Other electrical problem on the 2000 Subaru Legacy
2 fires 1 injury 3 of the 4 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 3 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 4 reports of other electrical problem on the 2000 Subaru Legacy, 3 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 11th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 154,000 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, 2 a fire and 1 an injury 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 14 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2019, at a median of 900 miles, and latest on the 2000 at 155,000 miles.
By volume the 2016 carries the most reports, with 27; the 2000 has 4. 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 2000 subaru legacy outback. The contact stated that while driving, the radio stopped functioning on its own and the gauges on the instrument panel were changing uncontrollably. The anti lock braking system warning light and check engine warning light were illuminated. The gauges then stopped working. The contact stopped the vehicle and shifted into park. The contact was then unable to shift out of park. The contact was also unable to remove the key from the ignition. The vehicle was not taken to a repair shop or dealer for inspection. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The VIN was unavailable. The failure and current mileages were 111,000.
Tl* the contact owns a 2000 subaru legacy gt AWD. The contact stated that he noticed that the vehicle was on fire. The contact believed that the fire started from the rear passenger side door. There was a police report filed for the incident. The vehicle was not taken to the dealer. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The vehicle was destroyed. The approximate failure and current mileage was 154,000.
Driving to work car running for approximately 20 min. The window control switch inside the driver side door smoked and quickly caught fire. I immediately slowed down and pulled over to the right shoulder and turned off the card. I opened the door and stepped out. Within a few seconds the panel on the car door also caught fire and starting melting. I had beach towel in the back of the car, and tried to smother the fire with the towel, but quickly decided the fire was too large, growing too quickly and was actually inside the door. I gave up on the towel, and in last ditch effort to the save the car I grabbed, and tore off the plastic door panel and threw it to ground. Some of the melted plastic from the door panel did get on my hands, and I received several burns to my fingers that required medical attention. I was then able to extinguish the remaining fire. The car is currently at a body shop for repair. The damage to the car appears to be limited to the driver's side door. *tr
Also reported on the 2000 Subaru Legacy
Other wheel or tire problem
Other engine problem
Other speed control problem
Complete transmission failure
Other suspension problem
Misfire or rough idle
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 other electrical problem happen on the 2000 Subaru Legacy?
Across 3 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 155,000 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 2000 Subaru Legacy?
4 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