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my lads got a mk2 focus, its not isofix. theyve bought an isofix car seat (joie 360 shown below)
they bought an isofix adaptor from amazon i think, but cant suss out how to fix it. its similar to below.
so.....ive been out to look at it and the seat and adaptor dont appear to be compatible. apparently those adaptors need some sort of harness to go over the top of the seat and down the other side to clip into that centre hole. the baby seat doesnt have that.
have i got that right? and if so can you get 'universal' harness straps that will fit onto the baby seat, or are they going to have to bin the adaptor and buy a different type? i guess that any adaptor will need screwing to the chassis unless its the 'over the top harness strap' type, so are they better of just swapping baby seats?
must admit ive never had to look at anything like this before so its all new to me, advice greatly appreciated please.
cheers
Double post edit
Just get a non isofix seat. That adaptor looks both lethal and non tested....
Wexiang
That well known baby car seat manufacturer.....
to be fair thats just a lookalike pic i found, its not the adaptor they actually bought. but..... its similar.
i think theyve got a non-isofix seat too but thought that isofix was safer, hence buying the seat. maybe should have done a bit of homework first.
thanks
Isofix is safer because it's much harder to fit it wrong and it's much quicker to take in and out.
How ever some of the safest tested car seats are not isofix.
But one thing's sure. It'll be no safer attached to some bodged up bracket.....quick Google shows there to be non availible outside of eBay or Amazon/Ali express etc..... You'd expect the big companies to be cashing in on those if it was as simple as that.....rather than making 2 ranges of seats.
Also check. Many isofix car seats fit both with and without. Our first and second seats did. Our current ones non isofix.
Our kids have Britax seats that are both isofix and none-isofix compatible, for cars without isofix points, there are places on the seat that the car's seatbelt fits into, holding it tight. the seat above doesn't have anything like that. My advice is 100% to return the seat and get the right one. Can't take chances with these things.
Take the seat off the base and some will let you thread the seat belt trough that but don't bodge it with some random lump of metal.
We had the joie 360 spin seat. Great seat but it didn't fit in my vw t5. I wouldn't dream of buying an adapter to use it, especially not from amazon via China.
As above, take the seat back and buy a non isofix seat or a new car.
If he's anywhere near West Yorkshire you can have my old non isofix one that was in my t5, Hardly used.
There is an isofix bracket for the mk2 Focus that looks identical to one I fitted to a Volvo S40. The one I got was a genuine Volvo part from a main dealer and it bolted into pre-existing holes designed for that purpose.
Not sure I would have felt safe using something off Amazon.
My wife had ISOFIX points welded into her Focus at the Ford dealer. Less than £50 if I recall. That thing above looks very unsafe.. 😮
I would either get ISOFIX mounts properly fitted or swap the seat for one that uses a seatbelt. 👍
thank you very much everybody, looks like a clean sweep of advice for not using the adaptor and using a different seat.
and thanks for the offer damascus, but we're in lincoln, so not that close. i think they have a non-isofix seat that they can use, they just thought this way would be safer. they were wrong 🙂
i'll pass that info on to them, and thanks again.
You can buy a new Ford IsoFix bracket for a MK2 Focus for £15. (make sure your car has the threaded mounting holes)
Some cars are IsoFix compatible, but the brackets were an option extra so can safely be retrofitted.
The middle bracket is only for car seats with top tethers.
We've got a Joie 360 spin and nothing attaches to middle hook with that carseat. They don't have a 'top tether' and instead use the leg at the front that goes into the footwell to support. The seat will just clip onto the two outer bars.
Isofix isn't necessarily safer, but is harder to mess up fitting Vs a seatbelt.
Isofix adopter brackets can be safely retrofit, however I would personally use and 'official' kit rather than an unknown quantity off eBay/Amazon.
The most significant factors to safety are: keep them rear facing for as long as possible; and, make sure their harness is the correct tightness
Speak to a ford dealer, you should be able to add isofix easily.
It would be that, or a new car for me.
So there are 2 kinds of isofix seat. Most just use the clips at the bottom but some have a top tether (instead of that leg going to the floor) that goes over the top of the seat back and down to a tethering point. I would say that adapter is just offering compatibility with tethered seats, which the official ford one doesn't.
Using an aftermarket bracket obviously has risks, but if it's well designed the loads are over a small area and not leveraged much
You can buy a new Ford IsoFix bracket for a MK2 Focus for £15. (make sure your car has the threaded mounting holes)
Some cars are IsoFix compatible, but the brackets were an option extra so can safely be retrofitted.
thats interesting, thanks. do you have a link to a vid or pic maybe that shows where these threaded holes would be so that he can check?
cheers
thats interesting, thanks. do you have a link to a vid or pic maybe that shows where these threaded holes would be so that he can check?
cheers
There are videos on youtube, google "mk2 focus isofix", also info on various forums.
The holes have rubber covers on them