Other engine problem on the 2015 Subaru Outback
1 crash 1 fire 1 injury 3 of the 22 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.
When other engine problem gets reported
Owners of the 2015 Subaru Outback report other engine problem at a median of 1,500 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 100 miles and a quarter after 40,000 miles, from 11 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 6th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 25 miles at the tenth percentile to 90,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 91,975 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.
73% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 miles | 90 miles | 1,537 miles | 38,675 miles | 92,000 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.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 1 a crash, 1 a fire and 1 an injury are 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 $300–$4,000 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 28 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2015, at a median of 1,500 miles, and latest on the 2011 at 110,000 miles.
By volume the 2013 carries the most reports, with 38; the 2015 has 22. 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.
Red engine light came on and car died. Lost all power/ drive. Needed to coast to berm. Would restart, but die immediately. Everything was immobilized. This could have happened at 70 MPH on an interstate! Our was very close to being rear- ended. *tr
Dear sir, on february 11,2015 we purchased a new 2015 outback 2.5 premium at seller dealer 400106 VIN [xxx] and the odometer reading was 10 miles. This was our dream car that we saved for a few years to finally purchase. It developed an engine knocking noise at only 1000 miles on the odometer. So I took it to the subaru dealer for evaluation on 3/18/15 and after 2 days there they determined that the engine had a problem and would have to be replaced according to subaru experts. I really respect subaru??s and their history, but we no longer consider this one our dream car. If the power plant is faulty we wonder what else is going to go wrong with it. My family will no longer feel safe. Though the car may or may not fall under the song-beverly consumer warranty act we want a replacement for the same type vehicle, nothing more and nothing less. I feel the engine should not of failed at only 1,000 miles on it and I'm sure [xxx] would strongly agree. Information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u.s.c. 552(b)(6). *tr
Engine idle is erratic when cold. Backing out of the garage in the morning the engine surges 3-400 RPM making the car jerk faster and slower. This is with only the brake pedal pressed. I have a second identical car that does not have the problem. Temperature is in the 40's. When the engine slows, you have to ease off the brake, them it suddenly speeds up 50% and the car takes off. The cycle repeats for a few minutes in the mornings. The problem is very repeatable -the same thing every morning. *tr
Also reported on the 2015 Subaru Outback
Other visibility problem
Other electrical problem
Windshield cracking
No-start or intermittent start failure
Other body or interior problem
Other brake problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 22 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 engine problem happen on the 2015 Subaru Outback?
Across 11 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 1,500 miles. A quarter were filed before 100 miles and a quarter after 40,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other engine problem on the 2015 Subaru Outback?
22 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 1.5 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