Passenger airbag warning indicated that the airbag was not on, even though a passenger was seated there. I took the car to dealer and it was repaired, and was told it was not covered by the extended warranty I had purchased even though the warranty was sold as the cure to any electrical woes you might encounter. While the vehicle had 52K miles on it, most of those miles were with nobody in the passenger seat as I traveled across New England in performance of my job.

The failure of the passenger occupancy sensor placed any passenger in my car at risk and the component did not fail due to any abuse or overuse as it hardly had a passenger in the seat.

This should be qualified as a product defect and recalled with all owners of this vehicle being made whole. Subaru is probably returning these sensors as defective and receiving a full credit while charging the full price plus labor for repairs. This is the second Subaru Forester I have owned, and while I like the car, the failure of the manufacturer to stand by their product leads me to think seriously about what model my next car will be.

This has happened once before, but corrected itself. The airbag light is on, and I was told that the sensor had been corrupted by water or something? There is a small grease stain on the seat, but nothing to penetrate the seat covering! The light came one while I was taking a friend out to dinner and has not gone off. There is no reason for this light being on! I was told the warranty would not cover the repair and was given an estimate of $850 plus installation costs! This is ridiculous. I purchased the extended warranties to avoid costs such as this. The car is only driven by me, and I rarely have passengers and when I do, there is no food or drink in the car. I have only owned the car for 18 months, buying it used from the dealership. There is no reason. If this is an example of Subaru reliability and service, I suggest you buy another vehicle.

2017 Subaru Forester - just over 2 years old with 50000 miles on it - Passenger airbag started shutting itself off while driving with a passenger in the seat; the warning light for the airbag also came on at the same time. This seems to be happening at random times - sometimes it knows a passenger is there but never comes on and I get the warning alert in the dash for the airbag. Other times the seat and airbag are functioning properly and then the airbag shows "OFF" after driving a few miles. I called a Subaru dealership - they told me it would cost $89 for them to look at it and diagnose it. They asked if anything had been spilled on the seat - never spilled anything on the seat. I asked about how much it would cost to have the seat sensor replace - they told me about $1000!!!

I've seen forums with others having this problem after about 2 years of use. This is a serious safety defect and should be recalled for free. Can't believe Subaru has not resolved this issue.

So this should be covered under warranty, but Subaru is taking its sweet time getting the part they say they need. Checking around the web, this is not a new problem. They told us what they've told others: the seat got wet, (it did not). We are waiting since September for the back order for this part. Meanwhile, the light will come on every other week or so and could stay on for days or minutes. If it stays on for a long while, it is very unsafe and unnerving because the passenger seat belt will not work. That's scary.