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When Do Car Seats Expire?
Updated Cars & Driving
Where to find the date
- A sticker on the side or back of the seat, listing manufacture date and sometimes an explicit expiration date.
- A date molded into the plastic shell on some models.
- The manual or the manufacturer's site if the sticker is worn off, using the model number.
Why seats expire at all: the plastic and harness webbing degrade with heat, cold, UV, and years of buckling. Crash standards and designs also change. An expired seat may still look fine, which is why the date — not appearance — is the cutoff manufacturers publish.
Typical ranges
| Kind of seat | Common expiration window |
|---|---|
| Infant carrier | often around 6 years from manufacture |
| Convertible / all-in-one | often 7–10 years |
| Booster | often 8–10 years |
These are model-specific — always use the date on your seat rather than a generic number.
Used and after-crash seats: a seat that has been in a moderate or severe crash should be replaced even if it hasn't hit the expiration date (check the manufacturer's crash-replacement policy). For secondhand seats, only use one with a readable manufacture date, all parts, and no unknown crash history.
This is product-label guidance from manufacturers and child-passenger-safety programs, not a substitute for your state's car-seat law or a CPST inspection if you need help installing a current, unexpired seat.
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