2004 SUBARU LEGACY Owners Manual

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Seat, seatbelt and SRS airbags
effective in preventing or reducing injury. y
Place the lap belt as low as possible on the
child’s hips. A high-positioned lap belt will in-
crease the risk of sliding under the lap belt and
of the lap belt sliding up over the abdomen, and
both can result in serious internal injury or
death. y Make sure the shoulder belt is positioned
across the center of child’s shoulder. Placing
the shoulder belt over the neck may result in
neck injury during sudden braking or in a colli-
sion.
„ Installation of child restraint systems
by use of lower and tether anchorages (LATCH)
yChild restraint systems and seatbelts can be-
come hot in a vehicle that has been closed up
in sunny weather; they could burn a small child.
Check the child restraint system before you
place a child in it.y Do not leave an unsecured child restraint
system in your vehicle. Unsecured child re- straint systems can be thrown around inside of
the vehicle in a sudden stop, turn or accident; it
can strike and injure vehicle occupants as well
as result in serious injuries or death to the
child.
When you install a child restraint system, fol-
low the manufacturer’s instructions supplied
with it. After installing the child restraint sys-
tem, check to ensure that it is held securely in
position. If it is not held tight and secure, the
danger of your child suffering personal injury in
the event of an accident may be increased.
Some types of child restraint systems can be installed
on the rear seat of your vehicle without use of the seat-
belts. Such child restraint systems are secured to the
dedicated anchorages provided on the vehicle body.
The lower and tether anchorages are sometimes re-
ferred to as the LATCH system ( Lower Anchors and
T ethers for CHildren).

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Your vehicle is equipped with four lower anchorages
(bars) and three upper anchorages (tether anchorag-
es) for accommodating such child restraint systems. The lower anchorages (bars) are used for installing a
child restraint system only on the rear seat window-
side seating positions. For each window-side seating
position, two lower anchorages are provided.
Each lower anchorage is located where the seat cush-
ion meets the seatback.
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Seat, seatbelt and SRS airbags
The tether anchorages (upper anchorages) are pro-
vided for all the seating positions (middle and both
window-side ones) of the rear seat.
You will find marks “ ” at the bottom of the rear
seat seatbacks. These marks indicate the positions of
the lower anchorages (bars).
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Each lower anchorage is located where the seat cush-
ion meets the seatback.
When you install a child restraint system, fol-
low the manufacturer’s instructions supplied
with it. After installing the child restraint sys-
tem, check to ensure that it is held securely in
position. If it is not held tight and secure, the
danger of your child suffering personal injury in
the event of an accident may be increased. 1. Use the “Child” marks to locate the two lower an-
chorages (bars) for the position where you want to in-
stall the child restraint system.
2. While following the instructions supplied by the
child restraint system manufacturer, connect the low-
er hooks onto the lower anchorages located at “ ”
marks on the bottom of the rear seatback. When the
hooks are connected, make sure the adjacent seat-
belts are not caught.
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Seat, seatbelt and SRS airbags
3. [If your child restraint system is of a flexible attach-
ment type (which uses tether belts to connect the child
restraint system properly to the lower anchorages)]
While pushing the child restraint into the seat cushion,
pull both left and right lower tether belts up to secure
the child restraint system firmly by taking up the slack
in the belt.
4. Connect the top tether hook to the tether anchor-
age and firmly tighten the tether.
For information on how to set the top tether, read the
following “Top tether anchorages”.
5. Before seating a child in the child restraint system,
try to move seat back and forth and left and right to
verify that it is held securely in position.
6. To remove the child restraint system, follow the re-
verse procedures of installation.
If you have any question concerning this type of child
restraint system, ask your SUBARU dealer. „
Top tether anchorages
Your vehicle is equipped with three top tether anchor-
ages so that a child restraint system having a top teth-
er can be installed in the rear seat. When installing a
child restraint system using top tether, proceed as fol-
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lows, while observing the instructions by the child re-
straint system manufacturer.
Since a top tether can provide additional stability by of-
fering another connection between a child restraint
system and the vehicle, we recommend that you use
a top tether whenever one is required or available. T
Anchorage location
Sedan
A) Center anchorage
B) Left (right) anchorage
TOP TETHER
A B
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Seat, seatbelt and SRS airbags
Station wagon
A) Center anchorage
B) Left (right) anchorage
Three anchorages, i.e., ones for the right, center and
left positions, are already installed on the rear shelf (on Sedan) or on the rear edge of the roof (on Station
wagon). T
To hook the top tether
V Sedan
1. Remove the headrest at the seating position where
the child seat has been installed with the seatbelt or
lower anchorages; lift up the headrest while pressing
the release button.
Store the headrest in the cargo area. Avoid placing the
headrest in the passenger compartment to prevent it
from being thrown around in the passenger compart-
ment in a sudden stop or a sharp turn.
TOP TETHER
A B
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2. Fasten the top tether hook of the child restraint sys-
tem to the appropriate upper anchorage. 3. Tighten the top tether securely.
Do not route the top tether over the headrest. It
may happen that the top tether cannot be fas-
tened tightly.
When the child restraint system is to be se-
cured using the top tether, pass the top tether
under the headrest between the headrest stay
posts. If the top tether still cannot be fastened
tightly, remove the headrest.
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