EFTA and Locking clip

[Unregistered]

Hello,
I had to move my evenflo triumph advance into my parent's car and have a few questions about how it's installing in their 2002 toyota corolla.

We put it on the driver's side (forward facing) with latch and it looked a bit lopsided. The carseat was not lifting from the corolla's seat, but it was leaning a bit. We decided to put it in the center (which is where we normally have it in our car). We used the seatbelt and a locking clip. I wanted to check where the clip should be placed. It should be on the buckle side, no more than 1 inch from the buckle, right? My husband thought it would be more secure on the opposite side, but I looked it up and numerous sites say put it on the buckle side. Also, do we even need the locking clip for this model car? It sounds like any car after 96 shouldn't need a clip??If we use one, is this a problem?

Any thoughts would be great. We're going to get it checked out before they drive with our son, but any advice from those who are experienced with this would be additionally helpful.

[wendytthomas]

You don't need the locking clip. Just pull the seatbelt out all the way from the shoulder and it'll lock. If you use the locking clip properly it won't be a problem, but it's an added step that easily introduces error, so we don't recommend using them unless necessary. You're right that it should be within 1" of the buckle.

How old and heavy is your child?

Wendy

[Unregistered]

Thanks, Wendy. That's very helpful.

My son is 2 1/2 and 34 pounds. We just turned him forward facing a week ago, but I think I'm going to turn him back rear facing for the last pound. We were having problems with him moving the chest clip, but I've been working on that with car seat discipline!

Thanks again for such a quick reply,
Ellen

[Unregistered]

Another quick question--If we need to install the seat in our 2008 ford taurus with the seatbelt, would we also not need the locking clip? I'm going to review the info on locking clips in the FAQ section of this site, but thought I'd check since we had this issue.

Thanks again,
Ellen

[wendytthomas]

Right. Cars since 1996 have been required to have locking belts (well, belts that lock BEFORE an emergency). So it's rare to need a locking clip because a belt doesn't lock nowadays. Most of the time I use them for anti-tipping.

Wendy

[Unregistered]

Great--that's important to know.

Thanks again,
Ellen