2026 Subaru Uncharted Headlight Problems

Owner reports

Selected complaints filed with NHTSA by 2026 Subaru Uncharted owners, lightly cleaned up (personal details are redacted by NHTSA).

While driving at night, the LED headlight beams on my 2026 Subaru Uncharted GT exhibit excessive vertical oscillation/shaking after normal road impacts and bumps. The movement is significant enough to create a distracting flickering/bouncing effect within the driver's field of view and reduces nighttime driving comfort and confidence. The condition is reproducible at all speeds and on normal road surfaces. The headlight beam pattern continues to visibly oscillate after suspension movement rather than stabilizing immediately with vehicle motion. The issue can also be reproduced while stationary by lightly tapping or applying abrupt pressure to the front bumper/headlight area, causing noticeable beam shake against a wall or garage door. The concern does not appear to be an isolated defect. …

I am reporting a headlight stability issue on my 2026 Subaru Uncharted. While driving at night, the LED headlights produce a severe oscillating/strobing effect over normal road imperfections and bumps. The beam pattern rapidly shifts up and down, creating alternating bright and dark visibility ("black/white flicker") on the roadway and traffic signs. This issue is distracting during nighttime driving and negatively affects driver visibility confidence. The effect is significantly noticeable even at normal driving speeds and on regular road surfaces. I brought the vehicle to the Subaru dealer for inspection shortly after purchase. The technician acknowledged that the behavior did not appear normal, but the dealer stated they did not currently have a repair available and would need to contact Subaru for further guidance. …

The headlights jitter and shake while driving on normal road conditions, due to poor mounting inside the bumper. You can push on the headlight housing and notice it move. This causes very districting conditions while driving at night, oncoming traffic flashes high beams often thinking that I'm flashing them or something. I took it to the dealership to get it looked at after seeing numerous owner reports online about it, and got a similar result, with the dealership admitting that there is no recall, nor any fix for it, and I'm supposed to just deal with it. It can create unsafe conditions for other motorists due to the potential for flashing them with bright, jittery light. This is unacceptable on a car that is around $40,000+. Here is a video link from the master technician saying there is no fix available: [redacted]

While driving at night the headlight bounces on the road and not only distracting but limits what you see as while bouncing the beam of light is partly blocked by moving past the opening for it in the bumper. You can push down on the top of the daytime driving lights as they are one assembly with the headlights and the whole assembly moves. This assembly needs to be secured. I also filed a report on this with you previously for my 2026 Subaru Solterra vin#[redacted]. On the forums all owners of both cars are complaining of this safety hazard and they have said they also filed a safety complaint withthe NHTSA.

Headlights visibley shake when the car encounters a bump in the road, during braking, and anything else that can create an impulse on the car. The vehicle is available upon request for inspection. It creates a distint and distracting event that is distracting to the operator when and potentially on-coming traffic when driving at night. I have heard that others have also verified this with dealers, but I have not personally had the opportunity to bring it to mine. The problem in my personal vehicle has not been inspected by any authority, I have just purchased it. There are no warning lights or symptoms as this appears to be a mechanical mounting issue that is unmonitored by the computer.

The light from the headlights on this brand new car flicker when driving over the slightest bump. On dirt roads or uneven pavement, the shake and flicker of the headlights is very prominent, even with the high beams turned on. This is a major safety hazard as the light from the headlights is not consistent and the flicker gives intermittent lighting outages of the road ahead - literally leaving the driver to drive blind. The flicker/bounce of the lighting is also highly distracting for a driver and creates an ongoing safety hazard due to this design flaw in the vehicle. Please force a recall for the Subaru Uncharted headlights. This is a widespread issue with this model.

The head light assembly is loose and vibrates. At night it is distracting to the driver and drivers of other vehicles to see the head lights flash off other cars and signs. I have had multiple cars flash me because the lights look like they are flickering when approaching on the road. The dealership told me that they are aware of all the complaints for the Uncharted having vibrating headlights and to report it as a safety concern. There have been no inspections done on the headlights. The headlights have been this way since the first day I purchased it.

When driving in the dark the headlight housing bounces a lot causing the headlight beams to bounce and dance like crazy over any and all little bumps on the road and is very distracting to me the driver and more than likely cars driving towards me and I feel that this could be a safety concern and a manufacturing defect The headlight housing is not rigid on the vehicle you can manually move the housing very easily and I feel they did not secure it to the vehicle properly

When the headlights are on at night, any bump or movement of the vehicle over rough surfaces causes the headlights to visibly shake. It is especially noticeable when the low beams are on. Even the reflection in vehicles or signs, you can see the lights shake. It caused quite a distraction when trying to drive. Dealer states this is normal and all other variants of this car do the same. I have never had a car that had headlights shake like this.

Low beams are susceptible to moderate shaking/vibrations that are very distracting/dangerous. They create a vertical strobe-like effect for oncoming traffic as they bounce up/down, and for the driver as well as they reflect off signs and other objects. This could be caused by their lack of attachment to the chassis directly or from the high/low beam mechanism that moves the high beam cover out of the way internally.

Headlight complaints in other Uncharted years