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Infant car seat for 99 Legacy Outback

We're expecting our first born and just purchased a Graco SnugRide. When I tried to install it the seatbelt buckles get in the way. When I tighten it up, the buckles are just where the belt should wrap around the top of the base and therefore, come loose very easily.

Before I go to the nearest police station looking for help I figured I'd ask here if other Subaru owners have had the same problem. I did a google search and did find a few old posts about this problem but no real solutions.

Has anyone else had this problem? How did you solve this problem? Also, I much rather have the infant seat in the middle because this is our only vehicle - yes we live in America :-) - and when grandma and grandpa come to visit we need to fit 4 adults in the car.

- Manny.

Reply to
Manuel Freitas
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Our car seat fit fine into our 02 OBW when using the base without a problem. That little carrier just clicked in and out with no problem when there was only one little one to contend with. If your having a hard time, make sure the seat it leveled properly. Most manufactures put some time of indicator for you to check and see if it's adjusted properly. Our manufacturer recommended that we use rolled up towels in order to get the correct height/position. I don't see any reason why 2 rolled towels couldn't move your buckle down a 1/4 inch.

Congrats on the little one! Having them in the middle is not only safer, but lots easier. Wait until you have #2. Getting that carrier through the doorframe with a base right there on a side seat isn't easy!

Reply to
Bobby

Reply to
jimuntch

We had a similar problem with a Graco infant seat in my wife's car. If the seat belt buckle is on a web strap, and the strap is too long, you can twist the buckle up to 3 times to move the buckle closer to the fold in the seat. This moved the buckle to the side of the seat and worked for us. We never could use the base unit, we had to use the seat belt threaded through the infant seat directly.

The local children's hospital here in Seattle has infant seat checks one a month. We went to one and it was very informative. That's where we learned the twist technique.

The middle seat is the safest spot for the infant seat.

Steve

-- remove "SPAM_TRAP_" to reply directly

Reply to
steve ball

Reply to
spam

Try twisting the belt a few times before you click it in -- that took care of a similar problem I had in another car.

Reply to
lee

Had a similar problem with my 2000 (last year without Latch attachments... grr...) and the solution was to use a rolled-up pillow to lift the base (i.e. the part closest to the back rest) of the seat so that the buckles would not be up to the openings on the side of the seat. The pillow also stabilizes the base.

Also, I installed the seat with the belt going only once in the seat going from the roof to the buckle to the small buckle. Otherwise, using it as indicated, the side where the belt was coming in for the bottom of it's "L" would get lifted, which was annoying.

Just as a note, do your car's belts have the "lock-if-pulled-all-the-way" feature? Very useful when setting the seat in...

Hope this helps.

Nicolas

Reply to
Nicolas Dore

I may misunderstand the problem Manny, but I just tightened the belt to the guessimated size without even considering the car seat. I then muscled the seat into the center and buckled. IIRC, I climbed in the car seat on one knee, flattened it into the seat, buckled the seat with much foul language, then released the compressed seat. It took a few trial and error attempts, but left the seat very stable.

The middle is supposedly the best spot for a kid.

BTW, it seems the entire car seat industry needs to be collectively bonked on top of the head. The instruction manuals are horrible. The booster seats are a joke (seem far more dangerous than nothing at all), all of the flailing cables, belts, and latches are mind numbing. LATCH is a good improvement. I'm baffled why it took so many decades to figure THAT out.

ANYWAY, good luck and congratulations.

replace with "rohan" to reply.

Reply to
Brian Fox

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