My cars abs light came on and the speedometer, rpm gauge, and electrical system started failing while driving. I immediately pulled over. The car caught fire around the alternator. The fire was minor, as I found the damage after towing the car home. If it had been worse, I could’ve been injured and burned. When I went to fix the car, we found that the wires were taped together with electrical tape and the other end had a form of glue on it. After we bought the car, the dealership kept calling checking on the vehicle, making me believe it was a known issue by them. This issue will cost me to fix the wiring, but I am unsure how much yet.
2003 Subaru Baja: ABS light or ABS activating
5 of the 38 complaints about the 2003 Subaru Baja describe ABS light or ABS activating.
- owner complaints
- 5
- of this car's complaints
- 13%
- recalls
- 0
Is there a fix? 2 service bulletins cover this area of the car. See below
ABS light or ABS activating by model year
- 20051
- 20035
What owners say
I was approaching a stop light last april 28, 200) and went to apply my brakes, only to find that they weren't going to work. I was only going about 20 MPH and gravity slowed me down to below 18 MPH because air bags didn't deploy, only to be stopped by a car making a left hand turn onto a highway via road-ramp. 3 people were injured, and my driving record severely scorched. Needless to say, I had the car towed to an independent mechanic to fix the defective brakes ticket. There were no subaru dealers in town. They did a visual inspection and found nothing to be the matter. As soon as I got back home, a week later, I took my car into subaru, who ran diagnostics on the ABS only to conclude that I was a crazy person. I decided I rather needed a second, and third opinion. Now subaru had my car for at least 3 hours, gave it back, took me behind the store to test the brakes, and the 20 feet on gravel it took to stop was normal, not to mention, I had I quote stating 100% functional and new brakes. So my main mechanic took the tires off to look the brakes ,and said oh my god you can't drive this car, there were no brakes! None, it was not measurable, that' was how little there were.. So I got a third opinion, agreeing with the second of my mechanic, I conceded, and got my brakes changed. I asked to keep the brake pads to take to subaru to show them their grave error. I gave the pads to them, they swore up and down to get to the bottom of it, and that was july 3, 2006, this is april 9, 2007. I thought all was well that ends well, but now that I knew other people having similar problems I didn't want to die just because I love my car, and I thought it might be time to buy out of my baja.
This vehicle's brakes are defective. The ABS is too easily activated by bumps or debris on the road during routine stops under normal environmental conditions, resulting in loss of decelaration of varying degrees of severity. This has caused one accident already and almost caused another one on 12mar04. We have notified subaru of america after the first accident, who refused assistance. We have taken the vehicle to the dealership since then, who maintains there is nothing wrong with the vehicle's ABS. Still, the failures continue. We are being compelled by subaru of america and its local dealership to operate a patently defective vehicle. This failure can be replicated and it occurs an average of three times a week on daily driving. It even happens while pulling up into our garage at less than 1 MPH. We urge the federal safety agency to extend defect investigation ea-03-024 to include all models covered in subaru's technical service bulletin 06-31-03.
Total ABS brake system failure while attempting to stop vehicle in light traffic at less than 20 MPH on dry surface. First attempt to brake met with undue brake pedal resistance with no stopping action. Second attempt met with unrestricted pedal travel to the floor with no stopping action. Vehicle only stopped on impact. The driver and two other people were injured.
Total ABS brake system failure while attempting to stop vehicle in light traffic at less than 20 MPH on dry surface. First attempt to brake met with undue brake pedal resistance with no stopping action. Second attempt met with unrestricted pedal travel to the floor with no stopping action. Vehicle only stopped on impact. The driver and two other people were injured.
Service bulletins that may apply
Related recalls
No recalls on record for this model year.
Questions about the 2003 Subaru Baja abs
Is ABS light or ABS activating a common problem on the 2003 Subaru Baja?
5 of 38 owner complaints about the 2003 Subaru Baja (13%) mention ABS light or ABS activating. The model year with the most reports is 2003.
Is there a recall or service bulletin for this on the 2003 Subaru Baja?
There are 0 recalls and 2 service bulletins for the same area of the car. Check them below with your VIN.
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