Torque converter failure on the 2012 Subaru Legacy
When torque converter failure gets reported
Owners of the 2012 Subaru Legacy report torque converter failure at a median of 115,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 65,000 miles and a quarter after 140,000 miles, from 12 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 96,000 miles. It is the 1st most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 60,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 145,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 86,200 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.
0% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 61,000 miles | 64,000 miles | 115,654 miles | 139,250 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
Putting it right typically runs $1,100–$3,200 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 3 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2011, at a median of 105,000 miles, and latest on the 2012 at 115,000 miles.
By volume the 2011 carries the most reports, with 23; the 2012 has 21. 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.
Tl* the contact owns a 2012 subaru legacy. While driving at slow speeds, the vehicle vibrated abnormally and stalled. The contact was able to restart the vehicle. The vehicle was taken to the dealer to be diagnosed. The contact was informed that the torque converter failed and needed to be replaced. The failure recurred several times. The vehicle was repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 106,100.
My subaru legacy has been recently stalling when coming to a stop. It shudders and if you do not give it gas or place in neutral, the engine will die. I have read that this is caused from a faulty torque converter that subaru is aware of but has failed to issue a recall. I'm not sure I would buy another product that isn't fully backed and supported by the manufacturer.
2012 70,000 miles car began to stall at stops but not all the time. More often at abrupt stops. This happens anywhere at a stop light, stop sign, freeway driving. Extremely dangerous problem. I am being told it is the torque converter air flow (something like that) and can cost $2500 to fix. It appears subaru has known about this problem since at least 2010 and has not alerted the owners of these vehicles. *tr
Also reported on the 2012 Subaru Legacy
Other engine problem
Other powertrain problem
Cruise control failure
CVT failure
Other steering problem
Sunroof failure or glass breakage
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 21 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 torque converter failure happen on the 2012 Subaru Legacy?
Across 12 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 115,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 65,000 miles and a quarter after 140,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is torque converter failure on the 2012 Subaru Legacy?
21 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