Table 1 shows one common seat belt related problems of the 2015 Subaru Forester.
| Problem Category | Number of Problems |
|---|---|
| Seat Belt problems |
This year, an error message indicated that the srs system has ceased functioning on the passenger seat. According to the Subaru service center, a sensor within the seat has malfunctioned. This issue appears to be common, based on online research. The failed sensor poses a risk to the front passenger, as it may disable the srs system and potentially the airbag. Despite this, the dealer has informed us that the repair will not be covered under warranty due to the vehicle's 2015 model year. The dealer has recommended replacing the entire seat, which seems to be an unusually premature failure for a part expected to last the vehicle’s lifetime.
Airbag/seatbelt system failure August, 2024. Passenger occupant detection system (ods) failure. Detection system fails to correctly detect passenger in the seat. Sometimes it thinks there is no passenger, when there is one (will fail to deploy airbag in a crash); sometimes it thinks there is a passenger when there is none (requires seat belt to be buckled with no one in the seat). Recall (19v-701 -- ods harness replacement) repairs were done to this vehicle Feb. 2020. New solution is different than for the 19v-701 recall. For this issue, dealer recommends replacement of seat frame bottom (seat sensor). The seat sensor is failing. Repairs can not be made because replacement seat sensors are not available. Backordered. Subaru USA estimates July, 2025 first availability. This means critical safety issue for passengers in this vehicle will exist for nearly a year--even if parts become available in July.
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.
Passenger airbag light on seatbelt light on passenger front airbags inactive.
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.
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.
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.