2011 VOLKSWAGEN PASSAT Owners Manual

x Liquids, sharp objects and things that do not let the heat in the seat escape into the air, including, for example, a child restraint, a blanket, or seat covers on the seat can damage seat heating.
x If you smell an odor, immediately shut off seat heating and have it checked by an authorized Volkswagen dealer or authorized Volkswagen Service Facility.
x Never install leather upholstery on a vehicle with seat heating that originally had cloth upholstery. The seat heating elements for seats with cloth seats will overheat if the cloth upholstery is replaced with leather upholstery.
Switch off seat heating when it is not needed to help reduce unnecessary fuel consumption.
Memory seats

Fig. 68 Memory buttons on the outer side of the driver seat.

Recalling settings for driver seat and outside mirrors
x Briefly press the appropriate memory button when the vehicle is not moving, the ignition is switched off, and the driver door is open.
x OR: If the ignition is switched on and the driver door is closed, press and hold the appropriate memory button until the stored position is reached.
x The passenger-side outside mirror automatically adjusts back from the position stored for backing up when the vehicle moves forward at about 10 mph (15 km/h) or more or when the rotary knob is rotated from R into a different position.
Assigning driver seat and outside mirror settings to a vehicle key
The memory function of all vehicle keys is disabled when the vehicle is first delivered from the factory.
To enable vehicle key memory function:
x Unlock the driver door.
x Press and hold a memory button until memory position is reached.
x Press and hold the unlock button 0 on the vehicle key and then press the desired memory button at the same time within about 3 seconds. A chime sounds to confirm activation.
To disable vehicle key memory function:
x Press and hold the SET button.
x Press and hold the unlock button 0 on the vehicle key and the desired memory button at the same time within about 10 seconds. A chime sounds to confirm deactivation.
Assigning settings to an additional vehicle key
x Follow the instructions, Assigning driver seat and outside mirror settings to a vehicle key to assign the driver seat and outside mirror settings to the vehicle key.
x Unlock the vehicle with the same vehicle key.
x Adjust driver seat and outside mirrors.
x Lock the vehicle with locking button 1 in the vehicle key to store the settings.
Once the settings are stored, the driver seat and the outside mirrors move to the stored positions whenever the vehicle is unlocked with the vehicle key open button 0 and the driver door is opened. If two people use the vehicle, each of them should always use the key in which his or her personal settings have been stored.
Initializing the memory seats
The memory system must be initialized by an authorized Volkswagen dealer, an authorized Volkswagen Service Facility, or another qualified workshop in certain situations, for instance, if a new driver seat is installed.
Initializing clears all memories and assignments of the memory seat. After that, memory buttons can be reprogrammed and assigned to a vehicle key.
x Open the driver door but do not enter the vehicle.
x Adjust the seats from the outside.
x Move the angle of the backrest forward as far as it will go.
x Release the backrest adjustment switch and press it again until you hear a chime sound.
Cancellation conditions when storing settings for the memory buttons
When one of the following conditions is met, the storing process will be cancelled:
x The vehicle battery is weak or dead.
x The SET button is pressed again within about 10 seconds.
x The seat position is readjusted within about 10 seconds after pressing the SET button.

Safety belts

WARNING
Not wearing a safety belt or wearing an improperly positioned safety belt increases the risk of severe personal injury or death. Safety belts offer optimum protection only when they are used properly.
x Properly worn safety belts are the single most effective means of reducing the risk of serious injury and death in a collision or other accident. For this reason, always wear your safety belt properly and make sure all passengers wear their safety belts properly as well whenever the vehicle is moving.
x The driver must always make sure that every person in the vehicle is properly seated on a seat of his or her own, properly fastens the safety belts belonging to that seat before the vehicle starts to move, and keeps the belts properly fastened while riding in the vehicle. This applies even when just driving around town. Therefore, always wear your safety belts and make sure that everybody in your vehicle is properly restrained.
x Always secure children in the vehicle with a restraint system appropriate for their age, weight and height.
x Always fasten safety belts correctly before driving off and make sure that all passengers are properly restrained.
x Never attach the safety belt to the buckle of another seat. Attaching the safety belt to the wrong buckle will reduce safety belt effectiveness and can cause serious personal injury.
x Never let any objects or liquids get into the safety belt latch and prevent it from working properly.
x Never remove a safety belt while the vehicle is moving. Doing so will increase your risk of being injured or killed.
x Never strap more than one person, including small children, into any single safety belt.
x Never let children or babies ride sitting on your lap, and never place a safety belt over a child sitting on your lap.
x Never wear belts over rigid or breakable objects in or on your clothing, such as eyeglasses, pens, keys, etc., as these may cause injury.
x Several layers of heavy clothing (such as a coat worn over top of a sports jacket) may interfere with proper positioning of the safety belt and reduce the overall effectiveness of the system.
x Never use comfort clips or devices that create slack in the shoulder belt. However, special clips may be required for the correct use of some child restraint systems.
x Safety belts offer optimum protection only when the seat backrest is upright and belts are correctly positioned on the body.

