Subaru Forester, model years 2015 to 2018. Filed by Subaru of America, Inc. and reported to NHTSA on 3 October 2019. 366,282 vehicles potentially affected.
What the notice says Subaru of America, Inc. (Subaru) is recalling certain 2015-2018 Forester vehicles equipped with heated seats. An electrical connection in the front passenger seat for the Occupant Detection System (ODS) may loosen.
Is your vehicle included? Check with your VIN at NHTSA, or ask a dealer. This page is an independent copy of the notice, kept so you can see what changed after it was published. It is not the authority, and the authority’s own text is the one to act on.
Subaru's own number for this recall: WUM-98. That is the number on the owner letter and on the dealer paperwork. 19V701 is the number NHTSA gave the same campaign, and the number this page is filed under. They are one recall, written two ways.
What owners ask about this recall
- Which vehicles does recall 19V701 cover?
- Subaru Forester, model years 2015-2018.
- What is wrong with them?
- Subaru of America, Inc. (Subaru) is recalling certain 2015-2018 Forester vehicles equipped with heated seats. An electrical connection in the front passenger seat for the Occupant Detection System (ODS) may loosen.
- What can happen if it is not put right?
- If the connection loosens, the front passenger airbag may deactivate even though the seat is occupied, increasing the risk of injury to the front passenger in the event of a crash.
- Is there a fix yet?
- Yes, and it is free. Subaru will notify owners, and dealers will inspect and, as necessary, replace the ODS sensor mat harness, free of charge. The recall began February 11, 2020. Owners may contact Subaru customer service at 1-844-373-6614. Subaru's number for this recall is WUM-98.
- What should I do now?
- Check your own vehicle by its VIN with NHTSA, which is the record to act on. Subaru calls this recall WUM-98, which is the number on the owner letter and the dealer paperwork.
Answered from the register this site holds. NHTSA is the record to act on.
What the authority says can happen if this is not fixed: “If the connection loosens, the front passenger airbag may deactivate even though the seat is occupied, increasing the risk of injury to the front passenger in the event of a crash.”
affected
in the notice
caught
| Campaign | 19V701 |
|---|---|
| Filed by | Subaru of America, Inc. |
| System at fault | Air Bags:Sensor:Occupant Classification |
| Reported to NHTSA | 3 October 2019 |
| Model years | 2015-2018 |
| Vehicles named | SUBARU FORESTER |
What the notice says today
The consequence
If the connection loosens, the front passenger airbag may deactivate even though the seat is occupied, increasing the risk of injury to the front passenger in the event of a crash.
The remedy
Subaru will notify owners, and dealers will inspect and, as necessary, replace the ODS sensor mat harness, free of charge. The recall began February 11, 2020. Owners may contact Subaru customer service at 1-844-373-6614. Subaru's number for this recall is WUM-98.
What it said before
This campaign is in the register but not yet in the dated wording archive, so we cannot yet say whether its text has moved. It enters the archive on the next pass.
This is one of 846 notices in the record whose component field names air bags. Across that group the median wait before owners were written to was 46 days.
Last checked . No change has been recorded in the wording.
The models named here, across their whole recall history
How to cite this record
Quoting the wording on this page means quoting a version, so the date belongs in the citation:
CarsMultiverse, recall 19V701, wording as read on 16 September 2026. https://carsmultiverse.com/recall/19v701/
The cross-border matches used on this site are deposited as a citable dataset: doi:10.5281/zenodo.22087136. The recall wording itself is published by the national authority named above and is theirs, not ours.
The recall record and its wording are published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and are US Government public domain. The dated archive, the comparison and any before-and-after above are CarsMultiverse. How fresh every engine behind this page is, is public on the status page. To check a specific vehicle, use NHTSA’s own VIN lookup.
Other Subaru notices we hold
- 26V436: 2026 Crosstrek Hybrid, 2025-2026 Forester Hybrid, Forester, and 2019-2026 Ascent
- 26V346: 2026 Forester and Forester Hybrid
- 26V106: 2026 Crosstrek hybrid, and 2025 Forester hybrid
- 25V889: 2026 Forester
- 25V419: 2025 Forester
- 25V033: 2025 Forester
- 24V227: 2020-2022 Outback and Legacy
- 23V755: model year 2021 Crosstrek, 2022 Forester, 2021-2023 Legacy, and Outback
All 110 Subaru campaigns we hold · Every manufacturer in the record
The fingerprint of this notice
We take a SHA-256 of each of the three blocks of text the authority publishes and keep the first eight characters. As we last read campaign 19V701 on 23 August 2026, they were:
- Defect summary
6d4b5230 - Consequence
33c5b512 - Remedy
8c037604
We first read this notice on 21 August 2026. It has not moved since. If it ever does, these characters will not match, and the change will be dated here.
The wording we hold for 19V701 · how the whole register is watched
This notice names one vehicle among several registers that have written about it. Every notice this site holds for the Subaru Forester, in all seven, is kept on that vehicle's own page, with the newest in each.
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