2012 AUDI Q7 Owner´s Manual

to reduce the risk of injury when the vehi­
cle is not be ing used.
- After closing the rear lid, always make
sure that it is properly closed and locked.
- Never leave your vehicle unattended es­
pecially with the rear lid left open . A
child could crawl into the vehicle through
the luggage compartment and close the
rear lid becoming trapped and unable to
get out . Be ing trapped in a vehicle can
lead to serious persona l injury .
- Never let children play in or around the vehicle .
- Never let passe ngers r ide in the luggage
compartment . Ve hicle occupants must
always be properly restrained in one of
the vehicle's seating positions.
(D Tips
- Air c irculation helps to reduce window
fogging . Sta le air escapes to the outside
th rough vents in the trim pane l. Be su re
to keep these slots free and open .
-The t ire pressure must correspond to the
load. The t ire pressur e is shown o n the
tire p ress ure label. The tire pressure la­
bel is loc ated on the d river's s ide B-pi ll a r.
The t ire pressure label lists the recom­
mended cold ti re inflat ion pressu res for
the vehicle at its maximum capacity
weig ht and the tires that were on you r
vehicle at the time it was man ufactured .
For recommended t ire pressures fo r nor­
mal load conditions, please see chap ter
c:> page278 .
Tie-downs
The luggage compartment is equipped with
four tie-downs to secure luggage and other
items .
Use the tie-downs to secure your cargo prop­
erly
c:> page 166, Loading the luggage com ­
partment.
In a coll is ion, the l aws of phys ics mean that
even smalle r items that are loose in the vehi­
cle will become heavy missiles that can cause
Dr iving S afel y 167
serious injury. Items in the ve hicle possess en ­
ergy which vary with vehicle speed and th e
weight o f the item . Vehicle speed is the most
s ignificant factor.
Fo r example, in a fronta l collision at a speed
of 30 mph (48 km/h), the forces acting on a
10 -lb (4.5 kg) object are about 20 t imes the
no rmal weight of the item. This means t hat
the weigh t of the item would sudden ly be
about 200 lbs. (90 kg) . You can imag ine the
i njur ies that a 200 lbs . (90 kg) item fly ing
fr eely th ro ugh the passenger compar tme nt
c ould cause in a co lli sion like this.
A WARNING
We ak, dam aged or imprope r str aps used
to secure items to tie -downs can fail dur­
ing hard braking or in a collision and cause
serio us personal injury .
-Always use s uita ble mount ing stra ps and
properly secu re items to the tie-downs in
the l uggage compa rtme nt to he lp pre­
vent items from shift ing or f ly ing fo r­
ward as dangerous missiles .
-When the rea r seat backrest is folded
down, a lways use suitable mounting
straps and properly secure items to the
tie-downs in the luggage compartment
to hel p prevent items from fly ing for­
ward as da ngerous missiles into the pas­
s enger compartment .
- Never attach a chi ld safety seat te th er
s trap to a t ie- down .
Reporting Safety
Defects
Applicable to U.S.A.
If you b elieve that your v ehi cle
has a d efe ct whi ch could cause
a crash or could cause injury or
d eath, you should imm ediately
inform the National Highway
Tr affic Safet y Admini stration ..,.
•
•

168 Driving Safely
(NHTSA) in addition to notify­
ing Audi of America, Inc.
If NHTSA receives similar com ­
plaints, it may open an investi­
gation, and if it finds that a
safety defects exists in a group
of vehicles, it may order a recall
and remedy campaign. Howev­
er , NHTSA cannot become in­
volved in individual problems
between you, your dealer, or
Audi of America, Inc.
To contact the NHTSA, you may either call :
Tel.: 1-888-327-4236 (TTY: 1-800-424-9153) or
1 -800-424-9 3 9 3
or you may write to: NHTSA
U.S . Department of Transporta­
tion
1200 New Jersey Ave., S .E.
West Building
Washington, DC 20590
You can also obtain other infor­ mation about motor vehicle
safety from:
http://www.safercar.gov Applicable to Can ada
If you live in Canada and you
believe that your vehicle has a
defect that could cause a crash ,
injury or death, you shou ld im­
mediately inform Transport
Canada, Defect Investigations
and Recalls. You should also no­
tify Volkswagen Group Canada, Inc.
Canadian customers who wish
to report a safety-related de­
fect to Transport Canada, De­
fect Investigations and Recalls,
may either call Transport Cana ­
da toll-free at:
T el. : 1-800-333-0510 or
Tel. : 1-819 -994 -3328 (Ottawa
region and from other coun­
tries)
TTY for hearing impaired: 1-888-67 5-6863
or contact Transport Canada by mai l at:
Transport Canada Motor Vehicle Safety Investiga­
tions Laboratory
80 Noe l Street
Gatineau, QC
J8Z 0Al

