Page 17 of 306

SA
FETY FIRST
Don't rely on airbags alone for protection.
Even when they deploy, airbags provide
only supplemental protection. Airbags are
not supposed to deploy in all kinds of acci
dents. Although your Audi is equipped with
airbags for the driver and front seat passen
ger, all vehicle occupants, including the
driver, still have to wear safety belts- re
gardless of whether their seating position
has an airbag.
Remember too, that airbags will deploy only
once and that your safety belts are always
there to offer protection in those accidents
in which airbags are not supposed to deploy
or when they have already deployed.
Unbelted occupants can also be thrown out
of the car where even more severe or fatal
injuries can occur.
16 Unbelted
passengers in the rear seats en
danger not only themselves but also other
passengers. In a frontal collision they will be
thrown forward violently, where they can hit
and injure the driver or front seat passenger.
Safety belts protect
Safety belts used properly can make a big
difference. Safety belts help to keep pas
sengers in their seats, gradually reduce en
ergy levels applied to the body in an acci
dent, and help prevent the uncontrolled
movement that can cause serious injuries.
In addition, safety belts reduce the danger
of being thrown out of the car. Safety
belts attach passengers to the car
and give them the benefit of being slowed
down more gently or "softly" through the
"give" in the safety belts, crumple zones
and other safety features engineered into
today's cars. By "absorbing" the kinetic en
ergy over a longer period of time, the forces
on the body become more "tolerable" and
less likely to cause injury.
Page 18 of 306

--------------------------SAFETY FIRST
Although
these examples are based on a
frontal collision, safety belts can also sub
stantially reduce the risk of injury in other
types of accidents. So, whether you are on
a long trip or just going to the corner store,
always buckle up and make sure others do,
too.
Accident statistics show that vehicle occu
pants properly wearing safety belts have a
lower risk of being injured and a much bet
ter chance of surviving an accident. Prop
erly using safety belts also greatly increases
the ability of the suppleme ntal airbags to do
their job in an accident. For this reason,
wearing a safety belt is legally required in
most countries including much of the
United States and Canada.
The following pages provide important in
structions to enable you to use safety belts
properly. Be aura to read and follow
the instructions carefully. Heed all
WA RNINGS. To
further increase the safety for the front
passengers, the vehicle is equipped with a
supplemen tal airbag system. See page 25.
The safety belts provided must neverthe
less be worn because the front airbags are
activated only in some frontal collisions. The
front airbags are not activated by minor fron
tal collisions, side and rear collisions, in roll
overs or in some cases where there is not
enough deceleration through impact to the
front of the vehicle.
I B1H-124 I
Belt warning system
Yo ur vehicle has a warn ing light for the driv-
er to remind you to wear the safety belt
After the ignition is switched on, the warn
ing light in the instrument cluster will come
on for about 6 seconds along with a warning
tone. As soon as the driver has fastened the
safety belt the warning tone will stop. The
warning light, however, will stay on for '
about 6 seconds.
Fasten your safety be.lt now and
make sure that your passengers also
properly put on their safety belts.
17
Page 19 of 306

SAFETY RRST---------------------------------------------------
How to wear safety belts
properly
Safety belts must always be prop
erly positioned across the strongest
bones of your body.
�W ARNING
Always fasten your safety belts
before driving off. Always make
sure your passengers are properly
restra ined -even those sitting in
the rear.
Safety belts can work only when
used properly. Never wear safety
belts in any other way than illus
trated and described in this sec
tion. Always observe the follow
ing precautions:
• Never wear belts twisted.
18 '41
WARNING continued
• Never strap more than one par
son, including small children, into
any belt. It is especially dangerous
to place a safety belt over a child
sitting on your lap.
• Never place your feet on the in
strument panel or on the seat.
Always keep both feet on the floor
in front of the seat.
• Never wear belts over rigid or
breakable objects in or on your
clothing, such as eye glasses,
pens, keys, etc., as these may
cause injury.
• Do not wear the shoulder part of
the belt under your arm or other
wise out of position.
• Several layers of heavy clothing
may interfere with proper posi
tioning of belts and reduce the
overall effectiveness of the sys
tem. �
WARNING continued
• Never allow safety belts to be
come damaged by being caught in
door or seat hardware. Always
keep belt buckles free of any ob
struction that may prevent secure
locking.
• Never use comfort clips or de
vices that create slack in the
shoulder belt portion. However,
clips may be required for the
proper use of some child restraint
systems.
• To rn or frayed safety belts can
tear and damaged belt hardware
can break in an accident. Inspect
belts periodically.
If belts show damage to webbing,
bindings, buckles. or retractors,
have them replaced.
Page 20 of 306

fh1
WARNING continued
• Keep the belts clean.
Dirty belts may not work properly
- see also .. Cleaning and protec
tion .. page 218.
• Safety belts that have been
worn and loaded in an accident
must be replaced with the correct
replacement safety belt by an au
thorized Audi Dealer. Replace
ment may be necessary even if
damage cannot be clearly seen.
• Safety belt anchorages that
have been loaded in an accident
must be inspected by a qualified
workshop or an authorized Audi
Dealer.
• Never modify. disassemble, or
try to repair your safety belts. Seating capacity
Your Audi has 5 seating positions, 2 in the
front and 3 in the rear. Each seating position
has a safety belt.
�W ARNING
Never let more people ride in the
vehicle than there are seat belts
available. Be sure everyone riding
in the vehicle is correctly re
strained with a separate seat belt. SA
FETY FIRST
Lap- shoulder belt
The front and rear seats are equipped with
three-point safety belts.
The three-point belts in the front passenger
and rear positions each have a convertible
locking feature in addition to the emergency
locking feature. The convertible locking fea
ture is used when a child seat is installed,
see page 51.
The retractors in the combination lap-shoul
der belts allow the system to adjust to your
size and movements as long as the pull on
the belt is slow.
Hard braking or a collision locks the belt. The
belt will a I so lock when you drive up or down
a steep hill or in a sharp curve.
19
Page 21 of 306

