AtWhatMileage
Electrical · 194 owner reports

Other electrical problem on the 2019 Subaru Outback

Reports of this failure 194
With an odometer reading 62
Reports per 1,000 built 4.1 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 97%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 0
Typical repair $250–$2,000
What it means when it happens Moderate
Rank among this year's problems 2nd

When other electrical problem gets reported

Owners of the 2019 Subaru Outback report other electrical problem at a median of 12,500 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 7,500 miles and a quarter after 20,000 miles, from 62 reports that carried an odometer reading.

A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 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 27,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 24,871 miles across the middle 80% of reports.

Reports bunched into a band this tight usually mean the component has a life of its own: it goes at roughly the same mileage regardless of who owns it.

97% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 62 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
3,029 miles 6,860 miles 13,563 miles 20,000 miles 27,900 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 $250–$2,000 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 26 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2021, at a median of 1,200 miles, and latest on the 2025 at 160,000 miles.

By volume the 2017 carries the most reports, with 249; the 2019 has 194. 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.

Median
  1. 1996 Subaru Outback other electrical problem
    no odometer readings given
    —
  2. 1997 Subaru Outback other electrical problem
    no odometer readings given
    —
  3. 1998 Subaru Outback other electrical problem 160k
  4. 1999 Subaru Outback other electrical problem 91k
  5. 2000 Subaru Outback other electrical problem 99k
  6. 2001 Subaru Outback other electrical problem 73k
  7. 2002 Subaru Outback other electrical problem
    no odometer readings given
    —
  8. 2003 Subaru Outback other electrical problem 3k
  9. 2004 Subaru Outback other electrical problem 78k
  10. 2005 Subaru Outback other electrical problem 104k
  11. 2006 Subaru Outback other electrical problem 111k
  12. 2007 Subaru Outback other electrical problem 104k
  13. 2008 Subaru Outback other electrical problem 61k
  14. 2009 Subaru Outback other electrical problem 113k
  15. 2010 Subaru Outback other electrical problem 71k
  16. 2011 Subaru Outback other electrical problem 56k
  17. 2012 Subaru Outback other electrical problem 52k
  18. 2013 Subaru Outback other electrical problem 35k
  19. 2014 Subaru Outback other electrical problem 64k
  20. 2015 Subaru Outback other electrical problem 20k
  21. 2016 Subaru Outback other electrical problem 45k
  22. 2017 Subaru Outback other electrical problem 29k
  23. 2018 Subaru Outback other electrical problem 20k
  24. 2019 (this one) 14k
  25. 2020 Subaru Outback other electrical problem 5k
  26. 2021 Subaru Outback other electrical problem 1k
  27. 2022 Subaru Outback other electrical problem 16k
  28. 2023 Subaru Outback other electrical problem 2k
  29. 2024 Subaru Outback other electrical problem 77k
  30. 2025 Subaru Outback other electrical problem 162k
  31. 2026 Subaru Outback other electrical problem
    no odometer readings given
    —

Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens

Also reported on the 2019 Subaru Outback

Other visibility problem

260 reports median 12k

Windshield cracking

145 reports median 11k

Infotainment screen failure

99 reports median 43k

Parasitic battery drain

39 reports median 8k

Other steering problem

26 reports median 3k

How far this goes

Complaints are voluntary, so 194 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 electrical problem happen on the 2019 Subaru Outback?

Across 62 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 12,500 miles. A quarter were filed before 7,500 miles and a quarter after 20,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.

How common is other electrical problem on the 2019 Subaru Outback?

194 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 4.1 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