AtWhatMileage
Brakes · 12 owner reports

Other brake problem on the 2013 Subaru Impreza

5 crashes 1 fire 6 of the 12 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.

Reports of this failure 12
With an odometer reading 8
Reports per 1,000 built 0.2 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 38%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 6
Typical repair $300–$1,800
What it means when it happens High
Rank among this year's problems 6th

When other brake problem gets reported

Owners of the 2013 Subaru Impreza report other brake problem at a median of 55,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 25,000 miles and a quarter after 75,000 miles, from 8 reports that carried an odometer reading.

A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 6th most-reported problem on this model year.

The mileage distribution

The reported range runs from 15,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 95,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 83,570 miles across the middle 80% of reports.

When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.

38% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 8 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
13,830 miles 24,249 miles 55,000 miles 73,810 miles 97,400 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, 5 a crash and 1 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 $300–$1,800 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 12 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2024, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2016 at 65,000 miles.

By volume the 2013 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.

What owners wrote

Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.

Tl* the contact owns a 2013 subaru impreza. The contact stated that while driving at 70 MPH, the brake pedal was depressed and the vehicle vibrated uncontrollably. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 8,777.

8,777 miles NHTSA complaint 1204593 filed 2015-07-31

On two occasions of a rear end collision on dry pavement, while trying to avoid collision and applying the brakes extremely hard, I felt like the vehicle should have come to a complete stop. Instead the vehicle didn't stop but slid into vehicle ahead of me. I know it sounds like I'm blaming the car for my accident but I have had cars stop on a dime. This car did not stop on a dime. I had the brakes applied hard enough that it should have stopped instead it continued to move forward hitting the car in front of me. Both incidences occurred during stop and go traffic under the speed of 10-15mph. I felt like the car just continued to move sliding into the other car while on dry pavement.

50,000 miles NHTSA complaint 1340157 filed 2016-12-12

The brake sensor switch fails to report position of the brake and turns off anti locking breaking system. If fails you car turning the car apply brake and the following lights turn on. Hill assist,ABS,skid control. When this comes on ABS does not work. It sometimes locks the car in park. This happen then tried to stop quickly in the rain and braking system did not work correctly. Rear-ended a car. Reported this to a dealer year ago they did not know what caused it. I found it quickly when searching the web. Common issue that could be deadly.

60,000 miles NHTSA complaint 1421173 filed 2017-11-02

Also reported on the 2013 Subaru Impreza

Other engine problem

50 reports median 69k

Other electrical problem

17 reports median 74k

Seat belt or retractor failure

14 reports median 55k

Cruise control failure

13 reports median 76k

Excessive oil consumption

11 reports median 11k

How far this goes

Complaints are voluntary, so 12 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 brake problem happen on the 2013 Subaru Impreza?

Across 8 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 55,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 25,000 miles and a quarter after 75,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.

How common is other brake problem on the 2013 Subaru Impreza?

12 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.2 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