Top tether on Frontier 85 & LATCH limit?

My 5 year old has a FR 85, she is using it in harness mode and weighs about 55 lbs. The seat is installed with the long belt path. I have an '08 Accord. If Honda has a 40 lb latch limit does that mean I shouldn't be using the top tether? I searched the forums but couldn't find a definite answer for this.

Honda actually has a 65 combined limit.

Technically, your daughter is over Honda's limit (which is not in the instruction manual and most reps don't know if you call.) You need to make a choice to follow or disregard that limit.

The risks, theoretically, of using it over the limit are that it would fail, and be an unsecured projectile (the swinging hook.) However there are no known instances of this happening, and if the anchor failed it's likely it would deform, not break, based on other testing that has been done. There is also evidence that a benefit would still be conferred in the first, most severe impact even if it broke.

The benefits of using the tether can be huge. In a real car, the distance between allowed tethered and untethered head excursion can be the difference between the child's head hitting the front seat leading to severe brain injury, or hitting nothing and being unhurt; the tether also prevents some of the lateral movement of the head in a side impact, keeping the head safely toward the middle, contained in the protective cage of the vehicle. In addition, using a tether as an additional point of attachment limits forces transferred to the child (especially with a built in load limiter like the one on your seat.) It also makes seatbelt failure, always a very remote possibility to begin with, even less likely.

I can't tell you what decision to make, but those are the small risks and great benefits to continuing to tether. I can tell you that we have a Honda and I tether my own child over the limit, and that we were in a crash in a previous Honda with two kids tethered over the limit, a severe one, and I'm glad they were (and the anchors did not deform one tiny bit.)