Headlight failure or clouding on the 2010 Subaru Legacy
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 headlight failure or clouding gets reported
There are 7 reports of headlight failure or clouding on the 2010 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 88,000 miles. It is the 10th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 30,000 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
Putting it right typically runs $150–$1,800 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 4 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2008, at a median of 10 miles, and latest on the 2014 at 80,000 miles.
By volume the 2011 carries the most reports, with 15; the 2010 has 7. 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.
I bought a 2010 subaru legacy and believe that the headlights used on this care do not meet the u.s. Sae headlamp standards, but instead meat the european ece standards. My car has a distinct horizontal cut off line across the entire horizon which is the main characteristic of the ece standard. Subaru told me that they have had other complaints about their headlamps. *tr
I have had to replace my low beam headlight bulbs fours times (on each side) in three years. I've had the dealer do it twice, and I've done it twice. The dealer made me pay because bulbs are not covered under warranty. Changing the low beam bulbs on this vehicle requires removal of the tire, and the wheel well liner - it take at least an hour, and is extremely cumbersome. The dealer charged me $150 for each incident. I cannot afford to keep changing these bulbs. Something has to be wrong with the headlight unit. *tr
We purchased this vehicle used, one owner, in may 2013. We have constantly had to replace headlight and mini bulbs. We have not purchased subaru bulbs and did not have dealer to install. Dealer is 2 hrs away and would be too expensive. I do not believe the problem is with the bulbs but is something wrong with this model car. They are very difficult to get to and to replace as my husband and I replace them each time. On november 27, 2013, one headlight went out and then before we replaced it on december 13, 2013 the other headlight went out. I had to drive home (about one hour) in the dark and thank god I was not involved in an accident. But this is very dangerous and it happens all the time. We just don't know when or if both will be out at the same time. Purchased 5/25/13, 11/27/13 headlight out, 12/13/13 headlight out, 3/12/14 mini bulbs replaced, 7/1/14 headlight out, 10/21/14 headlight out, 1/6/16 mini bulbs replaced, 5/5/16 headlight out, 5/101/6 mini bulbs out. This was all the receipts I could find, could have been more. This very annoying due to the difficulty in reaching the area to replace the bulbs. Please have subaru…
Also reported on the 2010 Subaru Legacy
CVT failure
Other powertrain problem
Other engine problem
Torque converter failure
Parking brake failure
Other steering problem
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 7 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 7 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 headlight failure or clouding happen on the 2010 Subaru Legacy?
Across 5 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 30,000 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 headlight failure or clouding on the 2010 Subaru Legacy?
7 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.1 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