RECALL: WRH-23 / NHTSA #23V258000 – Safety Recall/Sales Stop – Tire Bead Damage (2023 Ascents, 20″ tires, builds December 1, 2022-January 5, 2022)

If anyone has access to the TSB/Service procedure regarding this issue, it would be great to see it posted.

The screen print posted in another thread on this forum, taken from the Subaru dealer service application, specifically “stopped sales” of any affected vehicles still on dealer lots. Further, after reading it, the cause of the problem is the possibility of damage to the tire beads due to faulty manufacturing equipment. There is no mention of an inspection, only replacement if built over a certain period with 20″ wheels. I am not aware of a procedure to safely inspect a dismounted tire for bead damage, especially for a shop that does work. mostly mechanical.Even a tire expert would probably need some specialized equipment, a visual inspection alone seems insufficient.

Anyone know the ratio of cars with 18″ vs. 20″ tires? The point is 4409 cars affected, in a period of about 1 month. Subaru sold about 60,000 Ascents a year, so that’s likely every single one with 20″ tires.

There is an incident on the NHSTA website regarding this issue. Just guesses here, but thinking that Subaru discovered the manufacturing problem while investigating this problem. Much credit goes to Subaru for accepting liability, I think it’s a $5 million settlement.

I’m mostly just trying to get over the problem, the tire option only mentioned as I think 20,000 OEM tires will slowly appear unless Subaru also stops making new cars. And the no sales part of the notice prompts me to limit my usage to slow down in town until it’s fixed. Or not at all if more information comes to light about other incidents. In my professional life, for a similar problem, we would have grounded the airplane until it was resolved at the next appropriate maintenance facility.