Other engine problem on the 2001 Subaru Legacy
1 crash 1 fire 1 injury 3 of the 9 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 5 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 engine problem gets reported
There are 9 reports of other engine problem on the 2001 Subaru Legacy, 5 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 95,000 miles. It is the 2nd most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 54,000 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, 1 a crash, 1 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 $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 22 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2017, at a median of 800 miles, and latest on the 1997 at 195,000 miles.
By volume the 2011 carries the most reports, with 19; the 2001 has 9. 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.
My subaru legacy, 2001, 25,000 miles, caught on fire in the front right part under the hood suddenly on my way home 2/5/03, I was locked in the car and unable to get out till the car filled with smoke, I was panicking, as I was unable to breath. At that point I thought I would pass out, or die soon, the people outside could not get me out. My car was totaled, and still under warranty. Subaru has not responded, I am without a car. This has been very stressful for me and my family. We trusted the name of subaru and what it stands for till now. After our insurance company sent a forensic mechanic to investigate, it was determined not to be arson, and to be the fault of the manufacturer. We always took very good care of this car so this happening was quite a shock to us and our other friends that own subaru's. We all are not so patiently waiting to hear from subaru. I would like a new car as soon as possible. *jb
Took my 2001 bh5 gtb e-tune for service at subaru kenya. Dealer bled the oil without replacing it(as I found out later). Cruising at 80kph, check engine light came on, car lost all power, was towed back to dealer. Dealer said engine had ceased, so they overhauled it. Same thing happened after 234km. Dealer says they do not understand what problem was and are unable to fix it, so I had to purchase a new engine. Fhi japan says my initial engine was not built for african market. Surely, they should have known better. I am so mad at subaru kenya( the most inexperienced subaru dealers in the world) and fhi japan!! *tr
Gas fuel lines in engine compartment leaking in cold weather. Gas pooling on engine creating fire hazard. Same issue as other subaru. Strong fuel smell inside cabin and out. *tr
Also reported on the 2001 Subaru Legacy
Fuel leak or fuel odor
Other fuel system problem
Other speed control problem
Other wheel or tire problem
Engine sensor failure
Tire blowout or tread separation
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 9 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 9 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 2001 Subaru Legacy?
Across 5 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 55,000 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 engine problem on the 2001 Subaru Legacy?
9 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.4 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