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Airbag Recall

29K views 185 replies 59 participants last post by  Jon89 
#1 ·
I am absolutely LIVID and OUTRAGED!!!


I have entered our VINs several times over the last 2-3 years and REPEATEDLY told our '11 and '14 Outbacks were not involved in the Takata airbag recall.

NOW YEARS AFTER THE FACT we get an "URGENT" letter telling us we have been driving around in cars with defective airbags NOW being recalled?!

Is this how Subaru treats its owners? What A-HOLES screwed this up? Who should we be suing?!

Why has this taken YEARS to be notified?!
 
#57 ·
My daughter owned a 2004 Impreza (recently sold) which had the air bag replaced around 3years ago, very early in the replacement program.

The replacement air bag was a Takata “like for like” replacement and although we were not aware of that at the time of replacement, Subaru sent a follow up letter advising that the recently replaced air bag would be subject to another recall in around 4 to 5 years time.

Seagrass
 
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#58 ·
The replacement air bag was a Takata “like for like” replacement and although we were not aware of that at the time of replacement, Subaru sent a follow up letter advising that the recently replaced air bag would be subject to another recall in around 4 to 5 years time.
This has been known for a while, although you're the first one I've heard of who got a letter from Subaru owning up to it.

Subaru themselves didn't know this initially - Takata told no one until it got wormed of them at a 2016 Congressional inquiry. But after this was made public, they still supplied “like for like” for a while.

They did eventually change the formulation of the propellant; it was the earlier recalls that will need to be replaced again.

Mine is due in 2020 for re-recall.
 
#62 ·
Got our recall notice in the mail today basically saying we don’t have the parts for the fix so until we do...sit in the back seat...just in case. Would not want to be a family of 5...leaving no spare place for the front seater to sit...although one could be strapped to the roof racks...
 
#63 ·
Got our notice a few weeks back. When my life settled down I called the dealership and was given an appointment that is actually next Tuesday, about 2 weeks out IIRC. In the interim I drove the car from the Berkshires to Ohio and back, never once cringing or puckering my sphincter. I survived a year in the field in Viet Nam. Everything since then is a yawn.

To the OP, lighten up. if you get so enraged over things like this you really need couch time. Even drugs won't help you.
 
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#64 ·
Forgive me for not reading every post, but to the OP. As someone in car sales for a different brand, I see the recall notices every day for our vehicles. It is not uncommon for the companies to find another batch of airbags that need to be addressed. There are thousands of different part numbers they need to confirm have issues, then have to find the batch number and date of when those affected parts were manufactured. No one decided not to tell you for any malicious purpose, Subaru just didn’t know you needed it done until now. Relax. Get it fixed. Move on.
 
#66 ·
This has more to do with Takata, the airbag manufacturer, than Subaru, I think. I recall reading awhile back that the recalled airbags were being replaced in “waves”, as opposed to one fell swoop, I think because everyone’s capacity would be overwhelmed. I had a 2012 Forester that was also never part of the recall until just this past Wednesday, when I got the urgent notification in the mail. Trouble is I sold that vehicle privately in December! Luckily I still have contact info for my buyer so I scanned and emailed the info to her. Sorry for the trauma this has caused.
 
#67 ·
The passenger side airbag recall only was started in January 2019. I called the dealer on a Thursday and got scheduled for the next Tuesday. Took my 2011 in at 8:30 am and they called me at 9:40 am to tell me it was ready. They were courteous, professional, prompt and efficient. I am a happy customer.
 
#68 ·
jalbertin if I were you I'd quit this group......the guy is obviously rattled....whether it was Takata or Subaru that dropped the ball the guy's family was in a dangerous situation while he thought he was doing the right thing and he's getting ridiculed for it ....uncool guys
 
#70 ·
If you experienced shrapnel in your face after a collision, you have a legitimate beef ... with Takata.
The reality is, there were no reported problems with the Subaru (Takata) airbags for decades. Thus no recall.
IF you got in a front end collision, and IF your airbag suffered from the corrosion defect, you MAY have suffered an injury.
I have been driving airbag equipped vehicles for 30 years, and have never had one explode in my face. If I had, I think I would be thankful my head didn't hit the windsheild.
 
