Stefan Richter

I have a recaro start that is currently collecting dust in the garage. It is black with aluminum frame, about 6 or so years old. Anyone intetested? (yes, if fits in the 996 backseat)

Stefan

New info (6/3/09): The seat was acutally manufactured in 2000, and according to Recaro, expires 8 years from the date of manufacture. Accordingly, the seat is not for sale and I apologize for the error.

Thanks

ryangambrill

Ok. I now have the 996 and a Britax Roundabout. I feel like an idiot because I cannot get the secure the seat. I am trying to put it behind the pass seat. I have removed the seat bottom and seat back. Also have the shoulder/lap belt going thru the back of the seat as I do in other cars. The seat feels quite loose.

What am I doing wrong? What do you guys do?

DFC

Pull the seat belt all the way out, then it "ratchets" and locks as it retracts back. Get it close, then retract it one "click" at a time and reconnect it. Repeat until tight, my seat does not move. Also, put your knee/weight in the seat while connecting the seatbelt for that added bit of leverage/space, to get the seat in as tight as you can.

ryangambrill

Could the placement of the seatbelt be different in a cab vs. coupe?

I just tried again but to no avail. I use a similar process in both my other cars and it works fine.

I then removed the car seat as well as the child seat, and then locked the seatbelt in place to see how it fits together with nothing in the way. It seems like the tie down points for the seat belt are not symmetrical.

The car seat is loose on one side as that tie down is further away from the seat back than the other side.

Sorry if this is not making sense. I have been awake since 3:30am and now 9pm.

DFC

I'm not sure if there is a difference between cab and coupe, but both should operate the same. Did you remove the base of the baby seat? I did so that it fits better.

I set my seat in place, extend the seat belt all the way, let it ratchet in a bit, then feed it through the seat and connect it to the receptacle. At this point, it's usually fairly loose, but I want to gauge where I am (because once it retracts too far you have to start over). I then remove it from the receptacle and let it ratchet in a few more clicks and re attach it (while my knee is in the seat). I keep repeating this until I can barely connect the seat belt to the receptacle. The seat in my car has much less movement than my minivan.

Here is a pic of mine, feel free to PM me if you are still having issues and would like to talk.

ryangambrill

Let me give that a shot. =-)

ryangambrill

I think that I am/was trying to put the seat too far back so that the back of the car seat and bottom of the seat were flush with the car. Obviously that is not good for the angle of the seat as the red line needs to be level with the ground. Also this was putting the car seat too far back to that the receptacle is too far forward, thus making it impossible to get the correct angle from the belt for a solid feel.

I have been playing with the position of the seat so that it accomplishes two goals.

1 - Keep the red line level
2 - Keep the receptacle in the correct location so that the belt is coming thru the back of the carseat at the correct angle.

But, my problem now is that there is space between the car and the carseat. So I have some questions:

1 - The seat back is removed along with the bottom. Should I put the bottom back in?
2 - The picture above is a cab. It seems that the back of the seat is more vertical in the cab. Could this affect the position of the carseat?
3 - How far forward do you have your carseat? Does the leading edge of the carseat extend further than where the leading edge of the seat bottom would be located?
4 - Do you use towels or anything as spacers? It seems much easier to "tighten" down the carseats in my other cars. I believe this is because the actual seats in the other cars will compress with applied pressure from the carseat.

I really appreciate all of your help. I have some pictures and can send if anyone would be willing to PM me their email address. =-)

-Ryan

DFC

The cab back is more vertical than the coupe, but I honestly do not have any experience fitting a seat in a coupe. The red line on the seat is parallel to the ground (as it is supposed to be) in the installation in the pic. I do have a towel under the seat (with the seat and back removed), and I removed the base of the Britax. I think the towel helps because everything is very firm so the towel helps to "seat" the car seat in place.

I can't tell you about the seat bottom extending because the seat is not in the car at the moment, and I just can't remember at the moment.

ryangambrill

thanks. Hopefully someone with a coupe can chime in on this thread. =-)

Ray S

Wow, my rear seat ('02 coupe) has a lot more room than that cab shot

ryangambrill

do you have any photos or advice? Should I post the pictures of my scenario?

DFC

Ray - the cab back is much more vertical than the coupe so the seat has to be more forward to get the angle correct. Fortunately, it's usually my wife or my daughter in the car. They can both fit, but not for a long trip!

Ryan - some pics would always help.

ryangambrill

Here are some photos:

In the first photo I placed the carseat as far back as I could and the belt does not fit in the proper position. The next two photos show the space behind the seat when I move the seat to the proper position so that I can have the belt in the proper location in the seat.

Any thoughts?

http://i314.photobucket.com/albums/l...l/IMG_1050.jpg
http://i314.photobucket.com/albums/l...l/IMG_1051.jpg
http://i314.photobucket.com/albums/l...l/IMG_1052.jpg

Wellardmac

To me it looks like you need to put your seats back in. I know that my recaro doesn't fit as well if I take out the bottom seat pad - looks similar.

Wellardmac

Okay, here's an update. I graduated my youngest from our rear facing Graco seats into the front facing Recaros today. At the same time I moved my oldest into booster seats in all of our cars.

I already had a Britax Parkway for the Porsche, but bought Evenflo Big Kid booster seats for the other cars. When I tried putting one of the Evenflo sears into the p-car I found that it seat was too high on the back to fit in place, so here's an example of a booster seat that does not fit into the 996.