5.8

fairly significant
Crashes / Fires:
0 / 0
Injuries / Deaths:
0 / 0
Average Mileage:
14,750 miles

About These NHTSA Complaints:

The NHTSA is the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints can be spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem. See the Back button — blue bar at the very top of the page — to explore more.

Get notified about new defects, investigations, recalls & lawsuits for the 2004 Subaru Impreza:

Unsubscribe any time. We don't sell/share your email.

problem #4

Jan 242005

Impreza 4-cyl

  • Manual transmission
  • 15,000 miles
2004 Impreza sti - rear clunking noise from right rear suspension. Occasional strut lockup in compressed position. Dealer attempted to fix this problem three times before realizing it was a faulty rear strut. Many other owners of the same car have reported the same problem. I was fortunate as my dealer properly diagnosed and repaired the problem. After the repair, the strut issue went away. Subaru of America should be required to recall this model to check for this strut problem. Not only does the strut make noise when compressing, but it sometimes locks in the compressed postion, changing the handling and performance dynamics of the car in an extremely unsafe and potentially lifethreatening way. By replacing the strut, the problem should be corrected. Due to the large number of instances of the same strut failure on these cars, as demonstrated by the number of same complaints to NHTSA here at this website, one can only assume Subaru of american is well aware of the problem.

- Rancho Dominguez, CA, USA

problem #3

Apr 102004

Impreza 4-cyl

  • Manual transmission
  • 9,000 miles
Subaru WRX sti has a severe problem with the struts failing in the 2004 model year. I have had my rear struts replaced a total of 3 times and they are broken again and my car is not even two years old. There are several forums on the internet with thousands of people with the same issue. I don't know if there's is a safety issue but it doesn't seem like it can be safe driving around with broken struts.

- Houston, TX, USA

problem #2

Mar 302005

Impreza 4-cyl

  • Manual transmission
  • 10,000 miles
The rear strut of my 2004 WRX sti clunks all the time. Any range of speed all the way up to 50-60. This is a known problem with the sti's over as little as 5,000 miles. Subaru has done nothing about this!!!

- Newtown Square, PA, USA

problem #1

May 162004

Impreza 4-cyl

  • Manual transmission
  • 25,000 miles
For some time both rear struts in my car have been making a loud clunking noise. It has gotten worse to the point where they will now get stuck in a certain position. This can be very dangerous when driving at highway speeds as it makes the car wander all over the road. I have complained to the dealership and to Subaru of America with no resolution. This is a very common problem with many of these particular cars. They have been like this since the car had about 25,000 miles on it.

- East Longmeadow, MA, USA