#73 ·
The fault with the airbags is the propellant degrades with age. There is no liability for informing you that your airbags now need to be replaced, but they did not need to be replaced when new. There are no damages for which you must be compensated, and, you will be made whole by Subaru installing new passenger side airbags just as you would have been if they inconvenienced you a few years ago.
 
#75 ·
well, I think it would be all falls from bed/bed-fall deaths vs wrecks triggering air bag inflation/air-bag deaths (??? we need a actuarial guru lol!) but, still, it's real but rare occurrence.

another sorta gripe I have is, going from no belts to 3-point belts was a HUGE increase in safety - but adding air bags was an additional fractional increase. And, when air bags are triggered in older cars, it often sends them to the scrap yard as it is more likely they will be 'totaled'. Or, they are repaired with out airbag replacement.

some of these mandated changes to cars also make them more expensive. Although it's a very fluid calculation, affordability of new cars has been getting a little worse since about 2009. Might be part of the reason the average age of cars is now about 12 years - might also explain why used cars seem pricey. Not surprisingly, having a hogher percentage of older cars on the road could tend to reduce over-all safety of the 'population'.

we're probably lucky the g'mint hasn't required us to wear helmets while we drive!
 
#84 ·
I have not yet investigated this yet but it would seem that there would be a fuse to disable the passenger side airbag until the parts became available. Obviously not a good idea if there is just one fuse for the entire airbag system. Disabling the faulty airbag would keep the passenger in the front seat.


I would be interested to hear from you on this.


JeffreyM
 
#90 ·
Dropped my car off this morning. When it's done I'll pick it up. Easy Peasy.

As for disabling the passenger side bag, vehicles that are only one seat, think sports cars and single seat pick ups, have a bag disable switch for just that reason. Activated by the ignition key in a specifically purposed switch on the passenger side of the dash, but I believe any screwdriver like device would work as well. While I wouldn't do it for long periods or distances there are special times when it can be necessary. Last summer year I took my grandson in my Miata for a short, around the block thrill drive. Turn the bag off. My sister had heart surgery a few weeks ago and cannot sit in the front seat for similar reasons but if needed she could if the system were disabled on the passenger side. My '01 Dakota had the same switch.
 
#92 ·
Thanks all for the feedback. My non Subaru dealer told me they are not permitted to disable an airbag. After consideration, I won't be doing this and won't likely be sitting anyone in the passenger seat either. One of our members reminded me about wrongful death liability. Could happen.


JeffreyM
 
#94 ·
I'm not talking about suing re the defect. I'm talking about suing SUBARU for not notifying EVERY owner of a dangerous vehicle IMMEDIATELY when they were aware they WERE dangerous!!!!

We didn't receive the notice on our '14 for TWO WEEKS after we got the notice on the '11. There are STILL owners driving time bombs with NO IDEA they are dangerous. THAT is criminal!!!
 
#140 ·
A visual inspection can only determine that the inflator is a Takata or other brand. It can’t show that it is degrading. All the affected airbags are subject to failure due to the chemical used in the inflator. However, the inflators are not especially dangerous until they deteriorate due to time, heat and humidity. Since there was no way to manufacture enough replacement airbags to replace all the defective ones immediately they were recalled according to a schedule based on time and climate.

The information on which vehicles are affected has been available for years, they just weren’t issued recall notices immediately. When the news about Takata came out I was able to determine that my Outback had a problem airbag quickly. Since it wasn’t an immediate danger I didn’t freak out about it but kept checking the NHTSA site for updates on the recall.
The recall notice informs owners to not allow ANYONE to sit in the front passenger seat. That sounds serious enough to me that every owner must be informed immediately, not notified on a "schedule"! Hope it isn't YOU or a loved one in that seat when it goes off!!!
 
