100 Safety belts
Safety belts
General notes
Always wear safety belts!
Wearing safety belts correctly saves lives!
This chapter explains why safety belts are nec
essary, how they work and how to adjust and
wear them correctly .
.. Read all the information that follows and
heed all of the instructions and WARNINGS.
A WARNING
Not wearing safety belts or wearing them
improperly increases the risk of serious
personal injury and death.
- 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.
- Pregnant women, injured, or physically
impaired persons must also use safety
belts. Like all vehicle occupants, they are
more likely to be seriously injured if they
do not wear safety belts. The best way to
protect a fetus is to protect the mother -
throughout the entire pregnancy.
Number of seats
Your Audi TT Coupe has two seating positions in the front and two height-limited seating
positions in the rear. Each seating position has
a safety belt. The rear seat area in your Audi
TT Coupe does not have enough room for pas
sengers of all sizes. For reasons of safety, no
person taller than 4'11" (1.S meters) should
ever ride in the rear seat area.
A WARNING
Not wearing safety belts or wearing them
improperly increases the risk of serious
personal injury and death. -
Never strap more than one person, in
cluding small children, into any belt.
It is
especially dangerous to place a safety belt over a child sitting on your lap.
- Never let more people ride in the vehicle
than there are safety belts available.
- Be sure everyone riding in the vehicle is
properly restrained with a separate safe
ty belt or child restraint.
- Persons taller than 4'11" (1.5 m) as well
as children in booster seats who are too
close to the rear window and roof can
suffer severe head and neck injuries
when the rear lid is closed or in a crash .
- The minimum clearance between the passenger's heads and the rear window
must never -under any circumstances -
be less that 1 inch (2.5 cm.) when the
passengers sit fully upright.
- Always make sure that rear seat passen
gers cannot be struck when the rear lid is
closed.
,! Safety belt warning light
Your vehicle has a warning system for the
driver and front seat passenger to remind you
about the importance of buckling-up.
Fig. 94 Safety belt warning light in the instrument
cluster· enlarged
Before driving off, always:
" Fasten your safety belt and make sure you
wear it properly .
.. Make sure that your passengers also buckle
up and properly wear their safety belts.
.. Protect children with a child restraint sys-
tem appropriate for the size and age.
Ill-
106 Safety belts
Unfastening safety belts
Unbuckle the safety belt with the red release
button only after the vehicle has stopped .
Fig. 103 Releasing the tongue from the buckle
• Push the red release button on the buckle
c> fig. 103. The belt tongue will spring out
of the buckle ~
,A.
0 r-N 0 ±.
"' a,
• Let the belt wind up on the retractor as you
guide the belt tongue to its stowed position.
A WARNING
Never unfasten safety belt while the vehi
cle is moving . Doing so will increase your
r isk of being injured or killed .
Improperly worn safety belts
Incorrectly positioned safety belts can cause
severe injuries.
Wearing safety belts improperly can cause se
rious injury or death. Safety belts can only
work when they are correctly positioned on the body . Improper seating positions reduce
the effectiveness of safety belts and will even
increase the risk of injury and death by mov
ing the safety belt to critical areas of the
body. Improper seating positions also in
crease the risk of serious injury and death
when an airbag deploys and strikes an occu
pant who is not in the correct seating posi
tion . A driver is responsible for the safety of
all vehicle occupants and especially for chil
dren. Therefore:
• Never permit anyone to assume an incorrect
sitting position in the vehicle while traveling
c>,&. .
A WARNING
-Improperly worn safety belts increase the
risk of ser ious personal injury and death
whenever a vehicle is being used.
- Always make sure that all vehicle occu
pants are correctly restrained and stay in
a correct seating position whenever the
veh icle is being used.
- Always read and heed all WARNINGS and
other important information
~ page 103.
Safety belt preten
sioners
How safety belt pretensioners work
In front and side collisions above a particular
severity, safety belts in use are tensioned au
tomatically .
The safety belts for the front seating positions
are equipped with safety belt pretensioners .
The system is activated by sensors in front
and side collisions of great severity. This tight
ens the belt and takes up belt slack
c> .&. in
Service and disposal of safety belt preten
sioner on page 107.
Taking up the slack helps
to reduce forward occupant movement during
a collision.
(D Tips
The safety belt pretensioner can only be
activated once .
