Table of Contents
Advertisement
Airb a g syste m
Airbag
system
Important
things
to
know
Importance of wearing safety belts and
sitting properly
Airbags are only supplemental restraints . For
airbags to do their job , occupants must always
properly wear their safety belts and be in a prop-
er seating position.
For your safety and the safety of your passen-
gers, before driving off, always:
.,. Adjust the dr iver's seat and steering wheel
proper ly ¢
page 87,
.,. Adjust the front passenger's seat properly
¢ page 88 ,
.,. Wear safety be lts proper ly ¢
page 9
7,
.,. Always properly use the proper child restra int
to protect children ¢
page 122 .
In a collision airbags must inflate within the blink
of an eye and with cons iderable force. The sup-
plemental a irbags can cause injuries if the driver
or the front seat passenger are not seated prop-
erly . Therefore in order to help the airbag to do
its job, it is important, both as a dr iver and as a
passenger to sit properly at all times.
By keep ing room between your body and the
steer ing wheel and the front of the passenger
compartment,
the airbag can inflate fully and
comp lete ly and provide supp lemental protec t ion
in certa in fronta l collisions ¢
page 87, Proper
oc-
cupant seating positions .
For de t ails on the oper-
ation of the seat adjustment controls ¢
page 57 .
It's especially important t hat childre n are proper-
ly res t rained
¢ page 122 .
There is a lot that the driver and the passenger
can and must do to help the ind ividual safety fea-
tures insta lled in your Audi work together as a
system.
Proper seat ing pos ition is important so that t he
front airbag on the dr iver side can do its job . If
you have a phys ical impairment o r condition that
prevents you from sitt ing properly on the driver
seat with the safety be lt properly fastened and
102
reaching the pedals, or if you have concerns with
regard to the function or operatio n of the Ad-
vanced Airbag System, please contact your a u-
thori zed Audi dea ler or qua lified workshop, or
call Audi Customer Relations at 1-800-822-2834
for poss ible modifications to your vehicle .
When the airbag system dep loys, a gas generator
will fill the airbags, break open the padded cov-
ers, and inflate between the steering wheel and
the driver and between the instrument panel and
the front passenger . The airbags will deflate im-
med iate ly after deployment so that the front oc-
cupants can see t hrough the windshield aga in
without inte rruption .
All of th is takes place in the blink of an eye , so
fast that many people don't even realize that the
a irbags have deployed. The airbags also inflate
with a grea t deal of force and nothing sho uld be
in the ir way when they dep loy. Front a irbags in
combination with properly worn safety belts slow
down and limit the occ upant's forward move-
ment . Together they he lp to prevent the driver
and passenger from hitt ing parts of the inside
the vehicle while reducing the forces act ing on
the occupant during the crash . In this way they
help to reduce the risk of injury to the head and
upper body in the crash. Airbags do not protect
the arms or the lowe r parts of the body.
Both front a irbags will not inflate in all fronta l
collisions. The t rigge ring of the a irbag system de-
pends on the veh icle deceleration rate caused by
the coll ision a nd registe red by the elec t ronic con-
trol unit . If th is rate is below the reference val ue
programmed into the contro l unit , the airbags
will not be t rigge red , even thoug h the car may be
badly damaged as a result of t he collisio n. Vehi-
cle damage, repair costs or even the lack of vehi-
cle damage is not necessarily an indication of
whether an a irbag should infla t e or not .
It is not possib le to define a range of vehicle
speeds that w ill cover every possib le kind and an-
gle of impact that will always trigger the a irbags,
s ince the circums t ances w ill vary considerably be-
tween one collision and another . Important fac -
tors include, for example, the natu re (ha rd or
soft) of the object wh ich the car hits, the angle of
impact, vehicle speed , etc. The front airbag s will .,.
Advertisement
Table of Contents
