Unclassified problem on the 2007 Subaru Outback
Only 10 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 unclassified problem gets reported
Owners of the 2007 Subaru Outback report unclassified problem at a median of 120,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 80,000 miles and a quarter after 135,000 miles, from 10 reports that carried an odometer reading.
It is the 35th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 70,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 165,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 96,000 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 68,000 miles | 80,500 miles | 120,500 miles | 136,250 miles | 164,000 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.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 25 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2020, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2002 at 140,000 miles.
By volume the 2017 carries the most reports, with 118; the 2007 has 20. 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.
Our 2007 subaru outback fishtails all over the place on icy roads that all other vehicles safely travel on at twice the speed as we are able to do in our outback. This isn't the driver or the tires. This is the car. I have never experienced this issue with any other car I have ever owned (honda crv, saturn sw2, 2wd gmc s-15, chevy corsica) and I have driven in similar conditions many times. It is miserable and feels very dangerous when you don't feel in control of your vehicle at 30 MPH on icy roads that everyone else is traveling 50-60 MPH on. I've only experienced the problem when the car is fully loaded. The car feels extremely stable on snowpack and dry/wet pavement. But as soon as roads have some ice on them, this car becomes garbage (just when you need a car to be at it's best). I have witnessed this event twice now in less than 2 years of ownership. Once in central illinois, and once in northern colorado. These are also the only two icy road conditions that this car has been on. I would expect this vehicle to behave this same miserable way every time as it has exhibited this characteristic 100% of the time on icy highway…
The driver side airbag system sometimes is not active upon starting vehicle. This is indicated by the airbag warning light which is illuminated. The light continues to stay illuminated when the vehicle is driven. The dealer tells me that in this situation (airbag warning light illuminated) the airbag will not deploy in an accident. Numerous posts on the internet confirm this. I consider this a very dangerous and common situation that should be remedied by subaru through a recall. Updated 09/24/14*lj updated 02/20/2015 *js
Tl* the contact owns a 2007 subaru outback. The contact stated that the air bag warning light remained illuminated intermittently. The vehicle was taken to a dealer but the failure was unable to be determined due to the air bag warning light no longer being illuminated. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was 121,000.
Also reported on the 2007 Subaru Outback
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Cruise control failure
Airbag failed to deploy in a crash
Other suspension problem
Airbag inflator rupture
Other electrical problem
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 20 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 20 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 unclassified problem happen on the 2007 Subaru Outback?
Across 10 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 120,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 80,000 miles and a quarter after 135,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is unclassified problem on the 2007 Subaru Outback?
20 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.7 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