Other engine problem on the 2018 Subaru Crosstrek
1 crash 1 injury 2 of the 22 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
When other engine problem gets reported
Owners of the 2018 Subaru Crosstrek report other engine problem at a median of 15,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 1,200 miles and a quarter after 40,000 miles, from 13 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 2nd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 100 miles at the tenth percentile to 55,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 54,704 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A window that narrow is the signature of a part that fails on its own schedule rather than on how the car is driven — which is usually a design or supplier problem rather than wear and tear.
69% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 96 miles | 1,200 miles | 17,000 miles | 39,000 miles | 54,800 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 1 a crash and 1 an injury are mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $300–$4,000 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 7 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2021, at a median of 700 miles, and latest on the 2016 at 80,000 miles.
By volume the 2018 is the worst of them, which makes this a problem of this specific year rather than of the model as a whole.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
Vehicle turned off while driving two times in traffic causing near collisions. Its been at dealer for more than a week. The dealer says they couldn't repair it so subaru sent out engineers and determined their was a fault with no repair protocol available. They say they will have to keep my car until they can repair it. They mentioned another car in the phoenix area having the same problem. They stated that they might have to develop new software to fix the problem. I filed a complaint with subaru of america case #[xxx] on june 18, 2018. I ask them to return the vehicle that I have had for less than 2 months, but there is no resolution from them at this time. The vehicle has already had air conditioner issues that the dealer service team say are resolved, but as yet we have not driven the car since the repair, to see if the AC is actually working properly. This vehicle was purchased for its outstanding safety rating in the transportation of our elderly mother to and from medical appointments and any collision could be a life threatening event for her, in her current condition. We are deeply concerned for the safety of others and…
June 2, 2018. Purchased a new 2018 subaru crosstrek from my local subaru dealership and drove the car home. The next day (june 3, 2018), on my first trip out to run errands the car stalled after going from reverse to drive at slow speed in a parking lot. The next day (june 4, 2018), the car stalled again twice in rapid succession under similar conditions in another parking lot. The same day (june 4, 2018), I drove the car to my local subaru dealership for service. Subaru engineers evaluated a similar problem on other crosstreks and determined that the issue was a software problem. 21 days later I am still waiting for a remedy.
My oil temp on my subaru is higher than normal...I have had it in the dealer 2 times already and even tho they say the temps are not normal the say there is nothing they can do because everything look fine..but they tell me to change my oil every 3k now instead of 6k...I have done a lot of research about the oil temps and have not found anyone or any other case that has this problem with a 2018 crosstrek .I have ask subaru what the oil temp range is and after months of calling someone finally tells me max temp is 247...my car goes over that..I take it to the dealer again and same thing..they do nothing..I ask them again what the normal temp range is and they don't know...they tell me to just drive it that it's under warranty..the high oil temp probably did some long term damage...subaru is unwilling to do anything here even tho they say the temps are not normal....the temps rise up at highway driving..up hills mostly...normal speed...it's like there is no cooling...go up hills during regular highway driving the oil temp just shoots up...water temp is normal
Also reported on the 2018 Subaru Crosstrek
Other visibility problem
Windshield cracking
Other electrical problem
Other speed control problem
Other powertrain problem
Other body or interior problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 22 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does other engine problem happen on the 2018 Subaru Crosstrek?
Across 13 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 15,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 1,200 miles and a quarter after 40,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other engine problem on the 2018 Subaru Crosstrek?
22 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.2 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed