Other electrical problem on the 2015 Subaru Forester
1 crash 3 fires 4 of the 46 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 electrical problem gets reported
Owners of the 2015 Subaru Forester report other electrical problem at a median of 35,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 2,500 miles and a quarter after 55,000 miles, from 29 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 4th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 300 miles at the tenth percentile to 92,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 93,150 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.
48% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 250 miles | 2,300 miles | 36,000 miles | 55,000 miles | 93,400 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 3 a fire 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.
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 2015 has 46. 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.
Tl*the contact owns a 2015 subaru forester. The contact stated that the speedometer was inoperable. The vehicle was not taken to a dealer or independent mechanic to be diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the issue. The failure mileage was 1,500. Updated 03/30/15*lj updated 6/23/2015*js
The electronic screen on the 2015 subaru forester that includes the back-up display reflects a solid black bar down the middle if you are wearing polarized sunglasses. I've almost backed over walkers in parking lots who were in the obscured area of the screen because of this. I checked at the dealer, and other 2015 foresters have the same problem, but the outback does not. Since I first noticed the problem I have driven a number of cars, including toyotas and bmws that do not have the problem. Subaru's suggested solution is that I don't wear polarized sunglasses. I wear corrective lenses, and it is virtually impossible to buy corrective sunglasses that aren't polarized. The alternative is to wear non-corrective lenses that are not particularly good for my eyes, and through which the world is blurred. I don't think I should have to go spend $300+ to buy sunglasses to correct a problem that subaru could have corrected by putting a different display screen in the car, since based on other subarus I've been in and cars from other manufacturers, they had the option to do so. Thank you.
Tl* the contact owns a 2015 subaru forester. While driving the vehicle during the daytime at 25 MPH, the speedometer was not as visible and failed to illuminate properly. The vehicle was to taken the dealer where it was diagnosed that it was standard for those models of vehicles. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 1,200.
Also reported on the 2015 Subaru Forester
Other engine problem
Other powertrain problem
Other speed control problem
Strut, shock or spring failure
Cruise control failure
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 46 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 2015 Subaru Forester?
Across 29 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 35,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 2,500 miles and a quarter after 55,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other electrical problem on the 2015 Subaru Forester?
46 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.5 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