NicoleCPST
Senior Community Member
I'm not sure if this should go here or under the installations but here goes... (please move if you need to.)
I have a 2002 Nissan Maxima w/ switchable retractors in the rear lap/shoulder belts. I use LATCH to install Bella's MA, so I'm not worried about the current install, but this just confuses me to death.
For the seatbelts, you have to buckle it and then pull the shoulder belt all the way out to "lock" it into ALR mode. If I install a carseat this way I always try to check it often to make sure the belt is still tight and is still locked. In my car, and in DH's 99 Maxima as well, it doesn't stay locked.
I install the seat, and upon finishing the installation, I check the belt at the shoulder retractor to be sure that it is locked. I pull lightly on the shoulder belt and it catches, locked. I wait a few seconds, pull lightly again, locked... wait a miute or two, pull lightly and it gives, the belt is no longer locked. I can then pull the carseat more than a inch if I try to move it because it only locks at the shoulder retractor.
Now, I do have both an MA and a SS1. So they do have lock-offs. But if the seatbelt is not locking properly I'm not sure I trust it to work properly in an accident and lock when it is supposed to either.
Am I missing something? A "maxima" trick? Or is it just my luck that both of our cars have bad seatbelts?
BTW- Hopefully in the next 6months I will be getting a new car and DH will get my Maxima. Right now he doesn't have a carseat for his car at all because of the seatbelt issue, as well as a few other things like it. And the MA in my car is installed with LATCH, but what do I do after she outgrows the LATCH limits?
I have a 2002 Nissan Maxima w/ switchable retractors in the rear lap/shoulder belts. I use LATCH to install Bella's MA, so I'm not worried about the current install, but this just confuses me to death.
For the seatbelts, you have to buckle it and then pull the shoulder belt all the way out to "lock" it into ALR mode. If I install a carseat this way I always try to check it often to make sure the belt is still tight and is still locked. In my car, and in DH's 99 Maxima as well, it doesn't stay locked.
I install the seat, and upon finishing the installation, I check the belt at the shoulder retractor to be sure that it is locked. I pull lightly on the shoulder belt and it catches, locked. I wait a few seconds, pull lightly again, locked... wait a miute or two, pull lightly and it gives, the belt is no longer locked. I can then pull the carseat more than a inch if I try to move it because it only locks at the shoulder retractor.
Now, I do have both an MA and a SS1. So they do have lock-offs. But if the seatbelt is not locking properly I'm not sure I trust it to work properly in an accident and lock when it is supposed to either.
Am I missing something? A "maxima" trick? Or is it just my luck that both of our cars have bad seatbelts?
BTW- Hopefully in the next 6months I will be getting a new car and DH will get my Maxima. Right now he doesn't have a carseat for his car at all because of the seatbelt issue, as well as a few other things like it. And the MA in my car is installed with LATCH, but what do I do after she outgrows the LATCH limits?