Wheels and tyres
224Changing wheels around
If the front tyres are worn considerably more than the rear ones it is advisable
to change them around as shown ⇒page 223, fig. 152. All the tyres will then
last for about the same time.
Wheel balance
The wheels on new vehicles are balanced. However, various factors encoun-
tered in normal driving can cause them to become unbalanced, which results
in steering vibration.
Unbalanced wheels should be rebalanced, as they otherwise cause excessive
wear on steering, suspension and tyre s. A wheel must also be rebalanced
when a new tyre is fitted.
Incorrect wheel alignment
Incorrect wheel alignment causes excessiv e tyre wear, impairing the safety of
the vehicle. If tyres show excessive wear, you should have the wheel align-
ment checked by an Authorised Service Centre.
WARNING
There is a serious danger of accidents if a tyre bursts during driving!•
The tyres must be replaced at the latest when the tread is worn down to
the tread wear indicators. Failure to do so could result in an accident. Worn
tyres do not grip well at high speeds on wet roads. There is also a greater
risk of “aquaplaning”.
•
At continuously high speeds, a tyre with insufficient pressure flexes
more. This causes it to overheat. This can cause tread separation and tyre
blow-out. Risk of accident. Always observe the recommended tyre pres-
sures.
•
If tyres show excessive wear, you should have the running gear checked
by an Authorised Service Centre.
•
Keep chemicals such as oil, fuel and brake fluid away from tyres.
•
Damaged wheels and tyres must be replaced immediately!
For the sake of the environment
Under-inflated tyres will increase fuel consumption.Puncture proof tyres
Anti-puncture tyres allow you to continue driving even with a
punctured tyre, in the majority of cases.Vehicles that are factory-fitted with puncture proof tyres
21)
indicate
on the instrument panel when there is a loss of tyre pressure.
Driving with anti-puncture tyres (emergency gear)
– Leave the ESP/TCS (electronic stabilisation programme) switched on, or switch on ⇒page 173.
– Continue driving carefully and slowly (80 km/h maximum).
– Avoid sudden manoeuvres and sharp turns.
– Avoid driving over obstacles (for example kerbs) or potholes.
– Look out for the ESP/TCS intervening often, smoke coming from the tyres or the smell of rubber, the vehicle vibrating or a clat-
tering noise. If any of these occur, stop the vehicle.
The anti-puncture tyres have a tag on the side of the tyre, with the description:
“DSST”, “Eufonia”, “RFT”, “ROF”, “RSC”, “SSR” or “ZP”.
The sides of this type of tyre are reinforced. When the tyres lose air they are
supported on the sides (emergency driving).21)Depending upon version and country.
leon ingles.book Seite 224 Dienst ag, 11. September 2007 1:47 13
Index297
Seat belts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
adjustment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Incorrectly fastened . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Not worn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Safety notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Warning lamp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Seat belts protect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Seat heating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Seats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Selective opening* . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Selector lever locking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Selector lever positions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Self directional headlights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Service interval display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
servotronic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Shoes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Side airbags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Safety notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Side lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Sitting position Driver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Front passenger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Incorrect sitting position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Passengers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Sitting position, occupants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Sliding/tilting roof . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Snow chains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228, 265 Soot accumulation in the
diesel engine particulate
filter *
Indicator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Spare wheel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
Starting Petrol engines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Starting the engine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155, 156 After the fuel tank has been run dry . . . . . . 157
Steam cleaners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
Steering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 Steering lock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Steering wheel audio controls audio + telephone version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
audio version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Steering wheel controls Lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Steering wheel height adjustment . . . . . . . . . . 152
Stowage area Other stowage areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Stowage compartment Front passenger side . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Stowage compartments Front left hand side seat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Sun visors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Sunroof . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Sunroof blind Sliding/tilting roof . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Switch Hazard warning lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 Switches
Electric windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Electrical exterior mirrors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Sliding/tilting roof . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Switching off the engine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
TTailgate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 Emergency opening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Warning lamp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Tank fuel level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
reserve indicator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
tank capacity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
TCS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
TCS (Traction control system) Warning lamp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
The danger of not using the seat belt . . . . . . . . 22
Tightening torque of wheel bo lts . . . . . . . . . . . 265
To fold down the seat back . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Tow starting Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
Towing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
Towing a trailer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
Towing bracket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Towing bracket, fitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Towing eye . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
Tow-starting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
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Index
298Traction control system
warning lamp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Trailer Trailer towing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Trailer eyes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
Trailer turn signals Indicator lamps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Warning lamp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Trailer weights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
Turn signals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 Warning lamp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76, 118
Turning on the emergency indicators . . . . . . . 116
Type plate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
Tyre Mobility-System (Tyre repair kit) . . . . . . . 230
Tyre monitor indicator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Tyre pressure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221 Loss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Tyre pressure monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
Tyre pressures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
Tyre repair kit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230, 237
Tyre-Mobility-System (Tyre repair kit) . . . . . . . 237
Tyres and wheels Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Tyres service life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Tyres tread depth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Tyres with directional tread pattern . . . . . . . . . 221UUnderbody sealant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196 USB* connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Using the Tiptronic gear syst
em . . . . . . . . . . . 163
VVehicle battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
Vehicle data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
Vehicle identification data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
Vehicle identification number . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
Vehicle paint
Car care products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Vehicle tools Storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Vehicle wallet storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Ventilation slits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Volumetric sensor* Activation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Deactivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103WWarning lamp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Warning lamps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Warning reportsRed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Yellow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Warning texts in the display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Warning triangle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Washer fluid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
Washing by hand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Washing the vehicle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191 Washing with high pressure cleaners . . . . . . . 192
Water
warning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Water in the windscreen washer tank . . . . . . . 214
Wear indicators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Wheel bolts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233, 265 Torque . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
Wheel change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Wheel trims . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
Wheels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221, 264
Why assume the correct sitting position? . . . . . 30
Why should head restraints be correctly adjusted? 13
Why wear seat belts? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19, 21
Why wear seatbelts? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Windscreen washer fluid Warning lamp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Windscreen wiper blades Cleaning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Windscreen wipers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 Changing the front blades . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Changing the rear blade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
Winter driving Diesel engine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
Winter tyres . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Wiper/wash automatic function . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Working in the engine compartment . . . . . . . . 204
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