaru Outback's lights with NHTSA - 1% of all its complaints, most recently on February 15, 2025. Headlights, tail lights, brake lights, turn signals and interior lighting failures.
- Complaints
- 7
- Recalls
- 0
- Crashes
- 0
- Fires
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Deaths
- 0
Lighting complaints
My 2017 Subaru outback has moisture forming inside the passenger side headlight. Temperature does not appear to be a cause. The concern is freezing and light distortion affecting the night time auto headlight dimmer. There are no apparent cracks and front end has not been in any collision. Issue was noticed at least two months ago. Dealer is talking to manufacturer.
I have been stranded repeatedly by my subaru since it was purchased with drained batteries, no explanation from subaru. Safety issues arise from the stranding. There is a lawsuit now with subaru but they are not acutally fixing the cars? No warnings were given and I now have a unreliable vehicle with no proposed fix from the manufacturer.
This is the same issue we are seeing with our other Subaru where we come out to drive and the battery is dead. We would jump the battery and be able to drive for the day and the next day the battery is dead in the morning. I replaced the battery several times over the last few year and the battery would die with a less than 2 month old battery. I was driving around in both cars with jumper cables permanently. After taking it to the dealer, the battery was in great condition, the alternator was charging properly...
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and there is a known electrical issue with this model and year that is part of a class action lawsuit. I had to replace my rear gate module electrical unit because it was going on and off in the night and draining my battery. I will be looking to get re-eimbursed for this company issue.
Complaintpurchased vehicle on 8/15/2017. Started having electrical issues that have persisted consistently. Incidents include radio freezing, radio updates and problems still persist, full radio / screen replaced, lights on the cpnsole pulsing during a highway night drive, notice from starlink that my system was not working and I recently just had my battery replaced for the fourth time in 43 months of owning this auto. Most recently I couldnt start my car and was stuck at the south rim of the grand canyon. Had to...
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get the auto to flagstaff subaru to get the battery replaced. No one mentioned that this issue was recurring and widespread problem. When I got my car back to las vegas, I took the car in to the las vegas subaru dealer on april 8, 2021. The car was picked up by me on tuesday ap 13, 2021. I was told that they did an update and that the problem would be fixed. There is no way to tell if that is even remotely correct as there is a new battery (again the 4th battery) in this vehicle and who knows when and where I will get stuck next. The time periods between incidents are as little as a few months and beyond. I literally just read an article today about there being a class action lawsuit for this very same issue for 2016-2020 subaru outbacks. No one in the service department or at subaru national 800 number mentioned this to me. After this 4th battery incident, I did make a complaint to subaru's national office
The headlights (hid with auto-leveling) are pointed dangerously low. They do not illuminate the road ahead far enough. A driver would have very little time to react, given this limited illumination distance. Subaru dealerships are adamant the headlights are adjusted to specifications. There are many complaints about this issue all over the internet from owners, and the dealerships I've mentioned this issue to have explained they are aware of the complaints, but there is nothing they can do. I am very worried for...
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our safety and for the pedestrians/vehicles we would not see in time to stop. We purchased this vehicle new, and this is not a new issue. I have tried to address it for several years. When the vehicle is accelerating from a stoplight, for example, the headlights are basically fine (given the shift of weight to the rear which has the front of the vehicle aimed a bit higher), but as soon as the vehicle levels out, the issue is very evident. The automatic high beam feature simply does not compensate, as the automatic high beams are not intuitive enough to perfectly activate and stay activated every time (it misreads surrounding street lights, for example, as oncoming headlights very easily.
Subaru markets their high beam assist (hba) feature as working 'in conjunction with eyesight to automatically switch the headlights between the high and low settings when an oncoming vehicle is detected.' That's not entirely true and that's where the safety issue comes into play. The hba feature turns off high beams at lower speeds no matter if an oncoming car is present and absolutely turns them off at a stop sign. This makes for traveling at low speeds in residential communities dangerous. In our community,...
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for example, it's very hilly and curvy with a lot of wildlife and people who walk/jog so speeds are often below 20 mph, the speed at which subaru's manual says this feature works. If anything, when there is no oncoming traffic in a residential communities high beams should always be on at night. This allows for the earlier detection of people and animals. In talking to subaru they really didn't care at all that this created a dangerous situation and offered to tell their engineers. Of course, this can be turned off, but only by visiting a dealer and paying them to fix subaru's design flaw. Nhtsa should require subaru to 1) fix this feature so that it only dims high beams when there is oncoming traffic; and 2) require subaru offer to disable the feature free of charge at any authorized dealer until the problem is fixed.
Subaru Outback lighting complaints by year
Outback lighting problems, every yearSource: U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) complaints and recalls, checked . Complaints are owners' own reports and are not verified. How we use the data