Unclassified problem on the 2009 Subaru Outback
Only 9 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 2009 Subaru Outback report unclassified problem at a median of 40,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 5,000 miles and a quarter after 100,000 miles, from 9 reports that carried an odometer reading.
It is the 42nd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 200 miles at the tenth percentile to 155,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 153,359 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.
44% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 241 miles | 3,700 miles | 40,000 miles | 100,000 miles | 153,600 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 2009 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.
I recently purchased a 2009 subaru outback 2.5 special edition. While driving on I-35 near cloquet, mn, the car exhibited dangerously unstable handling that has been described by other subaru outback owners. The road conditions were icy and even with greatly reduced speed the car would slide/drift sideways on straightaways. This was very unnerving as I could do nothing save reducing my speed to a crawl to avoid this drifting effect. At this point I was being passed by all other traffic on the highway (semis, fwd and rwd cars, etc.), which did not seem to have the handling issues I was having. The car is new (3700 miles) and I had just taken to a shop that morning for an oil change and everything checked out ok. I believe the outback has a dangerous handling issue that appears to manifest primarily when fully loaded (I had 2 passengers and gear) and on smooth and slippery roads. I am scared to drive this car in snowy conditions, which is unfortunate given I live in mn and bought this car for winter driving and its AWD properties. I have never had a car handle so poorly in my 16 years of winter driving. *tr
Road conditions: poor, icy. Vehicle: 2009 subaru outback wagon loaded with 4 passengers (2 adult, 2 teen, plus "light" luggage). When the vehicle passed over an icy patch, the car swayed from side to side violently. On subaru forum websites, this type of loss of control is termed "ghost walking" which is an odd but accurate term for the feel of the situation. I have seen multiple entries on the owners' forum websites describing this phenomena, and it apparently affects several model years. My dealer offers to re-align the back tires which may fix the instability problem (which is attributed to "load") but which will cause another problem: excessive tire wear. This is a dangerous situation. As subaru markets the car for the winter driving market, it needs to fix this dangerous design flaw before someone is killed over compensating for the system-driven fishtailing. Please note: although subaru attributes this to "loading" of the vehicle, the car was not loaded beyond strictly normal use for a station wagon. This is as dangerous as "sudden acceleration" in toyota.
The driver airbag in multiple models of subaru are disabled because of an apparent fault in the passenger airbag indicator light in the overhead console.this requires replacement of the part. I have researched the topic in multiple auto websites and it appears to affect a lot of model years of all makes of the subaru.the problem is also intermittent and occurs while driving . I think that disabling the airbag is a serious safety issue and that subaru has not fessed up about this or fixed the problem. *tr
Also reported on the 2009 Subaru Outback
Wiring harness or short circuit
Other electrical problem
Airbag inflator rupture
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Other suspension problem
Other body or interior problem
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 14 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 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 unclassified problem happen on the 2009 Subaru Outback?
Across 9 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 40,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 5,000 miles and a quarter after 100,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is unclassified problem on the 2009 Subaru Outback?
14 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.5 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