Two problems related to front air bag have been reported for the 2005 Subaru Outback. The most recently reported issues are listed below. Please also check out the statistics and reliability analysis of the 2005 Subaru Outback based on all problems reported for the 2005 Outback.
In 2008 the airbags on our car deployed spontaneously while driving down the interstate. Before the airbags deployed the seatbelt lights in our car began dinging and flashing as if someone were in the passenger seat, which was empty, and then they deployed on my husband. After 3 or so months Subaru had the airbag components removed from the car and submitted to the manufacturer. Their investigation was inconclusive to what happened and they replaced the components with new ones assuming they had fixed the problem. July 11 I was backing out of my driveway and the lights began flashing again as if someone were in the passenger seat, which again was empty, and I pulled up and got out of the car immediately as I am 7 months pregnant and feared they might explode again and we were about to take a 6 hour drive. When we removed the keys the lights on the car remained on. Subaru now has the car and is investigating the problem. This car is a timebomb and I can't imagine putting it back on the road. These are the exact symptoms we had before the airbags exploded last time it just happens we were backing out of the driveway and not going 55 down the highway.
November 15, 2008 my husband was driving to work when the airbags in our 2005 Subaru Outback deployed without provocation. Our car was immediately taken to the authorized Subaru dealership here in puerto rico where they have yet to discover what caused this to happen. We purchased our car in seattle but we live here because my husband is stationed here for the military. We have been attempting to get Subaru of America's assistance in determining what caused this deployment but they have not been very helpful. Nothing has been repaired because we don't want anything done if they don't know what happened to the car. We are fearful to drive our car again and want Subaru of America to be a little more active and interested in discovering what could have caused a serious safety malfunction in their vehicle. As far as we know the service manager here sent them an email informing them that after he had looked over the car, he sees no damage that could have caused it. This information we already knew, because we weren't involved in any sort of collision. So far this is the extent of their involvement in the situation.