Other body or interior problem on the 2005 Subaru Legacy
3 crashes 2 fires 2 injuries 7 of the 8 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.
When other body or interior problem gets reported
Owners of the 2005 Subaru Legacy report other body or interior problem at a median of 55,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 40,000 miles and a quarter after 130,000 miles, from 8 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 13th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 30,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 145,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 118,297 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.
25% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28,903 miles | 40,320 miles | 56,500 miles | 131,000 miles | 147,200 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, 3 a crash, 2 a fire and 2 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 $200–$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 16 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2018, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 1998 at 170,000 miles.
By volume the 1998 carries the most reports, with 13; the 2005 has 8. 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.
The heated seats in the subaru legacy gt limited have an element that "arcs" on to itself. Mine had a burn hole in the fabric upon replacement. This represents a fire hazard. Possible symptoms are bottom of the seat heating, but not the back, and vice versa. *tr
I was stopped in traffic on a bridge when a pick up truck behind me did not and hit my car in the rear. The car sustained about $9600 in damage. The car was a 2005 subaru legacy. I sustained injury to my back, my head, left elbow and left calf. The car was not going outrageously fast. The bridge traffic was not moving that fast to begin with. The back of the seat frame on the left side gave and bent. This I believe caused or was responsible for the bulk of my injury. *tr
Vehicle was traveling on highway and encountered wet road conditions. Vehicle began to pull to the left and the driver side front bumper collided with center concrete median. Vehicle continues to spin counterclockwise and the passenger side rear bumper collides with the center concrete median before coming to a stop. No other vehicles were involved in the crash. Highway patrol writes up the accident and vehicle was able to be driven home. Vehicle was brought to the insurance collision repair center and insurance determines vehicle to be a total loss. Vehicle has a touted reputation for having a symmetrical AWD system for superior traction and control. Based on the experience of the accident, the vehicle loss traction and the symmetrical AWD did not perform to maintain traction and control. *tr
Also reported on the 2005 Subaru Legacy
Turbocharger or supercharger failure
Other engine problem
Wiring harness or short circuit
Other electrical problem
Other fuel system problem
Fuel leak or fuel odor
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 8 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 body or interior problem happen on the 2005 Subaru Legacy?
Across 8 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 55,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 40,000 miles and a quarter after 130,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other body or interior problem on the 2005 Subaru Legacy?
8 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.3 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