Mostly-Mommy

A while ago the Subaru started making a squeeling noise when I would back up and a scraping noise while I was driving. Not too troubling as we near the 60,000 mile mark we figured we needed a brake service. So I called Subaru and made the appointment. While it was in the shop I asked them to look at the “Air Bag” light which had been going on and off for probably at least a year. There was a service bulletin about it so we figured we’d just get it taken care of when it went in for its next service.

We were right about the brakes, no surprise there. However, we were NOT right about the air bag light. Turns out that all this time we’ve had non-functioning air bags on the passenger side of our car! The wiring harness under the front passenger seat had become loose and was not working. Yikes!

We got that all fixed but here’s the kicker. I am not feeling overly enamored with this vehicle’s design. This is now the second wiring problem we’ve had to get fixed because someone’s foot kicked it loose (probably mine but I won’t point any fingers at the jimmy legs among us). In general I am very happy with the car, especially in the winter, but it has some design flaws. One is the wiring locations apparently, and another is the excessively cramped back seat. We bought this car specifically for safely hauling babies around — at least is has the safe part as long as the airbags are working!

I thought I should put this all out there in case someone is Googling about the 2003 Subaru Forester. Perfect it ain’t but it’s ours!