Seat belt length

laurynsmam

Hey

Does anyone know if details about the length of the seat belts in a particular car can be seen somewhere online? I currently drive a Ford Focus and have a baby's seat, and the seat belt barely secures the seat. It takes a couple of minutes to manouever the belt to get it over the seat. I'm thinking of changing motors and something to consider would definitely be the length of the back seat belts. Are they the same length (i.e. some sort of EU standard length) in every car? If so, can you get any sort of amendment to them? While the car seat I have is a little larger than any other one I've used, I cant imagine that it was made so big as to not have any seat belt fit over it.

Thanks in advance.

crosstownk

I'm sure the belt is to standard length.

What type of baby seat is it? Is it a rear facing seat? These usually take up a lot of belt. Are you sure that you are routing the belt correctly? Maybe there is a problem with the belt in question. Have you tried the same child seat with a different seat belt in the same car?

laurynsmam

Thanks for the reply. Yep, it is a rear facing baby seat. I'm pretty sure that there is no other way in moving it around so that there is more room. Its just that I had a previous seat and there was never such a struggle to get the seat secured. Dont get me wrong now, it is possible to secure its just that there is absolutely no room left at all. The seat is part of a buggy / pram travel system that is actually German in origin, but again its a very highly regarded system so I cant imagine that it breaks any safety regulations.

Is it possible that the car I have (99 Focus) has some sort of crap seat belts and newer cars will have a slightly longer belt?

crosstownk

Try the child seat in different seats in case there is a problem with one particular belt.

I've used rear facing seats before and they can put the belt length to the test. If you're using it in a front seat be sure that the car's seat is back as far as possible. If the vehicle seat is pushed forward it will put a further demand on the length of the belt.

laurynsmam

Thanks again Crosstown, the seat is in the back though and the seats aren't movable. I have a feeling that it may be a combination of shorter than usual belts on this model of Focus along with a larger than usual seat.

Its no big deal, its just another thing that I'll test whenever its time to "test-drive" a new car! :pac::pac:

Run_to_da_hills

A mate of mine failed his NCT because one of the seat belts was slightly too short. The dog chewed a lump off the end and he cut off the bad bit, it didn't even effect the seat belt and the examiner only spotted the way it was cut.

Slidey

^ That would be why he failed so!

You can get seat belt extenders that are designed for fatties but will also work on the child seats, something like this here