Other electrical problem on the 2003 Subaru Outback
1 fire 1 of the 6 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.
Only 4 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 electrical problem gets reported
There are 6 reports of other electrical problem on the 2003 Subaru Outback, 4 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 85,000 miles. It is the 6th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 2,750 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 fire 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 $250–$2,000 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 26 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2021, at a median of 1,200 miles, and latest on the 2025 at 160,000 miles.
By volume the 2017 carries the most reports, with 249; the 2003 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.
I bought a new 2003 subaru outback wagon approximately one week ago from senator subaru, 3655 florin road, sacramento, ca 95823, 916-427-1234. I picked it up on october 27, 2003. On october 31, 2003 I took the vehicle in to the dealer for repair because it was shaking badly and stalling while driving and on startup. I picked the vehicle up on november 1, 2003, and the dealer told me that the computer had to be reset and the problem was fixed. I did not receive a service report check out slip. On november 1, 2003 it had the same problem and on november 2, 2003, upon start up the vehicle emitted a noxious cloud of smoke from the rear. The at oil temp light came on for the duration of a short drive of approximately five minutes. I took the vehicle back in for service on november 3, 2003. The manager, moe, told me that it was not senator subarus problem; it was subaru of americas problem. He said that he would be upset too if this happened to him. The dealer found a code 11" which was a transmission code not accompanied by an engine code. The maintenance manager told me that this indicated that the car stalled while being driven…
Nar 03-27-2003 mr the car dies intermittently at speeds between 20-25 MPH on deceleration. The power is completely lost with no power steering control. Additional items noticied .. Shifting in transmission at low speeds, dashboard creaks and drivers window faulty. *cb
While playing the cd player on the 7th track the cd would skip back and forth. Consumer removed the cd and noticed that the cd was extremely hot. Consumer took vehicle to dealer, and mechanic was not able to duplicate the problem, and the cd player was operating as designed. *ak
Also reported on the 2003 Subaru Outback
Head gasket failure
Airbag inflator rupture
Other speed control problem
Other engine problem
Other wheel or tire problem
CV axle or driveshaft 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 electrical problem happen on the 2003 Subaru Outback?
Across 4 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 5,000 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 other electrical problem on the 2003 Subaru Outback?
6 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