CarComplaints.com Notes: Subaru thinks burning through a quart of oil every 1,000 miles or so is perfectly normal. That's a crude stance if you ask us.

3.4

definitely annoying
Crashes / Fires:
0 / 0
Injuries / Deaths:
0 / 0
Average Mileage:
38,217 miles

About These NHTSA Complaints:

This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.

So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.

2015 Subaru Forester seat belts / air bags problems

seat belts / air bags problem

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2015 Subaru Forester Owner Comments

problem #6

Nov 062023

Forester

  • miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

The error message for air bag/seat belt warning comes on and off. It turns the passenger side air bag to off. It seems to be activated by weight on the seat.

- Bardstown, KY, USA

problem #5

Aug 162023

Forester

  • miles
Passenger Airbag light on seatbelt light on passenger front airbags inactive

- Duluth, MN, USA

problem #4

Aug 252021

Forester

  • 65,000 miles
The contact owns a 2015 Subaru Forester. The contact stated that the seat belt warning light was illuminated. The vehicle was diagnosed but not repaired. Upon investigation, the contact associated the failure with NHTSA Campaign Number: 19V701000 (Air Bags) however, the VIN was not included. The manufacturer was informed of the failure and informed the contact that the vehicle was not included in a recall. The failure mileage was approximately 65,000.

- Brevard, NC, USA

problem #3

Apr 102021

Forester

  • 52,178 miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

While taking groceries out of back seat, I found a 14mm shiny nut on back floor, left back side of front passenger seat. It fell off the bolt holding the front passenger safety belt retainer (part you click buckle into). After putting it back on, and torquing the heck out of it, I found that the two bolts holding front passenger seat down, were loose and standing about 0.75" above bracket surface. I also torqued those down to avoid seat becoming loose. I then checked all other bolts for front seats and found no problem. We were very lucky to have had the seat belt nut fall where it did, or my wife could have been hurt.

- Stamford, CT, USA

problem #2

Aug 072020

Forester

  • 40,125 miles
When the vehicle is in motion, the passenger airbag does not accurately sense when a passenger is in the seat. It sometimes senses a passenger when the passenger is present and sometimes it does not. The airbag turns off randomly when it should be on. There is an active recall, wum-98, which outlines the exact issue and shows my vehicle description (2015 Subaru Forester with heated seats), however, my VIN does not show it being affected by wum-98. I believe this is a severe safety issue and it needs to be included in the recall. I have called two Subaru dealerships and Subaru. No help. In addition, the passenger seat belt randomly dings when no passenger is in the seat. Please let me know what I should do.

- Nashville, TN, USA

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problem #1

Oct 162018

Forester

  • 72,000 miles
The passenger airbag warning light first came on as soon as I started my car one morning in mid-October 2018, in which I took my car to Subaru of kennesaw, ga to have it looked at. They first asked if I had spilled anything on the front seat (in which I responded "no") and then advised me that the whole seat bottom would need to be replaced (about $989 parts and labor) and that the part was on back-order. I followed-up with them in December 2018 and never heard back. When I recently went there for an oil change February 18, 2019 they brought the issue up to me again, in which I responded that nobody ever returned my call. They checked again to see if they had the part but stated it is still on a nationwide back-order. We are now going on 5+ months of my passenger airbag warning light being on (it sometimes turns off intermittently, but in those instances the passenger seatbelt light will come on and ding repeatedly until the seatbelt is plugged in - even if there is no passenger). I have done quite a bit of research into this issue and it seems like a lot of other consumers are experiencing similar issues. Subaru seems to have different explanations and seems very unwilling to fix their faulty passenger seat sensors. It is upsetting and discouraging to know that they have allowed me to drive around this long with a defective airbag/passenger seat sensor.

- Dallas, GA, USA

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