AutoUtility currently tracks 25 official NHTSA owner defect complaints for the 2022 Subaru WRX. Engine & Cooling issues are the most frequently reported category, appearing in 14 complaints (56% of submitted records). Among these NHTSA complaint records, 3 filings cite a crash, 1 cites a fire.

Key Problem Findings
  • Total NHTSA Complaints: 25 reports
  • #1 Reported Problem Area: Engine & Cooling (14 reports • 56% of submitted complaints)
  • Secondary Problem Areas: Powertrain & Transmission (4), Electrical System (3)
  • Crash-Citing Complaints: 3 filings
  • Fire-Citing Complaints: 1 filings
  • Complaints Reporting Injuries / Fatalities: 0 injury filings • 0 fatality filings
Reporting Methodology: Statistics describe unverified consumer submissions voluntarily filed with NHTSA. Complaint volume is not normalized for vehicle sales volume or miles driven. Multiple components can be cited within a single owner complaint submission.
Total Complaints
25
Submitted to NHTSA ODI
Crash-Citing Complaints
3
Filings citing a collision
Fire-Citing Complaints
1
Filings citing smoke or fire
Complaints Reporting Injuries
0
Filings citing one or more injuries
Complaints Reporting Fatalities
0
Consumer filings citing fatalities

Most Reported Problems for 2022 Subaru WRX

Top automotive subsystem defect categories ranked by unique owner complaint volume in federal records

#1 Problem Area 56% of complaints

Engine & Cooling

14 owner complaints submitted to NHTSA ODI
✓ 0 crashes or fires cited
#2 Problem Area 16% of complaints

Powertrain & Transmission

4 owner complaints submitted to NHTSA ODI
✓ 0 crashes or fires cited
#3 Problem Area 12% of complaints

Electrical System

3 owner complaints submitted to NHTSA ODI
✓ 0 crashes or fires cited
#4 Problem Area 8% of complaints

Air Bags & Restraints

2 owner complaints submitted to NHTSA ODI
⚠️ 2 crash reports 🔥 1 fire report
#5 Problem Area 8% of complaints

Driver Assistance & Safety Tech

2 owner complaints submitted to NHTSA ODI
✓ 0 crashes or fires cited
Domain Share Note: Share percentage represents the proportion of unique complaint filings referencing each vehicle system. Because single complaints may cite multiple systems (such as engine and electrical simultaneously), domain percentages represent individual category incidence and may sum to over 100%.

Recent NHTSA Owner Reports for 2022 Subaru WRX

Representative defect filings submitted by owners to the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation

Powertrain & Transmission NHTSA ODI ID: #11749460
Filed: 07/10/2026

"The car has randomly on multiple occasions failed to accelerate then jump forward hitting the rev limiter. This has happened while merging back into traffic including 55 mph roads creating concern for being rear ended and also concerns for hitting vehicles in front when the car jumps forward as..."

Incident Date: 09/01/2025 • Raw NHTSA Component: POWER TRAIN,ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,UNKNOWN OR OTHER
Air Bags & Restraints NHTSA ODI ID: #11735928
Crash Cited Fire Cited Filed: 05/05/2026

"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."

Incident Date: 04/19/2026 • Raw NHTSA Component: AIR BAGS,UNKNOWN OR OTHER
Other / Miscellaneous NHTSA ODI ID: #11729568
Filed: 04/06/2026

"Complaint Summary: I am filing a complaint regarding a potentially defective A/C compressor that is producing abnormal noise and may indicate premature failure. Description of Issue: My vehicle’s A/C compressor produces a loud, rhythmic “chugging” or knocking noise at idle when the A/C system is..."

Incident Date: 03/01/2026 • Raw NHTSA Component: UNKNOWN OR OTHER
Driver Assistance & Safety Tech NHTSA ODI ID: #11634566
Filed: 01/07/2025

"During driving, especially when it is cold outside, the Subaru Eyesight Pre-Collision system (automatic emergency braking) can be triggered by exhaust smoke from a vehicle in front of it. The braking system can be falsely activated, which could cause your vehicle to be hit from behind. There is no..."

Incident Date: 02/06/2024 • Raw NHTSA Component: FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE
Body & Structure NHTSA ODI ID: #11603762
Filed: 07/22/2024

"Hood vibration (visual) when driving and going over minor bumps."

Incident Date: 07/22/2024 • Raw NHTSA Component: STRUCTURE
Consumer Narrative Notice: Excerpts are sanitized text descriptions submitted by vehicle owners to the federal ODI database. They reflect the reporting consumer's observations at the time of filing and have not been independently confirmed by vehicle manufacturers or government investigators.

Complaint History for Subaru WRX

Reported defect complaint volume across sibling model years (2015–2026)

Model Year NHTSA Complaints Crash Reports Safety Recalls Detailed Report
2015 Subaru WRX 55 2 3 View 2015 Problems →
2016 Subaru WRX 34 1 3 View 2016 Problems →
2017 Subaru WRX 53 8 1 View 2017 Problems →
2018 Subaru WRX 44 6 2 View 2018 Problems →
2019 Subaru WRX 30 0 2 View 2019 Problems →
2020 Subaru WRX 17 1 1 View 2020 Problems →
2021 Subaru WRX 13 0 1 View 2021 Problems →
2022 Subaru WRX Current Page 25 3 1 Current
2023 Subaru WRX 7 2 1 View 2023 Problems →
2024 Subaru WRX 13 0 0 View 2024 Problems →
2025 Subaru WRX 2 0 0 View 2025 Problems →
2026 Subaru WRX 0 0 0 View 2026 Problems →
Comparative Disclaimer: Complaint totals are unadjusted historical counts and are not normalized for vehicles sold, active fleet size, or total road mileage. Newer model years naturally have had less calendar exposure time to accumulate owner filings.

Detailed NHTSA Component Breakdown for 2022 Subaru WRX

Complete distribution of consumer defect reports across all 12 granular NHTSA system and subsystem classifications

Vehicle Component / System Total Complaints Crash Reports Fire Reports Reported Injury Entries Reported Fatality Entries
Engine NHTSA category: ENGINE 12 0 0 0 0
Other / Uncategorized NHTSA category: UNKNOWN OR OTHER 3 0 0 0 0
Air Bags NHTSA category: AIR BAGS 1 1 0 0 0
AIR BAGS,UNKNOWN OR OTHER 1 1 1 0 0
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 1 0 0 0 0
Forward Collision Avoidance NHTSA category: FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 1 0 0 0 0
POWER TRAIN,ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ENGINE 1 0 0 0 0
POWER TRAIN,ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,UNKNOWN OR OTHER 1 0 0 0 0
POWER TRAIN,ENGINE 1 0 0 0 0
POWER TRAIN,ENGINE,FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM 1 0 0 0 0
Service Brakes NHTSA category: SERVICE BRAKES 1 1 0 0 0
Structure & Body NHTSA category: STRUCTURE 1 0 0 0 0
Data Attribution & Reporting Methodology: Complaints are unverified voluntary submissions to the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation (ODI). Because multiple vehicle components can be cited within a single owner complaint submission, component-level rollups may sum to more than the unique complaint count (25). Injury and fatality entries in the detailed table reflect raw values entered by reporting consumers across individual submissions; they are not deduplicated casualty statistics and may include duplicate or unverified entries. Complaint volume is not normalized for sales volume or vehicle mileage and does not represent an audited component failure rate.
Official US Government Data Provenance

The complaint records on this page are retrieved directly from the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) public database.

Local Production Store Compiled: August 2026 • Deterministic Audited Dataset • Zero Dynamic External API Runtime Latency.