Engine knock or bearing noise on the 2009 Subaru Impreza
Only 4 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 engine knock or bearing noise gets reported
There are 4 reports of engine knock or bearing noise on the 2009 Subaru Impreza, 4 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 110,000 miles. It is the 9th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 40,250 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 $2,500–$9,000 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, every year of the Subaru Impreza
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.
Engine knock sound while traveling on highway, pulled off next exit and car shut down. No check engine lights or oil lights indicating an issue. Upon restart knocking sound was louder and had a metal sound to it. I immediately shut the car off and called roadside assistance and had the car towed to local dealer. Upon first review dealer identified it as "internal connecting-rod bearing failure" which caused catastrophic engine damage. Subaru of america denied the repair due to the ECM being modified, stating "our engineers reviewed your file and deemed it to be caused by the ECM modification". I have found numerous cases of the exact issue on the internet, as well as a my dealership telling me there is a tsb for this failure. Soa is providing a "one time good faith repair" but I am responsible to replace the ECM. In my opinion this issue which soa is aware of and acknowledges with a tsb should be a recall - the engine failure at highway speed has potential to cause bodily harm - loss of power, engine seize resulting in an accident. I was lucky to not be involved in any sort of accident. Further I am totally unsure of how soa can…
Engine rod bearing failure @ 64000 miles with regular oil changes. Dealership said it was due to insufficient lubrication; however, there was plenty of oil when I brought in the car and oil was never added to change their judgment. This, in my opinion, is "not" due to lack of oil. This is a manufacturing problem. Build date was aug. 9th 2008. There are many other people who have experienced this same problem from the start. I don't understand why there hasn't been issued a recall if soa knows of these hundreds of issues. There's nothing like buying a $25,000 lemon! *tr
While driving on I-74 between cincinnati oh and indianapolis in I noticed the development of a engine knock at around shelbyville in. No warning lights were illuminated but I pulled over and inspected the engine and could not find anything obviously wrong so I continued on my trip. After reaching I-465 in indianapolis the knock began to get progressively worse. At the intersection of I-465 and I-65 the car without warning engine shutdown and I lost all functionality (power steering, turn signals, etc). At the time of power loss I was traveling at approximately 65 MPH during rush hour in the fast lane. Luckily the driver behind me was following at a safe distance and I was able to avoid a collision and safely get onto the left hand shoulder. I was then able to get the car restarted and attempted to get off of I-465 for my safety. However, at the next exit the engine once again shutdown. I was once again able to safely get to the shoulder but was unable to get the car started again. Based on feedback from the dealer and my experience as a mechanical engineer I believe that the cause of this catastrophic failure was a failed bearing…
Also reported on the 2009 Subaru Impreza
Manual clutch or hydraulics failure
Other powertrain problem
Other body or interior problem
Head gasket failure
Airbag inflator rupture
Other brake problem
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 4 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 4 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 engine knock or bearing noise happen on the 2009 Subaru Impreza?
Across 4 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 40,000 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 engine knock or bearing noise on the 2009 Subaru Impreza?
4 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