2015 Subaru Forester 135K miles Air bag light came on intermittently dealer replaced the front passenger seat and the problem went away. Out if warranty, but wanted to document it.

- Sacramento , CA, USA

The SRS warning light came on, indicating that the car be taken to the dealer for inspection. The light was not on by the time the car arrived at the dealer, but they were able to find code DTC B1760, indicting that the Occupant Detection Sensor Mat on the passenger side was not working properly. This is the system used to determine whether the air bag should deploy in an accident and at what force it should deploy. After following a diagnostic tree, they suggested replacing the passenger seat bottom. I called Subaru of America on 12/13/2021 to discuss the issue before telling the dealer to proceed and after being on hold for 23 minutes I left a number for callback. I then sent an email using their online contact form. As of 12/15/2021, I have not received any response from Subaru. This was obviously a safety issue that had to be fixed immediately, regardless of cost, so I told the dealer to complete the repair while I waited to hear back from Subaru. No passenger was in the seat when the warning light came on. After doing some research, it appears that I am not the only Subaru owner with this exact issue and I even found recalls for other Subarus made the same year as my vehicle.

- Yorktown, VA, USA

Subaru dealership in Rockvile, MD diagnosed a defective airbags' occupant detection system (ODS) mat harness on my 2015 Subaru Forester. Recommend replacing part for $1200. Subaru America issued a recall WUM-98 (NHTSA 19V-701) on Oct 3, 2019 to adress this very issue on 2015-2018 vehicles. Dealer states my vehicle not covered by this recall... This is a very serious safety issue and I question whether Subaru has recalled a sufficient number of vehicles beyound the stated 336,282.

- Rockville, MD, USA

The passenger airbag light has been on and has been disabled whether there is someone in the passenger seat or not. This is due to the sensor in the passenger seat malfunctioning. Because of this malfunction, there is no access to the passenger airbag which poses a risk to the passenger in the vehicle in the event of an accident. The problem has been confirmed by Charlie's Subaru in Augusta, Maine. The airbag light came on in September 2021. It went on and off for a few weeks and has been on since.

- Vienna, ME, USA

When a passenger is sitting in the front passenger seat, the airbag will frequently fail to turn on. An airbag warning light will instead appear on the dash. When I brought the car to the dealership, they insisted (before even looking at the car) that something must have been spilled on the seat and that the seat would need to be replaced (for $895). Nothing has ever been spilled on the front passenger seat, nor has it gotten wet. Visual inspection of the seat shows that it's in pristine shape. Sometimes the airbag alert will appear when the car is still stationary. Other times, it has only appeared once the car was in motion.

- Carson City, NV, USA