#141 ·
The recall notice informs owners to not allow ANYONE to sit in the front passenger seat. That sounds serious enough to me that every owner must be informed immediately, not notified on a "schedule"! Hope it isn't YOU or a loved one in that seat when it goes off!!!
I’m sorry YOUR reading comprehension is so poor.
 
#98 ·
I haven't logged in to post here in years but this thread prompted me to do so.

I got my recall notice for my 2013 this past weekend.

After 3 days of trying to call the local dealership and they never picked up the phone + their voicemail was full I finally got through. And I got an appointment for August 2019! I was informed they were "rationing" recall work because it would take up too much of their capacity and hurt their finances.

So I am pretty freaking mad just like the OP. I went on a phone call binge and eventually found another dealer that gave me an appointment the last week of April. I will not be letting anyone ride in the front seat.

I am mad because I am of the opinion that Subaru should have told everyone right away, even if they were able to say that particular vehicles were less likely to have had their inflator degrade and were less likely to explode. It would still have allowed us to not carry a front seat passenger.

My wife & child and I had an extremely close call where we narrowly avoided having a major impact exactly in the right place to fire the passenger airbag. A driver ran a stop sign to my right at 30+ mph and I was able to perform an evasive maneuver successfully which saved us. The driver still hit my outback but it turned a really bad accident into a minor one as I was able to take a hard right turn at the intersection and the drive only just hit the driver's side front corner of my bumper.

It is very disingenuous for anyone to make light of the risk of these airbags because they think you could just go get attacked by a shark or hit by lightning. There might not be a lot of Takata fatalities but if you are in good health and don't participate in skydiving or free solo rock climbing or something driving in the car is still the most dangerous thing we do. Most of the time the risk of driving is hundreds of times worse than flying, bicycling, sharks, lightning, etc..

We should have at least been notified. I'm probably not buying another Subaru after this just due to the way it's been handled and the way I was talked to on the phone when trying to get an appointment, and the car has been near perfect up until this. It's not about damages, it's about being kept in the dark about risks. We've been driving around psyched about 5 star crash safety ratings when in reality we might have a hand grenade in the dash. If they had said to me 3 years ago my car was on the list but I had to wait for them to do the older cars first because they had a higher chance of an explosion I'd have been much happier about that.

As it is if I had to wait for August I would likely have gotten rid of the car before then.
 
#99 ·
When I was calling around a few weeks ago, after picking up a used 2014 Outback that was subject the the recall, the waits were quite short. In fact, I was able to get it done same-day at a dealership near my office.

Today, when I was trying to schedule an unrelated service, the local dealership said that Subaru had sent out several million recall notices without adequately warning/preparing the dealerships and they were crushed, with the earliest appointment many weeks out.

So I think I lucked out and got in between when the recalls were announced and when the notices were sent. It's much harder now.

And nobody's "making light" of this situation. But some people are acting like the car is a ticking time bomb! Yes, it's a serious problem and needs to be fixed, but I guarantee you there are folks here with marginal tires and brakes that are at far, far greater risk to themselves and others than from this airbag issue. Keep it in perspective.
 
#102 ·
what folks do in civil court (or to avoid court) is rarely related to 'peer reviewed scientific trials/engineering testing' and is not an admission of guilt.

and I dunno if any side airbags are included in the recalls so, in a T-bone accident, the issue could be moot.
 
#105 ·
OMG, the sky is still falling, when will it end :grin2:

All these owners horribly offended by Subaru not notifying them and talk about lawsuits. Have to wonder why none of them bother to use any of the websites available to check for open recalls on their own vehicles......guess it is too much work to key in those 17 digits..... >:)
 
#106 ·
I recently fly on a Boeing 737 Max 8 from Singapore to Kathmandu. I survived but I want to sue someone because I feel outraged. I have suffered no loss unlike the hundreds that have died a horrible death plummeting to the ground but I feel I must be outraged.......
I think the families of the deceased have a right to be outraged. Not a whinging OB owner over an easy item to fix.
 
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