Overheating on the 2002 Subaru Legacy
Only 1 report 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 overheating gets reported
There are 1 report of overheating on the 2002 Subaru Legacy, 1 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 102,000 miles. It is the 17th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 43,351 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 $400–$3,500 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 Legacy
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.
Nhtsa ref # 302836, safety issue, brakes rotors rust to point of failure, subaru service told me they were a safety concern. Vin [xxx], 2002 subaru legacy l, 43,351 miles, repair parts, subaru, front brakes pn's 26296ae220 & 26300ae00c, rear brakes pn's 26700ae04c & 26696ae020 replaced on all 4 wheels. I have never had to replace brakes on any of the many vehicles I have driven over forty plus years of driving. The service rep looked to see if there was a recall which tells me they have had safety recalls. I originally went to the dealer to have my oil changed and while in the waiting room a sales person came out and spoke to a priest who owned a 2008 outback and the sales person ask if he wanted to trade his vehicle before it needed brake work. My experience tells me that my braking distance was compromised by many feet of stopping distance. The total cost of repair was $966.48. I have all the documents to validate statements made on this complaint. I called subaru of america, they we not interested in my complaint if it did not meet one of their two criteria which were, was the car in warranty or was there a recall, they were…
Also reported on the 2002 Subaru Legacy
Other fuel system problem
Oil leak
Other engine problem
Fuel leak or fuel odor
Control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure
Rust or structural corrosion
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 1 report 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 1 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 overheating happen on the 2002 Subaru Legacy?
Across 1 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 45,000 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 overheating on the 2002 Subaru Legacy?
1 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.0 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