For additional road safety infor­
mation, please visit the Road
Safety website at:
http://www. tc .gc .ca/ e ng/
roadsafety/menu.htm
Driving Safely 169
•
•
'

1 70 Safety belts
Safety belts
General notes
Always wear safety belts!
Wearing safety belts correctly saves lives!
This chapter exp lains why safety be lts a re nec ­
essary, how they work and how to adjust and
wear them correctly .
.. Read a ll the informat ion that fo llows and
heed all of the instruct ions and WARNINGS.
A WARNING
Not wearing safety belts or wearing them
improperly increases the risk of ser ious
personal in jury and death .
- Safety belts are t he sing le most effective
means avai lab le to red uce the risk of se­
r ious injury and dea th in a utomob ile acci ­
d ents . For your p rot ection and that of
yo ur passenge rs, alw ays co rrec tly wear
s afety belts when the vehicle is moving .
- P regnant wo men, injured, or physically
im paired perso ns mu st also use safe ty
bel ts. Lik e all veh icle occup ants, they are
more like ly to be ser iously injured if they
do not wea r safety be lts . The best way to
protect a fetus is to protect the mother -
throughout the entire pregnancy.
Number of seats
Vehicles with five seats : Your vehicle has two
front seats and three rear seats. Each seating
position has a safety belt .
Vehicles with six seats:* Your vehicle has two
front seats, two seats in the second row and
two seats i n the t hird row. Each seating posi­
tion has a safety belt.
Vehicles with seven seats:* Your vehicles has
two front seats, three seats in the sec ond row
and two seats in the third row. Each seating
position has a safety belt .
A WARNING
Not wearing safety be lts or wear ing them
i mprope rly inc reases the r isk of serious
p ersonal injury and dea th.
- Never strap more than one person , in ­
cluding sma ll children, into a ny be lt . It is
esp ecia lly da nge ro us to p lace a safe ty
be lt ove r a ch ild sitt ing on your lap.
- Never let more p eopl e ride in th e vehicle
than there are safety belts availabl e .
- Be s ure everyone riding i n the vehicle is
p roperly rest rain ed w ith a separate sa fe­
ty belt o r chi ld restr aint.
Safety belt warning light
Your vehicle has a warning system for the
driver and front seat passenger (on USA mod­
els only) to remind you about the importanc e
of buckling-up.
Fi g. 1 85 Safety be lt warning lig ht in the instr ument
cl uste r -e nlar ged
Before driving off, always :
.. Fasten you r safety belt and make sure you
are wear ing it properly .
.. Mak e sur e that you r passenge rs also buck le
up and prope rly wear their safety be lts.
.. Prote ct childre n wit h a child res train t sys-
t em app ro pr ia te for the s ize and age .
T he wa rn ing lig ht . in the instrument cluster
li ghts up w hen t he ignit ion is switched on as a
rem inder to f asten the sa fe ty belts. In addi ­
t ion, you will hear a w arning to ne for a cert ain
per iod of t ime.
Fasten your safety belt and make sure that
your pa ssenger s also properly put on their
s afety belts .

