A few days ago I was driving down the road and all of a sudden when turning a corner I heard this AWFUL squeaking sound. Then again when I stopped at a stoplight. And again, and again, and again! YIKES! This van is just over a year old (to us, we bought a year used too) and we're supposed to be driving for Thanksgiving next week, so this isn't great timing!
I was going grocery shopping and had to get the groceries home but then I went straight to the church. Mike and I drove it around a while over the church speed bumps and through the parking log, through the grass parking lot... it kept doing it and it sounded awful! And... sometimes it came from the BACK of the car, other times further up the car.
We had just about decided to take it in to the shop when we discovered that the awful squeaking noise... was coming from INSIDE the car. Then it only took us a minute to locate it.
Earlier in the week I'd uninstalled and reinstalled Brianna's carseat because it had loosened some. When I reinstalled it I used the clip (as always) but I hadn't 'locked' the seat belt otherwise. You really don't have to, so no big deal. BUT... the mechanism that attaches the seat belt to the car, because it wasn't locked, was swinging slightly as we turned or hit bumps or started or stopped the car!! I pulled on it to lock and... voila! Car problem fixed.
WHEW! So very thankful that there's not an issue with the van!! (what would we do if it needed more than a day of maintenance?? All the carseats don't fit in our other car!)
ROTFL. If only all
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Lori
I can totally relate! When the weather's bad I have to pick the kids up in the station wagon, which only has one car seat in it. Alex goes in front and the other three are in the back. It's not legal, but we only have to drive two blocks so I try not to stress over it.
ReplyDeleteSEat belt should always be locked around a car seat, unless the car seat is built with lock offs, however, most of the seat manufacturers now recommend locking the belt anyway to prevent the child from pulling on the belt and getting entangled in it. Even with a tether and lower anchors, the seat belt should be engaged behind the car seat before you install it, and locked so they can't entangle themselves. www.carseat.org is an excellent resource. Just a message from your caring and nationally certified child passenger saftety technician/instructor. I00617. Hugs!!
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