AtWhatMileage
Engine · 2 owner reports

Other engine problem on the 2009 Subaru Wrx

Only 2 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.

Reports of this failure 2
With an odometer reading 2
Reports per 1,000 built 0.0 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 0%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 0
Typical repair $300–$4,000
What it means when it happens High
Rank among this year's problems 6th

When other engine problem gets reported

There are 2 reports of other engine problem on the 2009 Subaru Wrx, 2 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 95,000 miles. It is the 6th most-reported problem on this model year.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 2 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
— — 68,771 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 $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 8 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2018, at a median of 20,000 miles, and latest on the 2006 at 105,000 miles.

By volume the 2002 carries the most reports, with 12; the 2009 has 0. 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.

What owners wrote

Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.

I purchased this vehicle about 100 miles from my residence. I drove it home from the dealership and within 2 hours of driving I heard a loud whipping noise from underneath the hood. Sounded like a belt snapped and I knew something was wrong. After the incident the following sensors and other issues occurred: -check engine light on -p0011 diagnostic reading: 'a camshaft position timing over ' advanced system performance bank 1' -turbo not working correctly -white smoke from exhaust -traction control won't come off -says passenger air bag is off -sometimes has hard time starting -- I scheduled an appointment for april 10th at a authorized subaru dealership and the mechanics determined the turbo connected to the engine failed and will need to be replaced ($3000 dollar estimate). I called the dealership and left a message as did subaru. The dealership has not responded back and is ignoring my messages. I feel even though I bought the vehicle "as is", it was still under an implied warranty of being 'fit for a particular purpose', that is that it was drivable and operational as it is obviously not. Subaru told me there is no way the…

74,301 miles NHTSA complaint 1056022 filed 2014-04-11

Also reported on the 2009 Subaru Wrx

Manual clutch or hydraulics failure

41 reports median 72k

Other powertrain problem

12 reports median 72k

Other body or interior problem

4 reports median 60k

Loss of braking

3 reports median 76k

Other brake problem

3 reports median 80k

Overheating

1 reports median 91k

How far this goes

This page is kept out of search results because 2 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 2 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 2009 Subaru Wrx?

Across 2 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 70,000 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 engine problem on the 2009 Subaru Wrx?

2 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.0 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