Subaru Ascent, Subaru Legacy, Subaru Outback, model years 2019 to 2020. Filed by Subaru of America, Inc. and reported to NHTSA on 9 December 2021. 198,255 vehicles potentially affected.
What the notice says Subaru of America, Inc. (Subaru) is recalling certain 2019-2020 Ascent, 2020 Legacy and Outback vehicles. A programming error in the Transmission Control Unit (TCU) may allow the clutch to engage before the drive chain is completely clamped.
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: WRK-21. That is the number on the owner letter and on the dealer paperwork. 21V955 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 21V955 cover?
- Subaru Ascent, Subaru Legacy, Subaru Outback, model years 2019-2020.
- What is wrong with them?
- Subaru of America, Inc. (Subaru) is recalling certain 2019-2020 Ascent, 2020 Legacy and Outback vehicles. A programming error in the Transmission Control Unit (TCU) may allow the clutch to engage before the drive chain is completely clamped.
- What can happen if it is not put right?
- An improperly secured drive chain may slip and break, causing a loss of drive power and increasing the risk of a crash.
- Is there a fix yet?
- Yes, and it is free. Dealers will reprogram the TCU, inspect TCU data for chain slip, and visually inspect the chain guide. If evidence of chain slippage or damage is found, the transmission will be replaced. Repairs will be performed free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed August 19, 2022.
- 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 WRK-21, 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: “An improperly secured drive chain may slip and break, causing a loss of drive power and increasing the risk of a crash.”
affected
in the notice
caught
| Campaign | 21V955 |
|---|---|
| Filed by | Subaru of America, Inc. |
| System at fault | Power Train:Automatic Transmission:Control Module (TCM/PCM/Tecm) |
| Reported to NHTSA | 9 December 2021 |
| Model years | 2019-2020 |
| Vehicles named | SUBARU ASCENT, SUBARU LEGACY, SUBARU OUTBACK |
What the notice says today
The consequence
An improperly secured drive chain may slip and break, causing a loss of drive power and increasing the risk of a crash.
The remedy
Dealers will reprogram the TCU, inspect TCU data for chain slip, and visually inspect the chain guide. If evidence of chain slippage or damage is found, the transmission will be replaced. Repairs will be performed free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed August 19, 2022. This recall includes all vehicles previously recalled under 19V-855. Vehicles previously recalled under 19V-855 will need to have the new remedy performed for this recall once available. Owners may contact Subaru customer service at 1-844-373-6614. Subaru's number for this recall is WRK-21.
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 816 notices in the record whose component field names power train. Across that group the median wait before owners were written to was 42 days.
Last checked . No change has been recorded in the wording.
The models named here, across their whole recall history
- Subaru Ascent recalls: 13 US campaigns
- Subaru Legacy recalls: 43 US campaigns
- Subaru Outback recalls: 21 US campaigns
How to cite this record
Quoting the wording on this page means quoting a version, so the date belongs in the citation:
CarsMultiverse, recall 21V955, wording as read on 16 September 2026. https://carsmultiverse.com/recall/21v955/
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 21V955 on 23 August 2026, they were:
- Defect summary
91810941 - Consequence
2a97db36 - Remedy
371c2fb8
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 21V955 · 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.
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Owners of these cars
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