Subaru Legacy, Subaru Outback, model years 2010 to 2014. Filed by Subaru of America, Inc. and reported to NHTSA on 27 September 2016. 592,647 vehicles potentially affected.
What the notice says Subaru of America, Inc. (Subaru) is recalling certain model year 2010-2014 Legacy vehicles manufactured November 26, 2008, to June 7, 2013, and 2010-2014 Outback vehicles manufactured January 9, 2009 to June 7, 2013. Due to contamination, components within the windshield wiper motor bottom cover may interfere with …
Is your vehicle included? Check with your VIN at NHTSA, or ask a dealer. This page is an independent copy of the notice, kept so you can see what changed after it was published. It is not the authority, and the authority’s own text is the one to act on.
Subaru's own number for this recall: WTK-71. That is the number on the owner letter and on the dealer paperwork. 16V694 is the number NHTSA gave the same campaign, and the number this page is filed under. They are one recall, written two ways.
What owners ask about this recall
- Which vehicles does recall 16V694 cover?
- Subaru Legacy, Subaru Outback, model years 2010-2014.
- What is wrong with them?
- Subaru of America, Inc. (Subaru) is recalling certain model year 2010-2014 Legacy vehicles manufactured November 26, 2008, to June 7, 2013, and 2010-2014 Outback vehicles manufactured January 9, 2009 to June 7, 2013.
- What can happen if it is not put right?
- If the windshield wiper motor overheats, the wipers may fail, reducing driver visibility and increasing the risk of a crash. Additionally, the wiper motor cover may melt, increasing the risk of a fire.
- Is there a fix yet?
- Yes, and it is free. Subaru will notify owners, and dealers will replace the windshield wiper motor bottom cover assembly, free of charge. The recall began October 2016. Owners may contact Subaru customer service at 1-800-782-2783. Subaru's number for this recall is WTK-71. Note: This recall supersedes recall 11V-469.
- What should I do now?
- Check your own vehicle by its VIN with NHTSA, which is the record to act on. Subaru calls this recall WTK-71, which is the number on the owner letter and the dealer paperwork.
Answered from the register this site holds. NHTSA is the record to act on.
What the authority says can happen if this is not fixed: “If the windshield wiper motor overheats, the wipers may fail, reducing driver visibility and increasing the risk of a crash. Additionally, the wiper motor cover may melt, increasing the risk of a fire.”
affected
in the notice
caught
| Campaign | 16V694 |
|---|---|
| Filed by | Subaru of America, Inc. |
| System at fault | Visibility:Windshield Wiper/Washer:Motor |
| Reported to NHTSA | 27 September 2016 |
| Model years | 2010-2014 |
| Vehicles named | SUBARU LEGACY, SUBARU OUTBACK |
What the notice says today
The consequence
If the windshield wiper motor overheats, the wipers may fail, reducing driver visibility and increasing the risk of a crash. Additionally, the wiper motor cover may melt, increasing the risk of a fire.
The remedy
Subaru will notify owners, and dealers will replace the windshield wiper motor bottom cover assembly, free of charge. The recall began October 2016. Owners may contact Subaru customer service at 1-800-782-2783. Subaru's number for this recall is WTK-71. Note: This recall supersedes recall 11V-469. All vehicles that were remedied under that campaign are affected by this campaign, and need to have their wiper motor bottom cover replaced again.
What it said before
This campaign is in the register but not yet in the dated wording archive, so we cannot yet say whether its text has moved. It enters the archive on the next pass.
This is one of 463 notices in the record whose component field names visibility. Across that group the median wait before owners were written to was 34 days.
Last checked . No change has been recorded in the wording.
The same recall in other countries
This campaign carries a manufacturer code that also appears in another country’s register, which means the same defect was recalled there too.
- Canada: Transport Canada recall 2016471, recorded 26 September 2016 (within a week of the American filing)
Matched on WTK71, the manufacturer’s own number for this campaign, which is the only field the registers share. Exact match, nothing paired on brand and date. The two dates are adjacent instruments rather than the same one, so a difference of a day or two means nothing.
How often the two countries file on the same day · The European alerts
The models named here, across their whole recall history
How to cite this record
Quoting the wording on this page means quoting a version, so the date belongs in the citation:
CarsMultiverse, recall 16V694, wording as read on 16 September 2026. https://carsmultiverse.com/recall/16v694/
The cross-border matches used on this site are deposited as a citable dataset: doi:10.5281/zenodo.22087136. The recall wording itself is published by the national authority named above and is theirs, not ours.
The recall record and its wording are published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and are US Government public domain. The dated archive, the comparison and any before-and-after above are CarsMultiverse. How fresh every engine behind this page is, is public on the status page. To check a specific vehicle, use NHTSA’s own VIN lookup.
Other Subaru notices we hold
- 26V436: 2026 Crosstrek Hybrid, 2025-2026 Forester Hybrid, Forester, and 2019-2026 Ascent
- 26V346: 2026 Forester and Forester Hybrid
- 26V106: 2026 Crosstrek hybrid, and 2025 Forester hybrid
- 25V889: 2026 Forester
- 25V419: 2025 Forester
- 25V033: 2025 Forester
- 24V227: 2020-2022 Outback and Legacy
- 23V755: model year 2021 Crosstrek, 2022 Forester, 2021-2023 Legacy, and Outback
All 110 Subaru campaigns we hold · Every manufacturer in the record
The fingerprint of this notice
We take a SHA-256 of each of the three blocks of text the authority publishes and keep the first eight characters. As we last read campaign 16V694 on 23 August 2026, they were:
- Defect summary
684c9179 - Consequence
4579fc0e - Remedy
c5b68923
We first read this notice on 21 August 2026. It has not moved since. If it ever does, these characters will not match, and the change will be dated here.
The wording we hold for 16V694 · how the whole register is watched
This notice names one vehicle among several registers that have written about it. Every notice this site holds for the Subaru Outback, in all seven, is kept on that vehicle's own page, with the newest in each.
Put this notice on your site
A small badge that links here and names the register's reference. It costs one line of HTML and needs no key.
The badge is free to use. It links to this page and nowhere else, and it never shows advertising.
Owners of these cars
No register publishes what happens after the letter. Owners do: tell us, in two taps.
Anonymous: no account, no cookie, nothing you type is stored beyond these choices. Figures appear once 3 owners have answered, and are published with the record under CC BY 4.0.