SA
FETY RRST-----------------------------------------------------
Fastening the safety belt
• Adjust your seat before fastening
the safety belt. See page 76.
� WARN ING
Safety belts offer optimum protec
tion only when the seat back is up
right and belts are properly posi
tioned on the body. Improperly
positioned safety belts can cause
serious personal injury in an acci
dent.
20 •
To fasten, grasp belt tongue and pull the
belt in a continuous slow motion across
your chest and lap.
• Insert the belt tongue into the buckle on
the inboard side of the seat. Push down un
til it is securely locked with an audible click.
Pull belt to check!
� WARNING
• Always make sure the safety
belt tongue is inserted into the
buckle for the same seating posi
tion.
• Att aching the safety belt to the
buckle for another seat could re
duce safety belt effectiveness and
cause injury. Adjusting
shoulder seat belt
Belt height adjustment front seats
Safety belt height adjustors for the
front seats can be used to adjust the
height of the shoulder portion of the safety
belt. This feature will help you properly posi
tion the shoulder portion of the safety belt
across your shoulder.
• Press the handle slowly up or down so
that the shoulder portion of the safety belt
is positioned nearly midway over the shoul
der.
• Pull on the shoulder belt to check
whether the belt anchor is securely locked
in place.
Page 22 of 306
--------------------------SAFETY
FIRST
The shoulder belt must be positioned over
the shoulder.
It must never rest against the neck
and must fit against your body. The
lap belt must be worn low and tight
across the pelvis. Sea illustration
above.
Pull belt tight. B4D-221
- -
--· - ··--·-----··------------'
�W ARNING
• Always position your safety belt
properly over your body for maxi
mum safety. An improperly posi
tioned safety belt can cause seri
ous injury in an accident.
• Safety belts worn too loose will
fat your body move too far forward
in a crash.
A loose belt can also shift its posi
tion on your body from the strong
bones to mora vulnerable soft tis
sua and cause serious injury. �W
ARNING
Pregnant woman should espe
cially make sure to wear the lap
portion of the safety belt as low as
possible across the pelvis and be
low the rounding of the abdom en.
The best way to protect the fetus
is to protect the moth er-through
out the entire pregnancy.
21
Page 23 of 306
SA
FETY RRST---------------------------------------------------
Lateral belt adjustment outer rear
seats
Passengers sitting in the rear must position
safety belts over their body as outlined for
the front occupants.
The shoulder belt must be positioned over
the shoulder.
It must never rest against the neck
and must fit against your body. The
lap belt must be worn low and tight
across the pelvis.
See illustration above. Pull belt tight.
22 The
outer rear seats are equipped with a
lateral shoulder belt adjustment.
• To adjust the shoulder belts of the outer
seats. move the belt guide towards the
center of the vehicle for taller occupants, or
towards the outside for shorter occupants.
See symbols on the belt guide. l
Safety belt guide for the center
rear seat
The three-point belt adjusts itself to suit the
height of the occupant.
The above illustration shows the belt fitted
on a person of average height.
Page 24 of 306

For
occupants who may be smaller, the
position of the belt should be adjusted by
placing the belt in the guide, if otherwise the
belt would run across the wearer's neck
instead of over the center of the shoulder
(see illustration).
If the occupant moves a long way to one
side and the belt slides out of the gu id e . it
must be placed back in the guide by hand. Convert
ible Locking Retractor
(CLR)
The convertible locking retractor is neces
sary to secure child restraint systems.
The retractors for the front passenger's seat
and the rear seat three point safety belts are
equipped with an automatic locking feature
in addition to the emergency locking fea
ture.
If you need to install a child restraint system
on the front passenger's seat or on one of
the rear seats, it must be secured by use of
the belt after activating the locking feature
-see pages 32 and 51 for important safety
information related to the use of child re
straints on the front seat.
Activating the locking retractor
• Slowly pull the belt all the way out.
• Insert the belt tongue into the buckle for
tha t seating position (pull on it to check!)
a n d guide the rest of the belt with your hand
back in place; while doing this you should
hear a clicking sound. This sound signals
that the locking retractor has been acti
vated. SA
FETY FIRST
Deactivating the locking retractor
The locking retractor is deactivated by un
fas te n ing the safety belt and allowing the
safety belt to retract completely to its
stowed position. The safety belt can now be
used as an ordinary three-point safety belt
without the additional locking feature.
If a person sitting In the passenger
seat or rear wearing the safety belt
should activate the locking retrac
tor. then the safety belt must be un
fastened in order to deactivate the
locking retractor.
� WARN ING
Never unfasten the safety belt to
deactivate the locking retractor
while the vehicle is in motion. You
would not be protected at all and
could suffer serious injury in an ac
cident.