WARNING
Damage to safety belts reduces their overall effectiveness and increases the risk of serious personal injury and death whenever the vehicle is being used.
x Never let safety belts become damaged by being caught in the door or seat hardware.
x Torn or frayed safety belts can tear, and damaged safety belt hardware can break in an accident.
x Inspect belts regularly for damage. If webbing, bindings, buckles, or retractors are damaged, have the belts replaced immediately with the correct replacement belts approved by Volkswagen for your vehicle, model, and model year.
x Safety belts that were subject to stress in an accident and stretched must be replaced with a correct, new safety belt, preferably by an authorized Volkswagen dealer or authorized Volkswagen Service Facility.
x Replacement after a crash may be necessary even if a safety belt shows no visible damage. Anchorages that have been loaded must also be inspected.
x Damaged safety belts must be replaced; they cannot be repaired.
x Never try to repair a damaged safety belt yourself. Never remove or modify the safety belts in any way.
x Have safety belts, bindings, retractors and buckles replaced by an authorized Volkswagen dealer or authorized Volkswagen Service Facility.
x Always keep the belts clean. Dirty belts may not work correctly and can impair the function of the inertia reel.
Warning light

Fig. 69 Warning light in the instrument cluster.

The safety belt warning lighticomes on for 6 seconds when the ignition is switched on. A warning chime also sounds for up to 6 seconds if the driver's safety belt is not buckled. The chime stops sooner if the driver buckles his or her safety belt. The warning light and the chime go out when both driver and front passenger have bucked their safety belts.
If the driver and front seat passenger do not both fasten their safety belts within about 24 seconds after the chime stops and the vehicle is moving at a speed of more than about 15 mph (25 km/h), the chime will again sound for about 6 seconds, then go off for about 24 seconds, then sound again for about another 6 seconds. The same thing happens if one of the safety belts is fastened and then unfastened while the vehicle is moving. The safety belt warning light i also flashes. The warning chime continues to sound at 24 second intervals for up to 2 minutes. No chime sounds at speeds of less than about 5 mph (8 km/h).
If the ignition is switched on, the safety belt warning light ª stays on until the driver and front passenger have both buckled their safety belts.
WARNING
Not wearing a safety belt or wearing an improperly positioned safety belt increases the risk of severe personal injury or death. Safety belts offer optimum protection only when used correctly.
Frontal collisions and laws of physics

Fig. 70 A vehicle with passengers not wearing safety belts approaches a wall.

Fig. 71 A vehicle with passengers not wearing safety belts hits a wall.

The physical principles of a frontal collision are simple. Both the moving vehicle and the passenger
possess energy ⇒ fig. 70, which varies with vehicle speed and body weight. Engineers call this energy “kinetic energy.”
The higher the speed of the vehicle and the greater the vehicle's weight, the more energy has to be “absorbed” in a crash.
Vehicle speed is the most significant factor. If your speed doubles (for example, from 15 mph to 30 mph - 25 km/h to 50 km/h), the energy increases 4 times!
Because the occupants of the vehicle in the above example are not using safety belts, they are not “attached” to the vehicle. In a frontal collision, they will keep moving at the same speed the vehicle was moving just before the crash, until something stops them - here, the inside of the passenger compartment. Because the occupants of the vehicle in the example are not wearing safety belts, their
entire kinetic energy will be absorbed by impact with the wall ⇒ fig. 71.
The same principles apply to people in a vehicle that is in a frontal collision on the highway. Even at city speeds of 20–30 mph (30–50 km/h), the forces acting on the body can reach one ton (2,000 lbs or 1,000 kg) or more. At greater speeds, these forces are even higher.
Of course, the laws of physics don't apply just to frontal collisions; they determine what happens in all kinds of accidents and collisions.
What happens to passengers not wearing a safety belt

Fig. 72 The unbelted driver is thrown forward.

Fig. 73 Unbelted passengers in the rear seats are thrown forward on top of the belted driver.