Subaru this week announced a recall for its three-row SUV, the Ascent. In total, nearly 300,000 copies of model years 2019 to 2022 are targeted in North America. The exact number in Canada is not yet known.
Affected owners won’t receive a notice until February, but the company is now recommending that they park outdoors, away from other vehicles and structures, and not leave their Ascent running unattended.
Why? For the simple and good reason that a small number of models – 1% according to documents sent to the NHTSA in the United States – are at risk of catching fire. The cause would be a grounding problem (ground) of one of the heating system terminals.
If smoke is coming from the dashboard or pedal area, it is advisable to immediately turn off the engine (and do not attempt to restart it) and then have the vehicle towed.
Photo: Michel Deslauriers
A listed case
At least one case of fire has been reported to the builder so far. That was in September 2021. Since then, Subaru has continued to investigate the issue in order to find a solution. Dealers will first inspect and then replace the ground bolt, along with the wires and connectors as needed.
Note in closing that the modernized 2023 Subaru Ascent seems to be free of this defect given that the tooling was changed on the assembly line. That’s why it’s not part of the recall. To find out more about it, read our colleague Dominic Boucher’s test report.