2023 Subaru and Toyota Recall: Wheel May Detach From Vehicle

A wheel is held to the hub by bolts torqued to a specification. In the spring of 2022, Toyota found that on its first electric SUV the bolts could work loose after a few hundred miles, all of them on the same wheel, until the wheel came off the car.

What followed is two recalls rather than one, and the second is the more interesting of the pair. The first covered a defect. The second covered a botched repair of the first.

The Issue

Toyota filed campaign 22V444000 on June 23, 2022, covering 661 Toyota bZ4X and Subaru Solterra vehicles built between March 30 and June 3, 2022. In the company's own words, after low-mileage use "all of the hub bolts on a wheel can loosen to the point where the wheel can detach from the vehicle."

Toyota did not know why. The Part 573 report lists the cause as under investigation and leaves the component, part number and supplier fields blank. The filing puts the estimated share of vehicles containing the defect at 1 percent, then explains that Toyota cannot estimate it, and that the 1 exists only because NHTSA's portal requires an integer. In Toyota's words, the "1" means unknown.

bZ4X owners were told by mail, phone and email not to drive their cars.

Subaru's position was different. The filing states plainly that Subaru "has informed Toyota that no Solterra vehicles have been sold to dealers or retail purchasers." The Solterras in that first campaign were still in transit or sitting at port. No customer was driving one.

The Repair Created the Second Recall

Those cars were held at port processing facilities so the original hub bolts could be replaced before delivery. Subaru engaged a third-party contractor to do the work.

A contractor team at two of the port locations did not complete the torque procedure properly, which left bolts significantly under-torqued on cars that were then delivered to customers as fixed.

Subaru filed campaign 23V064000 on February 9, 2023, covering 1,182 Solterras. The company's data pointed at one contractor team at two ports, but the recall population was widened to every vehicle repaired at any port location that contractor supported. The remedy part is a hub bolt kit, part number 0400232142, and the supplier on the filing is Subaru itself.

Owners were again told not to drive.

Affected Models

Campaign	Filed	Vehicles	Units
22V444000	Jun 23, 2022	2023 Toyota bZ4X and Subaru Solterra	661
23V064000	Feb 9, 2023	2023 Subaru Solterra	1,182
Total			1,843

Production for both campaigns falls between March 30 and June 4, 2022, the opening weeks of the nameplate. Neither campaign reaches any later build, and neither touches the refreshed 2026 cars that carry the larger 74.7-kWh battery.

Reported Incidents

Toyota's filing reports no crashes and no injuries from wheel detachment. The company acted on the failure mode itself rather than on a crash record, and did so before most of the affected cars had reached customers.

The buyback is the part that stuck in the public record. Toyota offered to repurchase affected bZ4X vehicles from owners who wanted out, an unusually broad remedy for a recall covering 661 cars, and one that reflected how long the cause stayed unknown.

Symptoms to Watch For Before a Hub Bolt Fails

Subaru documented an audible warning in the second campaign, which is more than the first filing offered.

A rattle, popping or knocking noise while driving. This is the symptom named in Subaru's Part 573 report. On a loose-bolt condition it usually appears at low speed and over bumps before it appears anywhere else.

Noise that changes with steering load. A loose wheel commonly speaks up in corners, when the load moves across the hub face.

Visible movement or witness marks at the bolt heads. Rust streaks or bright rings radiating from a bolt head mean the joint has been moving.

A wheel that will not stay torqued. Bolts that come up loose again shortly after being tightened point at a damaged bolt or hub face rather than a one-time slip.

How Long Will the Recall Repair Take?

Replacing hub bolts and wheels on a car is a couple of hours of work per corner, and both campaigns were handled at no cost. The 2023 Subaru campaign is the simpler of the two, since it amounts to inspecting and correctly torquing or replacing bolts that were already supposed to have been replaced once.

Both remedies are long since available. A 2023 Solterra or bZ4X on the used market today should have completed both, and the VIN lookup will say so.

Bottom Line

These two campaigns are the reason the Solterra and bZ4X spent their first year with a reputation problem, and they are worth understanding rather than avoiding. The defect was caught early, the population was small, no crashes were reported, and both remedies have been available for years.

Anyone shopping a 2023 Solterra or bZ4X should run the VIN and confirm both campaigns are closed, then listen for a rattle or knock on the test drive. A car with both repairs completed carries no open exposure from either one.

Find your Subaru Solterra recall information: https://www.subaru.com/vehicle-recalls.html