The 2009 Subaru Outback has 11 recalls, the most serious being a passenger-side front airbag inflator that can explode and send metal fragments into the cabin, posing a risk of serious injury or death.
Multiple filings cover the same underlying airbag inflator defect, and prior repair attempts did not fully resolve the issue for all affected vehicles. Two other recalls round out the list. On turbocharged models, a relay controlling the secondary air injection pump can fail and allow the pump to run continuously, overheat, and melt, raising the risk of a fire under the hood. There is also an ignition switch concern affecting vehicles where the switch was replaced with a certain mechanical key part: a small internal spring can break, weakening the switch enough that the engine may shut off unexpectedly while driving, and if a crash follows, the airbags may not deploy.