Frontier harness coming off splitter plate

snowbird25ca

Moderator - CPST Instructor
For those of you who haven't seen this thread yet or heard of the problem yet, I'm going to link you to a thread in the CDN forum that has a little more detail: http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=55638

Last night at work I had opportunity to look closer at the splitter plate on the Frontier and look to see if there is a visual way to see why the strap could be coming off the splitter plate through repeated loosening and tightening. What I found, seriously shocked me and concerned me...

Imitating the movement of the splitter plate if you just pulled on one side of the harness to loosen the straps, I moved the strap and splitter plate. Over the period of maybe 10 or 12 movements, the harness strap folded over on itself - the edge closest to the outside of the splitter plate folded in, leaving a folded edge on the outer part of the splitter plate. Once the strap folded in, the strap came off the splitter plate on it's own very easily. It actually happened much more quickly than I expected it would, so I'm hoping that since it should be easy for Britax to replicate the problem, that they will have a fix quickly.

Having looked at it, I don't believe this is a case of where some seats will have the problem and some won't. It is dependent on the method of loosening the harness - so there is something that parents can do to ensure it won't happen with their seat, but this risk will be present until Britax comes up with a fix - either closing the gap on the splitter plate.. which honestly isn't that wide IMO, or sending people thicker harness straps so that they can't fold in on themselves the way these ones can.

I was pretty shocked, so wanted to let others know. Pulling evenly on both sides when loosening the harness should prevent the problem, or not loosening/tightening the harness regularly should also, but I would still strongly consider uninstalling the seat periodically and checking that the harness strap isn't folded on the splitter plate. Until Britax fixes this, there's just going to have to be more caution about adjusting the harness. :thumbsdown:

(I know not everyone adjusts their harness every time, but many parents do. And while it's fine to say on the board to just not adjust the harness then, this is Britax's problem that has to be fixed, parents shouldn't have to not use a feature of the seat that is designed to be used - or be told that if they don't loosen it exactly right that their seat could fail.)
 
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snowbird25ca

Moderator - CPST Instructor
YW. :)

For those of you who have a Frontier installed, can you do an experiment for me?

Loosen the straps all the way by pulling on just one shoulder strap, then tighten them. Repeat it half a dozen times or so and see what happens - pull on the same shoulder each time. I'm curious if it will happen IRL consistently with that method, and if so, how quickly it does it.
 

Starlight

Senior Community Member
I've seen this a lot, snowbird. :(

We've had returns because of this too. It happened to one of my customers the 2nd time she tried to use her seat. I'm glad she was vigilant, atleast.
 

snowbird25ca

Moderator - CPST Instructor
I've seen this a lot, snowbird. :(

We've had returns because of this too. It happened to one of my customers the 2nd time she tried to use her seat. I'm glad she was vigilant, atleast.

That's rather discouraging to hear. It is good that your customer noticed it though.

Have you talked to Britax about it at all? I don't have a seat and aside from my in-store experiment haven't actually had it happen.

What I don't get, is if it can happen this easily, why didn't they find it in the design process? Did they just not loosen and tighten the seat?

I think thicker harness straps will prevent it, so maybe everyone will get their wish for thicker straps after all. :whistle:
 

emars002

New member
YW. :)

For those of you who have a Frontier installed, can you do an experiment for me?

Loosen the straps all the way by pulling on just one shoulder strap, then tighten them. Repeat it half a dozen times or so and see what happens - pull on the same shoulder each time. I'm curious if it will happen IRL consistently with that method, and if so, how quickly it does it.

I'll go try this in a few - thanks for pointing this out!
 
