Other brake problem on the 2002 Subaru Wrx
1 crash 1 injury 2 of the 7 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.
Only 4 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.
When other brake problem gets reported
There are 7 reports of other brake problem on the 2002 Subaru Wrx, 4 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 9th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 32,500 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
Of these reports, 1 a crash 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–$1,800 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 3 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2002, at a median of 35,000 miles, and latest on the 2009 at 80,000 miles.
By volume the 2008 carries the most reports, with 12; the 2002 has 7. 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.
While applying the brakes, something is banging in the front end. Only happens the first time I back up and apply brakes. Move forward and it bangs again but only the first time I move in that direction. Dealer tells me the brake shoes are moving but nothing can be done, they claim it is not a problem. *ak
On my 2002 subaru impreza wrx sedan whenever I go over a bump or imperfection in the road (no matter how big or small) the ABS kicks in and if I hit the brakes directly afterwards the pedal goes to the floor and I have severely weak breaks for 2-3 seconds then they come back. Ive replaced the brake rotors, pads, and brake fluid and the issue still happens. Subaru of america claims it is not a problem but have never had this issue with any other car with ABS. Im very familiar with ABS and know how it works the problem is after it engages if you brake again 2-3 seconds after it engaged the pedal goes to the floor as if theres only 20% brakeing force. Ive almost been in several accidents due to this one time I was pulling into a parking spot going 5mph and this happened and I almost drifted into a parked car. Please look into this. Please view this website http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=102893 many 2002 and up subaru owners are experienceing this. The ABS isnt the problem again its the loss of brakeing after the ABS was engaged maybe the ABS computer isnt working correctly/fast enough? Thank you
The brake pedal on my 2002 subaru sometimes gets soft (looses brake pressure), specially when it's cold and the sits parked for several hours. The dealer has changed an expansion valve( ? ), but the problem comes back on occasion. This problem makes me feel insecure about my brake system. The dealer says everything is ok, but the problem persists. *tr
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
This page is kept out of search results because 7 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.
Complaints are voluntary, so 7 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 brake problem happen on the 2002 Subaru Wrx?
Across 4 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 35,000 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other brake problem on the 2002 Subaru Wrx?
7 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 4.9 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