- In minor frontal and side collisions, in
rear -end collisions, in a rollover and in
accidents involving very little impact
force, the safety belt pretensioner are
not activated.
- When the safety belt pretensioner is ac
tivated, a fine dust is released. This is normal and is not caused by a fire in the
vehicle.
- The relevant safety requirements must
be observed when the vehicle or compo
nents of the system are scrapped. A
qualified dealership is familiar with
II>
108 Airbag sys tem
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 al
ways properly wear their safety belts and be
in a proper seating position.
F or your safety and the safety of your passen
gers, before driving off, a lways:
• Adjust the dr iver's seat and steering wheel
properly ¢
page 91,
• Adjust the front passenger's seat properly
r=:;page 55,
• Wear safety be lts properly r=; page 103,
• Always properly use the proper child re-
stra int to protect children¢
page 130.
In a collision airbags must inflate within the
blink of an eye and with considerable force .
The supplementa l airbags can cause injuries if
the dr iver or the front seat passenger are not
seated properly . Therefore in order to help the
a irbag to do its job, it is impo rtant, both as a
d river and as a passenge r to s it prope rly at all
times.
By keeping room between your body and the
steering wheel and the front of the passenge r
compa rtment, the airbag can inflate fully and
comp lete ly and provide supp lemental protec
tion in ce rtain frontal collisions
r=:; page 91,
Proper occupant seating positions .
For detai ls
on the operat ion of the seat adjustment con
trols ¢
page 55 and c:, page 56.
It's especially important that children a re
properly restrained ¢
page 130.
There is a lot that the driver and the passen
gers can and must do to help the individua l
safety features installed in your A udi work to
gether as a system.
P rope r seat ing pos ition is important so that
the front airbag on the drive r side can do its
job. If yo u have a physical impa irment or con- dition that prevents yo
u from sitting properly
o n the driver seat with the safety belt properly
fastened and reaching the peda ls, or if you
have concerns with regard to the function or
operation of the Advanced Airbag System,
please contact your author ized Audi dealer or
qualified workshop, o r call Audi Customer Re
lations at 1-800-822-2834 fo r poss ible modi
fica tions to your ve hicle.
When the airbag system dep loys, a gas gener
ator will f il l the a irbags, break open t he pad
ded cove rs, and inflate between t he steering
whee l and the dr ive r and be tween the instru
ment pane l and the fron t passenger. The a ir
bags will deflate immediately after dep loy
me nt so that the front occupants can see
t hr ough the windshie ld again witho ut inter
ruption .
All of th is takes p lace in the b link o f an eye, so
fast that many peop le don't even realize tha t
t h e airbags have deployed. The airbags a lso
inflate with a great dea l of force and nothing
shou ld be in their w ay when they deploy.
Front a irbags in combination with properly
wor n safety belts slow down and lim it the oc
cupant's forward movement . T ogether they
help to prevent the drive r and front seat pas
senger from hitti ng pa rts of the inside the ve
hicle while reducing the forces acting on the
occupant dur ing the crash . In this way they
help to reduce the risk of injury to the head
and upper body in the crash. A irbags do not
protect the arms or the lower parts of the
body.
Both front airbags wi ll not inflate in all fronta l
collisions . The triggering of the airbag system
depends on the vehicle dece lerat ion rate
caused by the co llision and registered by the
electron ic control unit. If th is rate is below
the reference value programmed into the con
t rol unit , the airbags will not be trigge red,
even though the car may be badly damaged as
a res ult of the co llision . Ve hicl e damage, re
pair costs o r even the lack of ve hicle damage
is not necessari ly an indication of whether an
airbag shou ld inflate or not .
IJll-
110 Airbag sys te m
Child restraints on the front seat - some
important things to know
• Be sure to read the impo rtant in formation
and head the WARNINGS for important de
ta ils about ch ildren and Advanced Airbags
i=> page 130.
Even though your vehicle is equipped with an
Advanced Airbag System, make certain that
all children, especially those 12 years and
younger, a lways ride in the back seat properly
restra ined for their age and size. The airbag
on the passenger side makes the front seat a potentially dangerous place for a child to r ide .
The front seat is not the safest place fo r a
chi ld in a fo rward-facing chi ld safety seat. It
can be a very dangerous place for a n infan t or
a child in a rearward-facing seat.