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emars002

New member
well, i did it 30 times - the 1st 15 I pulled the harness out a little more than half, the last 15 i loosed it as far as it would go - i did it 15 times on the left and 15 times on the right strap - i unlatched the right side and checked the splitter plate and the harness was still on correctly - maybe i didn't do it enough times.... also the gap on mine did not appear very big at all - I need to go look at my other seats and see what those splitter plates look like - i believe myfrontier has a late july 08 DOM.
 

tanyaandallie

Senior Community Member
There is someone on bbc who had hers come off the splitter plate 2 times. i can't remember who it was or what she did. I'll pull it out and give it a try tonight. this is really scary. We actually don't loosen and tighten often so not so much of an issue but still very scary.
 

Jeanum

Admin - CPS Technician Emeritus
Staff member
I tried Trudy's experiment on our Frontier (May '08 DOM) while it was installed in my van this evening, and replicated her results easily. :( It only took me 2 rounds of loosening the harness up all the way and tugging purposely on one or the other strap, then retightening the harness and repeating the process, to get the strap on the left side to pop right off the splitter plate. :eek:

FWIW, our Recaro Signo and Como were affected by the Recaro splitter plate recall, and the gaps on the affected Signo and Como harness splitter plates are much bigger than on our Frontier.

As Trudy already posted above, if you must loosen and tighten the Frontier's harness, loosening the straps evenly with the chest clip still buckled is the way to go, along with double checking as much as possible that the harness straps are securely on the harness splitter plate, until Britax resolves this issue.
 

Defrost

Moderator - CPSTI Emeritus
Is there any way those of you who have managed this experiment could get a video or at least some pics? I haven't even seen a Frontier IRL yet, so I'm having trouble picturing it.

(Not doubting you guys at all, I just want to SEE it! :D )
 

tanyaandallie

Senior Community Member
OK, even though we have never had this problem, I'm thinking I might put the Marathon back into my car for a bit. She looks so HUGE in the MA now that she has the Frontier but she does fit. This is making me nervous. ACK. I hope they find a fix soon. It seems that if replacing the harness is the answer, it would actually solve more than one problem. It would also fix the twisty harness issue. Or at least hopefully it would.
 

zactayaus

Well-known member
I just checked my Frontier. It has been installed in dh's truck for over a month now and we used it every day several times a day last week when we were on vacation. Thank goodness the straps were on the splitter plate nice and secure with no sign of popping off. I will check it more often now though. It is very scary to think that they may fail when you need them the most. Thanks for the heads up.
 

emars002

New member
I tried Trudy's experiment on our Frontier (May '08 DOM) while it was installed in my van this evening, and replicated her results easily. :( It only took me 2 rounds of loosening the harness up all the way and tugging purposely on one or the other strap, then retightening the harness and repeating the process, to get the strap on the left side to pop right off the splitter plate. :eek:
.

i am going to try again and makes aure i loosen all the way....be right back
ok - i did it again and the harness did not come off - the splitter plate looks eaxctly like the ones on my MAs - there is not a very big gap at all - I wonder if some of the Frontiers have different splitter plates?:confused: I can post a pic tomorrow - I didn't want to take pictures tonight at 11:30 - my neighbors already think I am car seat crazy as it is:whistle:
 
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scootiemom

New member
Curious about the DOMs on the seats everyone has. For those that can't replicate this issue, do you have a more recent DOM?
 

shauburg

Active member
Interesting to see how others are also finding this problem. I was there with Trudy last night and we were both shocked at how little movement it took for the harness to be able to slip off.

I know some members in Canada have contacted Transport Canada about this. Has anyone brought this to the attention of the NHTSA?
 

snowbird25ca

Moderator - CPST Instructor
Interesting to see how others are also finding this problem. I was there with Trudy last night and we were both shocked at how little movement it took for the harness to be able to slip off.

I know some members in Canada have contacted Transport Canada about this. Has anyone brought this to the attention of the NHTSA?

Hi Shauna :)

Shauna was my "customer" who I was "showing" the seat to last night. (Oh so lovely to have a car-seat tech friend come in when you're at work and not too busy. :whistle: )
 

Judi

CPST/Firefighter
Haven't had any issues yet, but with try to take the seat out in the next couple days and try.
 

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