,&_ WARNING
-Safety belts are the single most effective
means available to reduce the risk of se­
rious injury and death in automobile acci­
dents. For your protection and that of
your passengers, always correctly wear safety belts when the vehicle is moving .
- Failure to pay attention to the warning
light that come on, could lead to person­
al injury.
Why safety belts?
Frontal collisions and the law of physics
Frontal crashes create very strong forces for
people riding in vehicles.
Fig. 186 Unbelted occupants in a ve hicle heading for a
wall
Fig. 187 The vehicle cras hes into the wall
The physical principles are simple. Both the
vehicle and the passengers possess energy
which varies with vehicle speed and body
weight . Engineers call this energy "kinetic en­
ergy."
The higher the speed of the vehicle and the
greater the vehicle's weight, the more energy
that has to be "absorbed" in the crash.
Safety belts 1 71
Vehicle speed is the most significant factor. If
the speed doubles from 15 to 30 mph (25 to
50 km/h), the energy increases 4 times!
Because the passengers of this vehicle are not
using safety belts
¢fig. 186, they will keep
moving at the same speed the vehicle was
moving just before the crash, until something
stops them -here, the wall¢
fig. 187.
The same principles apply to people sitting in
a vehicle that is involved in a frontal collision.
Even at city speeds of 20 to 30 mph (30 to 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.
People who do not use safety belts are also
not attached to their vehicle . In a frontal colli­
sion they will also keep moving forward at the
speed their vehicle was travelling just before
the crash . Of course, the laws of physics don't
just apply to frontal collisions, they determine
what happens in all kinds of accidents and col­
lisions.

172 Safety belts
What happens to occupants not wearing
safety belts?
In crashes unbelted occupants cannot stop themselves from flying forward and being in­
jured or killed. Always wear your safety belts!
Fig. 188 A driver not wearing a safety belt is violently
thrown forward
Fig. 189 A rear passenger not wearing a safety belt
will fly forward and strike the drive r
Unbelted occupants are not able to resist the
tremendous forces of impact by holding tight
or bracing themselves. Without the benefit of
safety restraint systems, the unrestrained oc­
cupant will slam violently into the steering
wheel, instrument panel, windshield, or what­
ever else is in the way
q fig. 188. This impact
with the vehicle interior has all the energy
they had just before the crash.
Never rely on airbags alone for protection.
Even when they deploy, airbags provide only
additional protection. Airbags are not sup­ posed to deploy in all kinds of accidents. Al­
though your Audi is equipped with airbags, all
vehicle occupants, including the driver, must
wear safety belts correctly in order to mini­
mize the risk of severe injury or death in a
crash.
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 vehi­
cle where even more severe or fatal injuries
can occur .
It is also important for the rear passengers to
wear safety belts correctly. Unbelted passen­
gers in the rear seats endanger not only them­
selves but also the driver and other passen­ gers¢
fig. 189. In a frontal collision they will
be thrown forward violently, where they can
hit and injure the driver and/or front seat pas­
senger.
Safety belts protect
People think it's possible to use the hands to
brace the body in a minor collision. It's simply
not true!
Fig. 190 Driver is correctly restra ined in a sudden brak­
ing maneuver
Safety belts used properly can make a big dif­
ference. Safety belts help to keep passengers
in their seats, gradually reduce energy levels
applied to the body in an accident, and help
prevent the uncontrolled movement that can
cause serious injuries. In addition, safety belts
reduce the danger of being thrown out of the
vehicle.
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, crush zones and other safety
features engineered into today's vehicles. By
"absorbing" the kinetic energy over a longer
period of ti me, the safety belts make the
lilJJ,

forces on the body more "tolerable" and less likely to cause injury.
Although these examples are based on a fron­
tal collision , safety belts can also substantial­
ly reduce the risk of injury in other kinds of
crashes. So, whether you're on a long trip or
just going to the corner store, always buckle
up and make sure others do, too. Accident sta­
tistics show that vehicle occupants properly
wearing safety belts have a lower risk of being
injured and a much better chance of surviving
an accident . Properly using safety belts also
greatly increases the ability of the supplemen­
tal airbags to do their job in a collision. For
this reason, wearing a safety belt is legally re­
quired in most countries including much of
the United States and Canada.
Although your Audi is equipped with airbags ,
you still have to wear the safety belts provid­
ed. Front airbags, for example, are activated
only in some frontal collisions. The front air­
bags are not activated in all frontal collisions,
in side and rear collisions, in roll overs or in
cases where there is not enough deceleration
through impact to the front of the vehicle .
The same goes for the other airbag systems in
your Audi. So, always wear your safety belt
and make sure everybody in your vehicle is
properly restrained!
Important safety instructions about
safety belts
Safety belts must always be correctly posi­
tioned across the strongest bones of your
body.
.,. Always wear safety belts as illustrated and
described in this chapter.
.,. Make sure that your safety belts are always
ready for use and are not damaged.
A WARNING
Not wearing safety belts or wearing them
improperly increases the risk of serious
personal injury and death. Safety belts can
work only when used correctly .
Safety belts 173
-Always fasten your safety belts correctly
before driving off and make sure all pas­
sengers are correctly restrained.
- For maximum protection, safety belts
must always be positioned properly on
the body .
- Never strap more than one person, in­ cluding small children, into any belt .
- Never place a safety belt over a child sit­
ting on your lap.
- Always keep feet in the footwell in front
of the seat while the vehicle is being driv­
en.
- Never let any person ride with their feet
on the instrument panel or sticking out
the window or on the seat.
- Never remove a safety belt while the ve­ hicle is moving. Doing so will increase
your risk of being injured or killed .
- Never wear belts twisted.
- 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.
- Never allow safety belts to become dam­ aged by being caught in door or seat
hardware .
- Do not wear the shoulder part of the belt
under your arm or otherwise out of posi­
tion .
- Several layers of heavy clothing may in­
terfere with correct positioning of belts
and reduce the overall effectiveness of
the system .
- Always keep belt buckles free of anything
that may prevent the buckle from latch­
ing securely .
- Never use comfort clips or devices that
create slack in the shoulder belt. Howev­
er, special clips may be required for the
proper use of some child restraint sys­
tems .
- Torn or frayed safety belts can tear, and
damaged belt hardware can break in an
accident. Inspect belts regularly. If web-
bing, bindings, buckles, or retractors are .,..
L,_ _______________ _J
•
•

