Other speed control problem on the 2002 Subaru Forester
8 crashes 1 injury 9 of the 21 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 speed control problem gets reported
Owners of the 2002 Subaru Forester report other speed control problem at a median of 95,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 20,000 miles and a quarter after 105,000 miles, from 11 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 78,000 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 160,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 140,300 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.
45% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19,700 miles | 22,350 miles | 93,000 miles | 107,000 miles | 160,000 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, 8 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 $250–$2,000 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.
This mode is classified as critical, which means a failure can leave the car unable to stop, steer, or stay out of the way of traffic. It is weighted accordingly in the risk score.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 26 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2022, at a median of 1,600 miles, and latest on the 2000 at 95,000 miles.
By volume the 2015 carries the most reports, with 48; the 2002 has 21. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
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.
The vehicle was parked and idling before the consumer got in the vehicle and shifts it into reverse while the foot were on the brake pedal. The vehicle commences to accelerate and lurch backward and ran into the entrance of the drug store. Consumer shift the vehicle into drive and the vehicle took off again and hit a metal pole. No injuries was reported and both the driver and the passenger were restrained in their seat belts. The vehicle was tow to a repair shop. The dealer was notified and pick up the vehicle from the repair shop. *nm
Driver of forester was stopped at a red light about 10 feet away from car in front. Driver took foot away from brake pedal for a moment and car surged forward on its own. Driver slammed brake pedal to the floor, but forester continued to surge forward. Driver swerved to try to avoid accident but still clipped bumper of car in front and caused damage. Forester continued to surge and buck forward for another moment before finally stopping (driver's foot had remained firmly on brake the entire time). I took the vehicle to the dealer I had bought it from just two weeks ago, but they claimed they had never heard of this happening in a subaru and refused to even investigate if there was a mechanical error that would be under warranty because of legal fears. They implied the accident was my fault and I was looking to blame them. Despite minor damage, the car was still drivable, yet I had it towed to the dealer because I was scared of driving it ever again. I was lucky I only hit another car's bumper-- it could've been a bicyclist or pedestrian who was struck! My insurance company is investigating the claim at this point, but I refuse to…
Tl* the contact owns a 2002 subaru forester. While driving approximately 20 MPH the driver side removable floor mat trapped the accelerator pedal to the floor. Consequently there was an unintended increase of vehicle acceleration. She was able to regain vehicle operation. The vehicle has not been inspected for the malfunction. The failure mileage was 160,000. The current mileage was 163,000. The VIN was unavailable.
Also reported on the 2002 Subaru Forester
Other powertrain problem
Other engine problem
Control arm, ball joint or bushing failure
Other fuel system problem
Other brake problem
Head gasket failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 21 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 speed control problem happen on the 2002 Subaru Forester?
Across 11 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 95,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 20,000 miles and a quarter after 105,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other speed control problem on the 2002 Subaru Forester?
21 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 1.3 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