Other powertrain problem on the 2005 Subaru Legacy
1 crash 1 of the 10 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 powertrain problem gets reported
Owners of the 2005 Subaru Legacy report other powertrain problem at a median of 30,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 5,000 miles and a quarter after 70,000 miles, from 9 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 9th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 2,400 miles at the tenth percentile to 80,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 75,385 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.
56% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2,415 miles | 4,000 miles | 29,719 miles | 72,000 miles | 77,800 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 is 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 $400–$4,500 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 on other years
The same failure is reported on 18 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2016, at a median of 500 miles, and latest on the 1998 at 155,000 miles.
By volume the 2010 carries the most reports, with 20; the 2005 has 10. 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 clutch on this vehicle seems to slip during normal driving, causing the worst smell. It smells like a sewage tereatment plant in the summertime, and normally dissipates after a few minutes. The clutch slips during normal driving, such as starting on a mild grade, or even during bumper-to-bumper traffic. This last one is particulary annoying as this is an everyday occurence for many of us. Normal driving in rush hour traffic causes a prolonged overwhelming smell in the passenger compartment, causing occupants to become sick to their stomachs.
Vehicle studders on acceleration, not a constant problem that would be associated with turbo lag, but an occassional, infrequent problem, not a lag, but a studder or flutter in acceleration from a dead stop or at highway speeds.
I have a 2005 subaru legacy gt manual transmission sedan. Thus far I have had several issues with the car. 1) engine stuttering: this problem normally occurs when starting from a dead stop, or when shifting from 1st to 2nd gear. The engine will pause, or stutter, or hesitate, and cause the car to slightly "jump". This occurs under low acceleration as well as high acceleration. 2) clutch stink: the problem is especially notable when going uphill from a dead stop. When the clutch slips, it causes a very acrid smell, like something is burning. This issue also occurs when in rush hour traffic. 3) clutch squeak: when pressing on the clutch, especially after the car has been driven for 5-10 minutes, the clutch will begin to squeak, and cause reverberations that can be felt on the brake pedal as well. The car was brought into the dealer who verified the issue. The entire clutch assembly was replaced without fixing the issue. Then the clutch spring was replaced, and that made the squeak go away for a while, but has since returned. 4) weak windshield: over the course of normal driving on highways, the windshield has received numerous small…
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 10 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 powertrain problem happen on the 2005 Subaru Legacy?
Across 9 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 30,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 5,000 miles and a quarter after 70,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other powertrain problem on the 2005 Subaru Legacy?
10 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