17 4 S afet y belt s
damaged, have belts replaced by an au­
thorized Aud i dealer or qualified
workshop.
- Safety belts that have been worn and
loaded in an accident must be replaced
with the correct rep lacement safety be lt
by an authorized Audi dea le r. Replace­
ment may be necessary even if damage
c anno t be clear ly seen. Anchorages that
we re loaded m ust also be inspected.
- Never remove, modify, disass emble, or
t ry to repa ir t he safety be lts yourself.
- Always keep the belts clean . Dirty belts
may not wo rk p roperly and can impa ir
the funct io n of t he in ertia ree l
¢ page 248, Safety bel ts.
Safety belts
Fastening safety belts
Seat first -everybody buckle up!
Fig. 191 Belt buckle and to ngue o n th e dr iver 's seat
To provide maximum protection, safety belts
must always be posit ioned correctly on the
wearer 's body .
.. Adjust the front seat and head restra int
properly¢
page 71, General recommenda­
tions .
.. Make sure the seatback of the rear seat
b ench is in a n upright pos ition and securely
l atched in p lace before using the belt ¢&_ .
.. Hold the be lt by the tongue and pull it
evenly across the chest and pe lvis ¢
.&,.
.. Insert the tongue into the correct buckle of
your seat until you hea r it latc h securely
¢ fig . 191.
.. Pull on the belt to ma ke sure that it is se-
curely latched in the buck le .
Automatic safety belt retractors
Eve ry safety belt is equipped with an automat­
i c be lt r etractor on t he shou lde r belt. This fea­
tu re loc ks the belt when t he be lt is pulled out
fast, during hard braking and in an accident .
The be lt may a lso lock when you drive up or
down a steep h ill or thro ugh a sharp curve.
D uring normal driving the belt lets you move
freely .
Safety belt pretensioners
The safety belts are equipped with a belt pre­
tensioner that he lps to tighten the safety belt
and remove slack when the pretensioner is ac ­
tivated. The function of the pretensioner is
monitored by a war ning light¢
page 16.
Switchable locking feature
Every safety belt except the one on the d river
seat is equipped with a sw itchab le locking fea­
ture that
must be used when the safety be lt is
used to attach a c hild safety seat. Be sure to
read the important information about this
feature ¢
page 209 .
A WARNING
Improperly posit ioned safety be lts can
cause ser ious injury in an accide nt
¢ page 17 5, Safe ty belt po sition .
-
-Safety b elts offer opt imum p rotect ion
only whe n the sea tbac k is u prigh t an d
be lts ar e pr operly posit ioned on the
body .
- Always ma ke sure that the rear sea t
b a ckrest to wh ich the center rear safety
be lt is at tached is secure ly latched when ­
ever the rear center safety belt is being
used . If the backrest is not secure ly
latched, the passenger w ill move for­
ward with the backrest dur ing sudden
brak ing, in a sudden maneuver and espe­
cially in a c rash.
- Never attach the safety belt to the buck-
le for another seat . Attaching the belt to .,_