The Advanced Airbag System i n your veh icle
has been certified to comply with the Requ ire
men ts of United States Federa l Mo to r Veh icle
Safety Standard 208 as applicable at the time
your vehicle was manufact ured.
The Standa rd requires the fron t air bag on t he
passenger side to be turned off ("sup
p ressed") if a ch ild up to about one yea r of
age restrained in one of the rear-facing or for
ward-facing infant restraints listed in Federal
Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 208 with which
the Advanced A irbag System in your vehicle
was certified has been installed on the front passenger seat . For a listing of the child re
straints that were used to certify compliance
with the US Safety Standard
c> page 132.
The PASSENGE R AIR BAG OFF light in the in
strument panel tells you when the front Ad
vanced A irbag on the passenger side has been
turned off by t he e lectronic control unit.
Each t ime you tur n on the ignition, the
PAS
SENGER AIR BAG OFF
l ight will come on for a
few seconds and:
- will stay on if the front passenger seat is not
occupied ,
- will stay on if there is a small child or child
restraint on the front passenger seat, -
will go off if the front passenger seat is oc
cupied by an adult as registered by the
weight -sensing mat
r::!) page 119, Monitor
ing the Advanced Airbag System.
T he PASSENGER AIR BAG OFF light comes on
when the control unit detects a tota l weight
on the front passenger seat that req uires the
front a irbag to be turned off .
If the total weight on the front passenge r
seat is more than that of a typica l 1 year -old
c h ild b ut less than the weight of a small
adult, the front airbag on the passenger side
can deploy (the
PASSENGER AIR BAG OFF
li ght does not come on). If the PAS SENGER
AIR BAG OFF
light does not come on, the
front a irbag on the passenger side has not
been turned off by the elect ronic con trol unit
and can deploy if the control uni t se nses an
impact that meets the cond itions stored in its
memory .
For exampl e, th e airbag ma y deplo y if:
-a small ch ild that is heav ie r than a typical 1
year-old ch ild is on the front passenger seat
( r egard less of whethe r the child is in one of
the child safety seats listed
<:!) page 132), or
- a child who has outgrown ch ild restraints is
on t he front passenger seat.
If the front passenger airbag is turned off, the
PASSENGER AIR BAG OFF light comes on in
the instrument pane l and stays on .
The front airbag on the passenger side may
not deploy (the PASSENGER AIR BAG OFF
light does not illum inate and stay lit) even if a
small adult o r teenager, or a passenger who is
not sitt ing up rig ht w ith their back against a
non- re cli ned ba ck res t w it h thei r feet on the
vehicle floor in front of the sea t is on the front
passenge r seat
c::> page 91, Proper seating po
sition for the driver.
If the front passenger a irbag dep loys, the
F ede ra l St andard req uires the airbag to meet
the "low risk" dep loyment criteria to reduce
the risk of injury t hro ugh interaction wit h the
airbag. "Low risk" dep loyment occ urs in those
crashes that take place at lower dece lerat ions ..,_
112 Airbag system
-An improperly installed child restraint
can interfere with the airbag as it de
ploys and seriously injure or even kill the
child -even with an Advanced Airbag
System .
- Always carefully follow the manufactur
er's instructions provided with the child
safety seat or carrier.
- Never place additional items on the seat
that can increase the total weight regis tered by the weight-sensing mat and can
cause i njury in a crash .
Front airbags
Description of front airbags
The airbag system con provide supplemental
protection to properly restrained front seat
occupants.
Fig. 104 Location of driver airbag: in stee ring wheel
Fig. 105 Location of front passenger's air bag : in the in
st rume nt panel
Your veh icle is equipped with an "Advanced
A irbag System" in compliance w ith United
States Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standa rd
(FMVSS) 208 as applicab le at the time your
vehicle was manufactured. The safety belts
for the front seats have "pretensioners" that
help to take slack out of the belt system. The pretensioners are a
lso activated by the e lec
tronic contro l unit for the airbag system.
T he front safety belts also have lo ad lim ite rs
to help reduce the fo rces applied to the body
in a crash .
T he airbag for the d river is in the steering
wheel hub~
fig. 104 and the ai rbag for the
fron t passenger is in the instrument panel
~ fig. 105 . The general locat ion of the ai rbags
is marked "AIRBAG".
