Unclassified problem on the 2010 Subaru Outback
Only 15 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 2010 Subaru Outback report unclassified problem at a median of 10,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 2,300 miles and a quarter after 80,000 miles, from 15 reports that carried an odometer reading.
It is the 56th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 200 miles at the tenth percentile to 100,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 101,901 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.
60% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 192 miles | 2,250 miles | 10,000 miles | 77,833 miles | 102,093 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 2010 has 32. 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 have a new 2010 subaru outback that seems to be a fine automobile except for one safety-related defect. We noticed soon after starting to drive the outback that the air bag indicator light showed that the passenger side air bag stays off when my 140-pound wife or 135-pound daughter ride in the passenger seat. We took it to a dealer who said there is no adjustment that can be made, but they re-calibrated the airbag electronics to see if that helped. It did not. I took the car back to the same dealer a couple of weeks later and was again told that there was nothing that could be done to make the passenger airbag work properly and that they have several of the new outbacks in for the same problem and nothing can be done to fix it. Just as a test I took my wife out to the lot and had her sit in the passenger seat of another outback to see if that one worked. It did not . I conclude that there is a design flaw in the airbag sensors in the new outbacks that keep the passenger airbags from turning on when 135 to 140-pound adults sit in the passenger seat. *tr
No injuries or accidents but the passenger airbag does not stay activated consistently in my 2010 subaru outback when a female adulxt passenger weighing approx 125 lbs sits in it. I was told by subaru mechanic that there have been problems with this sensor but there are no reset specs or recall for the seat from corporate yet.
My wife and I own a 2010 subaru outback. The passenger side air bag does not function properly or has a faulty design. The weight sensor is supposed to turn on the air bag when anyone over 100 pounds sits in the seat. My wife weighs 130 pounds. The air bag does not become active more than 50% of the time when she is sitting in the seat. Subaru tells us that the sensor is functioning properly and is calibrated correctly, yet my wife continues to be unprotected more than half of the time. They offer no resolution to the problem other than recommending that she sit upright in the seat. The 2010 outback is all new this year and I believe that this air bag design is a flaw with catastrophic potential. This is a huge safety risk for people in or near this weight range. The air bag is supposed to come on for anyone over 100 pounds, but in reality isn't reliably engaging unless you are about 150 pounds or more. Our local dealer has admitted to several complaints for the same issue. The internet also reveals others having the same problem. Subaru needs to investigate the problem and probably initiate a recall in order to replace the sensor…
Also reported on the 2010 Subaru Outback
Other steering problem
Other powertrain problem
CVT failure
Other engine problem
Headlight failure or clouding
Torque converter failure
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 32 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 32 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 2010 Subaru Outback?
Across 15 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 10,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 2,300 miles and a quarter after 80,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is unclassified problem on the 2010 Subaru Outback?
32 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