CVT failure on the 2012 Subaru Outback
When cvt failure gets reported
Owners of the 2012 Subaru Outback report CVT failure at a median of 117,500 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 82,500 miles and a quarter after 132,500 miles, from 26 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 90,000 miles. It is the 3rd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 5,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 152,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 148,750 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.
19% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3,750 miles | 83,375 miles | 117,750 miles | 132,250 miles | 152,500 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 $3,000–$8,500 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.
This mode is classified as critical, which means a failure can leave the car unable to stop, steer, or stay out of the way of traffic. It is weighted accordingly in the risk score.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 10 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2017, at a median of 10,000 miles, and latest on the 2012 at 117,500 miles.
By volume the 2011 carries the most reports, with 46; the 2012 has 29. 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.
In early december of 2011 my wife and I purchased a 2012 subaru outback with a 4 cylinder engine, CVT transmission. We had to wait a day for our outback because it was being repaired do to a brake system recall. Ever since purchasing the outback we have had a serious issue when using the paddle shifters to slow down for a stop. When the tach slows to about 1100 RPM in first or second gear the engine then accelerates to up to 2500 RPM, slowing down and then speeding up again then repeating the cycle over even if you apply the brakes. Sometimes it would just run at 2500 RPM until you braked to a stop. I took the outback to our dealer and the subaru service advisor was very surprised when I drove it to demonstrate the very serious issue. It did exactly as I have described and even stayed at 2500 RPM. The service advisor and who I presume was the overall manager of the dealership took it for a drive without me. When they returned I was told that the way it operated was the way it was supposed to operate because of the engine needing to be more environmentally friendly. I stated I did not really believe that excuse and left. Since that…
In early december of 2011 my wife and I purchased a 2012 subaru outback with a 4 cylinder engine, CVT transmission. We had to wait a day for our outback because it was being repaired do to a brake system recall. Ever since purchasing the outback we have had a serious issue when using the paddle shifters to slow down for a stop. When the tach slows to about 1100 RPM in first or second gear the engine then accelerates to up to 2500 RPM, slowing down and then speeding up again then repeating the cycle over even if you apply the brakes. Sometimes it would just run at 2500 RPM until you braked to a stop. I took the outback to our dealer and the subaru service advisor was very surprised when I drove it to demonstrate the very serious issue. It did exactly as I have described and even stayed at 2500 RPM. The service advisor and who I presume was the overall manager of the dealership took it for a drive without me. When they returned I was told that the way it operated was the way it was supposed to operate because of the engine needing to be more environmentally friendly. I stated I did not really believe that excuse and left. Since that…
In early december of 2011 my wife and I purchased a 2012 subaru outback with a 4 cylinder engine, CVT transmission. We had to wait a day for our outback because it was being repaired do to a brake system recall. Ever since purchasing the outback we have had a serious issue when using the paddle shifters to slow down for a stop. When the tach slows to about 1100 RPM in first or second gear the engine then accelerates to up to 2500 RPM, slowing down and then speeding up again then repeating the cycle over even if you apply the brakes. Sometimes it would just run at 2500 RPM until you braked to a stop. I took the outback to our dealer and the subaru service advisor was very surprised when I drove it to demonstrate the very serious issue. It did exactly as I have described and even stayed at 2500 RPM. The service advisor and who I presume was the overall manager of the dealership took it for a drive without me. When they returned I was told that the way it operated was the way it was supposed to operate because of the engine needing to be more environmentally friendly. I stated I did not really believe that excuse and left. Since that…
Also reported on the 2012 Subaru Outback
Other powertrain problem
Torque converter failure
Other engine problem
Airbag inflator rupture
Cruise control failure
Tail light, brake light or signal failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 29 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 cvt failure happen on the 2012 Subaru Outback?
Across 26 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 117,500 miles. A quarter were filed before 82,500 miles and a quarter after 132,500 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is cvt failure on the 2012 Subaru Outback?
29 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