Wheel bearing or hub failure on the 1999 Subaru Forester
When wheel bearing or hub failure gets reported
Owners of the 1999 Subaru Forester report wheel bearing or hub failure at a median of 30,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 30,000 miles and a quarter after 40,000 miles, from 8 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 102,000 miles. It is the 1st most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 20,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 70,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 49,420 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.
75% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21,670 miles | 27,775 miles | 30,850 miles | 40,510 miles | 71,090 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
Putting it right typically runs $350–$1,200 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 9 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2003, at a median of 20,000 miles, and latest on the 2016 at 85,000 miles.
By volume the 1999 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.
I have had to replace rear wheel bearings on my 1999 subaru forester three (3) times. The left rear wheel bearings had to be replaced twice before 35k miles and the right rear wheel bearing just failed at 50k miles. Clearly subaru has a design and/or manufacturing problem with the 1999 subaru rear wheel bearings. I don't know if it is a serious safety issue but having a wheel bearing fail completely at highway speeds would seem like a bad thing.[I found out about your site on cartalk.com]. Nlm
The car is 4 years old with 24100 miles. At 16000 miles, right rear wheel bearing failed and was replaced under warranty. At 22000 miles, right rear bearing noise returned and the dealer 'adjusted' the bearing for 'free', even though the 3 year warranty had passed. At 24100 miles, the bearing failed with grinding and smoking while vehicle was on the highway. Dealer refused to cover the event under warranty.a technician at the dealership told consumer that other foresters were having similar bearing problems,and that they we retold to stop using the oem ball bearings, and go to a roller bearing.*ak
3 right wheel bearing failures. At 16000 miles the right wheel bearing was replaced under warranty (9-11-01). At 22000 miles (4-23-03), right rear bearing noise returned and dealer 'adjusted' the bearing. Warranty had expired, but dealer did not charge for 'adjustment'. At 24100 miles, bearing failed with grinding and smoke during highway driving. A 100 mile tow was necessary. The dealer is refusing to repair under warranty. My position is that it was never fixed the first time. Online research reveals others with similar tales. One told of having bearings replaced 6 times. Subaru issued a service bulletin (#035002, dec. 23, 2002) advising of a new way to install the replacement bearings. A tech at my dealer said that they were told to start making replacements using a roller bearing instead of the oem bearing. One other problem - at about 20000 miles an ignition switch problem within the steering column caused engine failure while driving, requiring towing to the dealer.
Also reported on the 1999 Subaru Forester
Other powertrain problem
Head gasket failure
Other engine problem
ABS module or sensor failure
Other suspension problem
Other wheel or tire problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 19 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 wheel bearing or hub failure happen on the 1999 Subaru Forester?
Across 8 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 30,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 30,000 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 wheel bearing or hub failure on the 1999 Subaru Forester?
19 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.3 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