Is it normal for an installed car seat to loosen over time?

[MaryAnn]

My ds is too heavy for rfing so we had to turn him around. He's been ffing in his MA for about a month now. I can get a perfect rock solid install but within days, it loosens. I never had this problem when he was rfing. Is this normal?

I have the seat belt routed through the correct belt path and it is tethered.

For the record, his MA is installed in the center of a '01 Chevy Cavalier with lap belt and tethered.

I haven't tried an outboard position to see if the same thing happens as I really want/need the center to work.

thx

[joolsplus3]

Is the locking latchplate (male side of the buckle) tipped into the belt path in any way? If it's tippy it will loosen fairly easily. The tricks to fixing it is to twist the female side ('buckle stalk') down so it's shorter and the latchplate is completely out of the belt path. OR give the male end (latchplate) a single half twist (install as usual, unbuckle, twist the latchplate once, then re-buckle, which may be hard, since the belt is effectively shortened a little when you twist it). I hope that helps!

[singingpond]

If you are interested in satisfying your curiosity about what is loosening up, you could do a tight install, and then mark the seatbelt where it goes through the latchplate (maybe with a washable marker). Then check after a few days to see if the seatbelt has shifted -- if so, the suggestions Julie made should solve the problem. Occasionally someone will have a problem with the carseat itself shifting a bit (i.e. if the base wasn't quite correctly positioned during the install) over time, but that is less common.

Katrin