Other engine problem on the 2012 Subaru Legacy
1 crash 1 of the 14 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 engine problem gets reported
Owners of the 2012 Subaru Legacy report other engine problem at a median of 100,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 45,000 miles and a quarter after 125,000 miles, from 12 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 2nd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 15,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 165,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 146,432 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.
17% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17,100 miles | 45,000 miles | 99,500 miles | 124,581 miles | 163,532 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 $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 2012 has 14. 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.
Purchased brand new subaru legacy october 31st of 2011. After only five months and 14,000 miles beginning in march of 2012 I was shocked to discover the following problem(s) with my legacy: low idling, bogging down, at oil light illuminated, and nearly stalling out. This issue is still continuing to this day, sporadically. I now have 25,500 miles and there is no solution to this problem. I experienced this low idle, bogging down, and nearly stalling out- at the following documented mileages: 14,989 miles, 15,120 miles,17,007 miles, 17,714 miles, 18,124 miles I then began a more detailed log: 18,383 miles, april 19th 2012, 3:23 p.m., 74 degrees. 20,074 miles, may 2nd 2012, 12:37 p.m., 78 degrees, and 80 miles driven that moment. 21,558 miles, may 16th 2012, 10:06 a.m., 74 degrees, air conditioner on, and 50 miles driven that moment. 21,711 miles, may 17th 2012, 12:16 p.m., 67 degrees, 43 miles driven that moment. 22,899 miles, may 25th 2012, 2:20 p.m., 86 degrees, 107 miles driven that moment. 22,900 miles, may 25th 2012, 2:22 p.m., 86 degrees, 108 miles driven that moment. 23,454 miles, date not logged, 11:44 a.m., 84 degrees, 59…
The check engine light goes on and then causes the brake, traction and cruise lights to flash. The lights will go off after some time, not consistently. No authorized subaru dealer has been able to identify the cause or even record the event. *tr
The check engine light goes on and then causes the brake, traction and cruise lights to flash. The lights will go off after some time, not consistently. Spark plugs replaces two (2) coils replaced still no resolution. *tr
Also reported on the 2012 Subaru Legacy
Torque converter failure
Other powertrain problem
Cruise control failure
CVT failure
Other steering problem
Sunroof failure or glass breakage
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 14 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 2012 Subaru Legacy?
Across 12 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 100,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 45,000 miles and a quarter after 125,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other engine problem on the 2012 Subaru Legacy?
14 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.2 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