Help - Disassembly Cozy n Safe Morgan Please

[ChrisHW]

I bought a Cozy N Safe Morgan swivel car seat and wanted to get inside to remove the top tether because it wasn't needed and is just in the way and would stop it swivelling. It looked like I could get inside by unscrewing 4 screws behind the backrest. Unfortunately this didn't make it accessible and 2 metal bits came off and I now can't see where they came from because I still can't get in to the back.
Does anyone have disassembly instructions? The user guide doesn't help at all and I can't see how to get in the back to put them back in place.
Yes, I know I was stupid so that doesn't need pointing out again, but I am here now and want to rectify it.
Thanks for any information.

[BertieBotts]

I don't think you're meant to take those bits off might be the issue, so I don't know that you'll find any guide to how to put them back on. Generally with car seats they are not designed for the user to take them apart, the cover might come off for cleaning and that's normally it, you are not expected to carry out any repairs or alterations due to them having to pass quite strict requirements. It's probably a sealed unit and you won't be able to access where they have come out from. My guess is that part is probably assembled before the whole thing is put together. You'll have to contact Cozy n Safe to see if they can advise you.

The top tether is very much needed BTW, it must be used with the top tether unless you're using the seat in high backed booster mode. At this point though, the tether should be able to be tucked out of the way somewhere, you shouldn't remove it, in case you need to use it for a younger child later.

It is a pain that they make these seats where the tether stops it swivelling, I think it's very poor marketing. They either don't care that they are selling it as a swivel seat when it's not, or they don't expect people to use the tether, they only include it so it passes the crash test. I hope not that, but I wouldn't put it past some of the companies looking at their marketing.

The problem is that the tether provides a third point of anchorage into the vehicle and there has been at least one case where a seat like this breaks off the base in a crash, because the tether was not attached.

[ChrisHW]

Thanks, I thought the same thing about the tether. If it's required, then it's not a swivel seat. In which case, if all child seats need the tether then does a swivel seat actually exist?
Yes, I realise now that those screws aren't meant to come out, but there is a flimsy cover on the back which looks like it can come off, exposing where I can get to the rails to put them back where they belong. I can see some clips inside looking from the front which will allow the back to come off but I just don't want to break it by trying the wrong way to open it up.
Having said that, everything appears to operate as normal without them, so I'm not exactly sure what they are for.

[BertieBotts]

Most of the swivel seats use a support leg instead of the tether, so it doesn't get in the way. Rather than holding the top of the seat back, it holds the bottom of the seat up and prevents it from tipping. What they are designed to avoid is forward rotation, the seat is affixed by the two isofix points which are at the base of the seat, so in a crash the child's weight is mostly above these and the whole seat will tilt forwards, which is dangerous as it moves the child forward too and they can hit their head on the front seat, which is usually fatal for children at crash speeds. With isofix seats, you can have either the leg or the tether, but you must have one or the other, and where they exist they need to be used.

Top tether works well with fixed, forward facing seats. It doesn't work well with spin seats and it doesn't work that well for rear facing in general. Although this seat is designed that you can swivel it with the tether attached in rear facing mode. Top tether is cheaper to produce than a support leg, so you see it on the cheaper brands usually. They try to cram all the keywords into the same product - swivel, isofix, all stages, side impact protection, extended rear facing - and they rarely deliver.

I have no idea what those metal parts are for but given it's a budget model I would assume that they aren't in there for no reason, and would be reluctant to use it without them in case they do some kind of securing the straps in place or something. It might be that they seem to work fine in day to day adjustment and use but it could be in a crash situation that it matters.

If you wanted to change it for something else, Graco Turn2Me is probably the best deal on a spin seat at the moment, £135 on amazon and you have the support leg. It can also rear face longer than the Cozy n Safe, which is only rear facing up to 87cm.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08YB5G5ZW?m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21