AtWhatMileage
Engine · 50 owner reports

Other engine problem on the 2013 Subaru Impreza

1 crash 5 fires 6 of the 50 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 50
With an odometer reading 22
Reports per 1,000 built 0.9 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 18%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 6
Typical repair $300–$4,000
What it means when it happens High
Rank among this year's problems 2nd

When other engine problem gets reported

Owners of the 2013 Subaru Impreza report other engine problem at a median of 70,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 45,000 miles and a quarter after 85,000 miles, from 22 reports that carried an odometer reading.

A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 2nd most-reported problem on this model year.

The mileage distribution

The reported range runs from 15,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 100,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 82,534 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.

18% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 22 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
17,277 miles 43,750 miles 68,504 miles 83,604 miles 99,811 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 5 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–$4,000 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 16 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2017, at a median of 10,000 miles, and latest on the 2007 at 110,000 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.

After 3,000-5,000 miles engine oil light came on. I went to a mechanic and they said it was down 1 quart of oil. I asked surprisingly, " how can this be?" " I just had my oil changed and it's a new car." after adding a quart (and keeping an eye on) the same thing happened again 3,000 miles after my next oil change. This can't be right. I have never owned a car that burns that much oil, unless there is a problem. I believe that this is the case, and subaru is covering their tail by stating that its normal for the automobile to "consume" that amount of oil. " just look in your users manual." I don't believe so. I think they need to address this issue if they are to continue claiming customer satisfaction. I am one who is far from it! *tr

28,770 miles NHTSA complaint 1120675 filed 2014-10-15

Oil drips from gasket on too hot part of engine causing a serious fire hazard this has not happened to our vehicle yet but we were informed by our mechanic that there's a possibility that this could be a problem if not repaired have any incidents of this nature on subarus been recorded to this day?

70,207 miles NHTSA complaint 1396563 filed 2017-08-01

Tl* the contact owns a 2013 subaru impreza. While driving 20 MPH, the vehicle experienced a loss of engine power without warning. The contact was able to maneuver the vehicle to the side of the road. The vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic where it was diagnosed that the engine was defective and needed to be replaced. The dealer and manufacturer were not notified of the failure. The VIN was invalid. The failure mileage was approximately 81,000.

81,000 miles NHTSA complaint 1451013 filed 2018-02-28

Also reported on the 2013 Subaru Impreza

Other electrical problem

17 reports median 74k

Seat belt or retractor failure

14 reports median 55k

Cruise control failure

13 reports median 76k

Other brake problem

12 reports median 55k

Excessive oil consumption

11 reports median 11k

How far this goes

Complaints are voluntary, so 50 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 engine problem happen on the 2013 Subaru Impreza?

Across 22 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 70,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 45,000 miles and a quarter after 85,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.

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

50 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.9 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