Front Seat Recliner problems of the 1999 Chevrolet Suburban

Seat back adjustment lever frays seat belt. The lever that is used to release the seat back for adjustment often catches the seat belt making it difficult to put on. Pulling on the belt has caused the belt to fray slightly. I swapped the levers side-for-side correcting the problem. As originally installed, the drivers lever was labeled r and the passenger lever was labeled l. I believe they were incorrectly installed at the factory.

The rear seat which provides access to the rear most seating, flips forward and slides forward, upon release of a lever. This component failed due to faulty design in the first 10 minutes we owned the car. The seat latch would not release (the metal "l" shaped bar - fell out of the hole in the lever mechanism). Driving home from the dealership, we needed to brake suddenly and the seat latch gave way, the seat flew forward with our child in the seat - the seatbelt restrained the child from moving forward - but the seat was free to move forward - crushing our child between the seat and the seatbelt. She screamed in pain and was scared to ride in this seat. The seat latch caught again after braking when our son in the seat behind her pulled her loose seat back until it latched again. However, when we pulled over - the latch failed to activate and release the seat to let everyone out of the back seat. This is a clear manufacturer's defect as it occured coincidentally in another Suburban that we were considering buying the day before. We need this seat due to our family size. We must request a recall and remedy to this defective latch system design before a child is seriously injured or killed.

We purchased this vehicle in March of 2001. The seat latch that slides the seat forward began to give us problems. We took the casing off of the base of the seat and found that the release lever had been worn to the point that it no longer releases the seat to slide forward. In the event of a emergency I would not be able to get my children out of the rear seat of the car quickly. Car easily.