Other electrical problem on the 2011 Subaru Forester
1 crash 1 of the 6 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.
Only 5 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.
When other electrical problem gets reported
There are 6 reports of other electrical problem on the 2011 Subaru Forester, 5 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 9th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 45,000 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, 1 a crash is 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.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 17 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2020, at a median of 2,000 miles, and latest on the 2012 at 100,000 miles.
By volume the 2019 carries the most reports, with 89; the 2011 has 6. 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.
I am being told by the manufacturer that the engine failed due to lack of oil changes. I changed the oil on 7/6/11 at 10,639 miles. The engine then failed at 22241 on 2/1/12. The engine holds 5.5 quarts of oil but per the manufacturer had none in it at the engine failure. How does a new vehicle burn 5.5 quarts of oil in 11602 miles? There was also no warning light of any kind to tell me that the engine oil was low. The manufacturer stated that the oil level had to be lower than 2 p.s.I for the light to go off and warn me and at that point the engine would already be damaged. I got no advance warning that there was a problem with my engine or the oil level. The engine simply stopped working. I am being told that I have to foot the bill in excess of $9500.00 for a new engine. How can a manufacturer have an engine that does not warn the consumer that there may be a problem? I am very puzzled by this and the fact the subaru dealership who said the warranty was voided is the same dealership charging me exorbitant rates for a new motor? Please help or give me a suggestion. *tr
My wife's car locked itself with keys and baby inside on two occasions. The first time was in winter (don't remember the date) and our baby was locked in the cold car for more than an hour while we waited for aaa. My wife thought she had somehow kneeled on the key/remote in her handbag while putting the baby in his car seat. Since then she has taken care not to touch the key (and remote) before she gets in the car to drive. Today she placed the key/remote on the front seat, then put the baby in the car seat (in back), closed the back door, and the car locked itself with her outside and the baby inside. Aaa arrived quickly and opened the car. The aaa guy said he has had more subarus with drivers locked out than any other make. I also spoke to the service department of the subaru dealer who sold us the car about this incident, and I was told that this model year had experienced this problem fairly often, and that the problem had been fixed in subsequent models. I have reported this incident to subaru corp customer service--their case number is [xxx]. Information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u.s.c…
I was driving down to queens to see my wife's family and as soon as I passed a truck I heard something hit my car. As soon as I got into long island, I heard the engine revving as if it were a diesel engine. I stopped at a shop and they listened to it and said that it is an internal issue in the engine and not to drive it. They helped me out by finding the closest dealership and they called. The guy from the shop called subaru and they told him to call the tow truck to get the vehicle towed to their shop. That was messed up, have a non party call for a tow?? Then the guy taking my order, didn't give me a receipt nor my copies of the services from the past. I have extended warranty which I am entitled to a rental car but was stuck without a vehicle and needed a vehicle to get back to work which I live 3-1/2 hours away from the shop and now I am stuck paying for tolls and have a hold on my credit card because of subaru. On friday I was told that they would call, I had to call because they never called me back. Then they tell me that it is the engine and they have to drop the oil pan on monday. The worst thing is that I had reported…
Also reported on the 2011 Subaru Forester
Other engine problem
Excessive oil consumption
Airbag inflator rupture
Other body or interior problem
Other brake problem
Other speed control problem
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 6 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.
Complaints are voluntary, so 6 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 electrical problem happen on the 2011 Subaru Forester?
Across 5 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 45,000 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other electrical problem on the 2011 Subaru Forester?
6 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.1 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