Engine bay fire on the 2002 Subaru Wrx
When engine bay fire gets reported
Owners of the 2002 Subaru Wrx report engine bay fire at a median of 55,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 35,000 miles and a quarter after 65,000 miles, from 10 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 7th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 25,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 95,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 65,330 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.
30% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27,420 miles | 34,500 miles | 55,615 miles | 62,654 miles | 92,750 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 $4,000–$20,000 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.
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, every year of the Subaru Wrx
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.
During cold weather conditions, car leaks fuel from rubber fuel line. Fuel drips onto hot engine components and presents a serious fire hazard. Although subaru issued a bulletin about this matter, I feel it warrants an immediate recall due to the serious risk of engine fire and personal injury. *la
My subaru '02 wrx sedan has developed a fuel leak in cold weather. I took it to my dealership (rafferty subaru in newtown square, pa) and they mentioned that there was a service bulletin on fuel leaks in subaru wrx's, and that it would take weeks to get replacement parts to fix it. My complaint is that subaru of america has not issued a recall on this problem. They are essentially allowing customers to drive their cars with fuel leaks and waiting for them to come in in order to fix the problem. This is essentially very dangerous. I knew nothing about the commonality of the problem until I visited the impreza owners web site (www.nasioc.com) and found many, many other people with this exact problem. I am posting here to try to put more attention on this problem before someone gets killed by an engine compartment fire. Thank you, ken rimple. *ak
Started the car first thing in the morning to drive approximately 1.5 miles to the store. Outside temperature was about 48 degrees f. After returning directly from the store (the same 1.5 miles) there was a very strong smell of gasoline as I stepped out of the car. I smelled at the gap between the hood and driver's fender and determined the engine bay to be the source of the gasoline smell. I used a flashlight to search for any visible leaks, but I could not see the gasoline. The smell was incredibly strong though. It seemed to be the strongest right above the manifold between the intercooler, manifold, and turbo. I'm very worried of an engine fire due to the leaking. I'm taking the car to the dealer for examination of this problem.*ak
Also reported on the 2002 Subaru Wrx
Fuel leak or fuel odor
Other fuel system problem
ABS module or sensor failure
Loss of braking
Other engine problem
Other powertrain problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 10 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 engine bay fire happen on the 2002 Subaru Wrx?
Across 10 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 55,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 35,000 miles and a quarter after 65,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is engine bay fire on the 2002 Subaru Wrx?
10 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 7.0 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