Anyone have kids? Rear seatbelt question

[adam12hicks]

Hey guys, I have a 4 year old and a 6 year old who use booster seats in the back. It's a real pain in the butt to get the seatbelts to snap into the slot opening of the recessed female end. Has anyone else had this problem? The center receptacle is extended and much easier to work.

Do the two side seatbelt receptacles from up and out from the rear seat any more at all or should I look for some type of 3-4" extension?

Any advice is appreciated!

[mmpredmo]

I have the same issue - have to slide the booster seat over to latch the seatbelt. I don't know of any way to make it easier. My oldest daughter sometimes uses the center buckle as it is easier for her and my youngest has to let me belt her in.

[adam12hicks]

well something like this would be ideal, but I wonder if the plugs are universal or if BMW uses a funky male end that would be specific to the brand?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/NEW-S...spagenameZWDVW

[adam12hicks]

Ok this is ridiculous... here's our option, but check out the price. Talk about some serious markup! This is a $20-$30 part at best..

http://www.bavauto.com/se1.asp?dept_id=386#top

Hmm wonder where the factory is in China that makes these....

[TowX]

Originally Posted by mmpredmo

I have the same issue - have to slide the booster seat over to latch the seatbelt. I don't know of any way to make it easier. My oldest daughter sometimes uses the center buckle as it is easier for her and my youngest has to let me belt her in.

Same problem with the booster for my 5 1/2 yr old. It's a royal pain to have to slide the seat outward to be able to access the buckle. FWIW the 528 is exactly the same problem. Would love to find a solution to this very obvious design deficiency.

[mmpredmo]

It's a pain but not $145 per side worth. That is insane.

[mmpredmo]

I found this on ifisher.com - may be worth a try:

We went car shopping, and were interested in a used 2000 BMW X5. The belt wasn't long enough, so we spoke to the BMW service/parts department. They found out that the X5 was available with an "extended length" seat belt, but BMW of North America said that ALL X5s in the US already came with this extended length seatbelt as standard equipment. (I'd hate to see the short one then!) We traced the outline of the buckle, and went looking at seat belts on all the American car dealers (Ford, Chevy, Buick, etc.) We found that the some versions of the Chevy Tahoe seemed to have a compatible buckle, and the Chevy dealer gave us a couple of extenders to try on the BMW. One of them was a tight fit, and seemed to work. It fit better after we filed away a bit of the plastic trim, being careful not to touch any of the metal which provides the strength of the buckle. (We returned the other extenders which didn't fit to the Chevy dealer.) The Chevy dealer said that there were at least two or three different part numbers, so anyone ordering might want to order all of the possibilities and plan on returning the ones that don't work, rather than ordering one at a time and waiting. ---Jonathan

[Nat]

Yeah.Just found the same problem today:-( my daughter is complaining that she doesn't like this car:-)

[cat97628]

Yes I have the same problem as well. I beleive the belts have been recessed so the seat can fold flat without messing up the leather. Maybe we should work on a group buy from bav auto.

[StanF18]

Originally Posted by TowX

Same problem with the booster for my 5 1/2 yr old. It's a royal pain to have to slide the seat outward to be able to access the buckle. FWIW the 528 is exactly the same problem. Would love to find a solution to this very obvious design deficiency.

Ditto! I just sort of assumed it was something wrong on my end, until I read this thread. Refreshing to see that I'm not the only one having this problem with the booster.

Yeah, the $145 price on the latch extension from Bavauto is outrageous. NO WAY I'm coughing up that much for a dinky little belt extension.
If someone can find a cheaper solution I'm all for it.