Other powertrain problem on the 2016 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 other powertrain problem gets reported
There are 6 reports of other powertrain problem on the 2016 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 92,000 miles. It is the 10th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 500 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 $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 2016 has 6. 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.
3.6 liter 6-cyl engine surges after a cold start. When the car is started, the idle speed is high. When the car is put into gear, as the brakes are released and the car begins to move, the idle speed drops. If the car is brought to a stop or a very low (creeping) speed, the idle speed increases, causing the car to lurch. Foot never touches accelerator pedal at all. This behavior causes the car to move unexpectedly after it is brought to a stop by the brakes. It also makes it impossible to move the car at creeping speed - easing off the brakes, as the car starts to move, the idle speed drops, causing the brakes to slow the car. After a second, as the car comes to a stop, the engine speed kicks up again. This makes the car lurch into motion again. Operator must quickly increase brake pressure, but simultaneously the engine idle speed drops due to the increased speed. Therefore the car slows again and the cycle repeats. The described behavior happens equally in forward or reverse gear. The described behavior is only an issue on a cold start. It does not happen with a warm engine. I experience this on a daily basis. It has affected…
The transmission does not immediately engage, when shifting from reverse to drive or drive to reverse, with or without engaging the foot brake. The transmission goes into a significant neutral state before it engages, in either direction, allowing the vehicle to drift until the transmission engages with a lurch. The occurs whether or not the engine is hot or cold. This is particularly dangerous and noticeable when backing from my driveway, which is inclined, to proceed uphill, and the vehicle drifts several feet rearward before engaging. The delay is not as pronounced, when exiting to proceed down the street. Pages 7-24 and 7-27 of the subaru owner's manual specifically state not to use inertia to move the vehicle. There is, also, a harsh, premature downshift that quickly takes the car from 25 MPH to 15 MPH and a rolling stop, when removing your foot from the accelerator, while approaching the crest of a hill or stop sign. The braking force will actually throw you body forward. This, also, occurs while travelling at low speeds on residential streets. These conditions have existed since march 8, 2016, and after 4 repair requests…
In less than 36,000 miles it developed a grinding noise that can be felt above 50 MPH. Dealer found a problem with the auto transmission. It will being replaced under warranty. Strange, I thought subaru is known for better transmission. In the same car the cd player stopped working and making noise similar to what you hear when a cd is being ejected. Dealer changed it under warranty. I received a recall letter on dcm software in the car & I took car to the dealer. However, this recall is not listed on web. Why?
Also reported on the 2016 Subaru Legacy
Other electrical problem
Other steering problem
Other visibility problem
Other body or interior problem
Parasitic battery drain
Cruise control failure
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 6 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 6 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 2016 Subaru Legacy?
Across 5 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 500 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 other powertrain problem on the 2016 Subaru Legacy?
6 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.6 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