NHTSA Complaint #11637135 — 2017 SUBARU FORESTER

When closing the liftgate during the normal course of use, the liftgate support cylinder on the driver's (left) side failed (metal ball joint snapped where it connects to the liftgate), causing the support cylinder to fall between the liftgate and the rear tail light. Without this support cylinder in place, the liftgate did not receive enough support from the right side support cylinder and rapidly fell down, smashing the left support cylinder into the left tail light, cracking the tail light assembly. Additionally, there was no way to secure the liftgate with the broken support cylinder still attached to the body of the vehicle. Fortunately, we were in the parking lot of a hardware store where I was able to purchase a ratchet kit to remove the two bolts connecting the support cylinder to the body of the vehicle. Had this occurred somewhere else, I would have had to drive the vehicle somewhere else with the liftgate unsecured. This was an extremely dangerous situation as the liftgate could have seriously injured someone who may have been underneath when the support cylinder failed. Additionally, the way the support cylinder is installed, when it fails, it WILL break the rear tail light assembly. The support cylinder has nowhere to go but across the tail light. The problem was not reproduced by a dealer, but the same thing happened to the support cylinder on the other side (passenger, right side) of the car not even 6 months later. We have only had the car 8 years. There is no reason this component should fail in 8 years when using the liftgate under normal operating conditions. There are no warning signs that this will happen. It simply just fails and the liftgate comes crashing down. I did not have a mechanic look at the issue as it simply requires a new support cylinder (OEM part at Subaru costs $138). I was able to replace the cylinder when the part arrived, but my tail light is still cracked. I will have to replace that as well ($289 at Subaru).