Subaru headrest fix

If I have a problem and a Google search doesn’t throw up a solution, then I see it as my duty to report on any solution that I develop. This so people facing the same problem can benefit from my efforts – it’s one of the reasons the internet exists after all and it derives me good internet karma.

In fact one of my more read blog entries was a fix to a Toshiba laptop battery clasp problem – this was an actual design flaw that Toshiba refused to fix, model after model. So I posted a quick fix. And many have used it.

This current blog entry describes a simple problem fix for owners of Subaru Outbacks, Liberties or Legacies, from 2009-2014.

However I would note that this approach might work for many other makes and models.

The Problem: A headrest which is tilted so far forward that one’s head is pushed forward whilst driving (see first image below) in an uncomfortable and non-ergonomic fashion. Basically it sucks. This is an example of safety concerns gone mad – the idea is to prevent whiplash by minimising the gap between the head and the headrest. But they over did it by a fair margin. You’d have to think that the clowns up at Subaru don’t drive their own cars.

The Solution: Remove the headrest. Place it on the ground. Stand with one foot on the metal supports (see second image). And then bash the headrest with the other foot, using all your body mass (see third image), until the angle represents something closer to sanity. Surprisingly, when performed on a smooth tiled surface with thongs (flip-flops, jandles, etc) no damage is done to the headrest and the angle can be adjusted to exactly that needed (see last image). If at any stage after a few bashes (I did about 15) the metal supports are not parallel, stand on one of them (the one you want to bend more to ‘catch up’ to the other one in respect to angle) and bash the headrest with the other foot.

Agricultural I know, but hey.