Other visibility problem on the 2016 Subaru Outback
1 crash 1 of the 60 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 visibility problem gets reported
Owners of the 2016 Subaru Outback report other visibility problem at a median of 30,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 5,000 miles and a quarter after 50,000 miles, from 47 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 75,000 miles. It is the 2nd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 2,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 65,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 64,140 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.
55% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,660 miles | 5,000 miles | 31,156 miles | 49,500 miles | 65,800 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 is 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 $150–$1,400 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 20 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2023, at a median of 2,400 miles, and latest on the 2006 at 125,000 miles.
By volume the 2019 carries the most reports, with 260; the 2016 has 60. 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 just purchased a 2016 ob 2.5i premium. I have had the car for a week and a half. On friday I decided to wash my car for the first time. I started on the drivers side, raised the drivers side wiper, went around the front of the car and raised the passenger side wiper. I then washed around the car. When I went to put the drivers side wiper down it hit the passenger side wiper and slapped it down onto the windshield. An hour later I noticed a crack coming from the passenger side. I did the "pen test" and found a small depression under the wiper. No rock hit my windshield, it would have had to pass through the wiper. Thats impossible. Because I was just freaking amazed that it could of happened I raised the passenger wiper and let it come down on the windshield to see what would happen. It put a second crack in the windshield, not one emanating from the first but a whole new crack. Im taking it to my dealer tomorrow.
Non collision or other vehicle damage crack in windshield. A crack appeared on the passenger side of the windshield. According to owner website this is an ongoing problem of which subaru is aware for the 2015 and 2016 model years. They occasionally cover the repair under warranty claiming they do so as a "courtesy" car was stationary, parked in garage engine off. Windshield just cracked
During a recent trip to florida, the front windshield on my new 2016 subaru outback developed over half a dozen small pits in the exterior glass surface from contact with very tiny pebbles. The tiny pebble strikes should not have caused such pits based on my extensive driving experience. I believe there to be a defect in the glass itself, making it unusually brittle. The pebble strikes occurred while driving at low speeds on highway off ramps. The temperature outside during the pebble strikes, which took place over several days of driving, ranged from 60 to 85 degrees f. The dealer examined the windshield and said there was nothing inferior about it.
Also reported on the 2016 Subaru Outback
Other electrical problem
No-start or intermittent start failure
Other engine problem
Windshield cracking
Ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure
Other powertrain problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 60 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 visibility problem happen on the 2016 Subaru Outback?
Across 47 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 30,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 5,000 miles and a quarter after 50,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other visibility problem on the 2016 Subaru Outback?
60 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 6.1 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