T he re is a lot you need to know about t he a ir
bags in you r vehicle. We urge yo u to read the
detailed information abo ut airbags, safety
belts and child safety in this and the other
chapters that make up the owner's literature .
P lease be sure to heed the WARNINGS - they
are extremely important for your safety and
the safety of your passengers, especially in
fants and small children .
A WARNING
Never rely on airbags alo ne for protection .
- Even when they deploy, airbags provide
only supplemental protect ion.
- Airbag work most effective ly when used
with properly worn safety belts.
- Therefore, always wear your safety belts
a nd make sure that eve rybody in your ve
h icle is p roperly rest rained.
A WARNING
A person on the front passenger seat, es
pec ially infants and sma ll children, w ill re
ceive serio us injuries and can even be kil-
l ed by be ing too close to the ai rbag when
i t inflates .
- Al tho ugh the Advanced Airbag System in
your veh icle is designed to tur n
off the
front passenge r airbag if an infant or a
small child is on the front passenger
seat, nobody can absolutely guarantee
that deployment under these special
conditions is impossible in all conceiva
b le situat ions that may happen during
-
the useful life of your vehicle . ~
-The Advanced Airbag System can deploy
in accordance with the "low risk" option
under the U .S . Federal Standard if a child
that is heavier than the typical one-year
old child is on the front passenger seat
and the other conditions for airbag de
ployment are met .
-Accident statistics have shown that chil
dren are generally safer in the rear seat
area than in the front seating position.
- For their own safety, all children, espe
cially 12 years and younger, should al
ways ride in the back properly restrained
for their age and size.
Advanced front airbag system
Your vehicle is equipped with a front Advanced
Airbag System in compliance with United
States Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard
208 as applicable at the time your vehicle was
manufac tured.
The front Advanced Airbag System supple ments the safety belts to provide additional
protection for the driver's and front passeng
er's head s and upper bodies in frontal crashes.
T he airbags inflate only in frontal impacts
when the vehicle deceleration is high enough.
T he front Advanced Airbag System for the
front seat occupants is not a substitute for
your safety belts . Rather, it is part of the over
all occupant restraint system in your vehicle.
Always remember that the airbag system can
only help to protect you, if you are sitting up
right , wearing your safety belt and wearing it
properly . This is why you and your passengers
must always be properly restrained, not just
because the law requires you to be.
The Advanced Airbag System in your vehicle has been certified to meet the "low risk" re
quirements for 3 and 6 year-old children on
the passenger side and very small adults on
the driver side. The low risk deployment crite
ria are intended to help reduce the risk of in
jury through interaction with the front airbag that can occur, for example, by being too
Airbag system 113
close to the steering wheel and instrument
panel when the airbag inflates.
In addition, the system has been certified to
comply with the "suppression" requirements
of the Safety Standard, to turn off the front
airbag for infants 12 months old and younger
who are restrained on the front passenger
seat in child restraints that are listed in the
Standard ¢
page 132 , Child restraints and
Advanced Airbags .
"Suppression" requires the front airbag on the
passenger side to be turned off if:
- a child up to about one year of age is re
strained on the front passenger seat in one
of the rear-facing or forward-facing infant restraints listed in Federal Motor Vehicle
Safety Standard 208 with which the Ad
vanced Airbag System in your vehicle was
certified . For a listing of the child restraints
that were used to certify your vehicle's com pliance with the US Safety Standard
¢page 132,
-weight less than a threshold level stored in
the control unit is detected on the front pas
senger seat.
When a person is detected on the front pas senger seat, weighing more than the total
weight of a child that is about 1 year old re
strained in one of the rear-facing or forward
facing infant restraints (listed in Federal Mo
tor Vehicle Safety Standard 208 with which
the Advanced Airbag System in your vehicle
was certified), the front airbag on the passen ger side may or may not deploy.
The
PASSENGER AIR BAG OFF light comes on
when the electronic control unit detects a to
tal weight on the front passenger seat that re
quires the front airbag to be turned off. If the
PASSENGER AIR BAG OFF light does not
come on, the front airbag on the passenger
side has not been turned off by the control unit and can deploy if the control unit senses
an impact that meets the conditions stored in
its memory.
If the total weight on the front passenger
seat is more than that of a typical 1 year-old , ..,. •
•
118 Airbag sys te m
electronic contro l uni t (the PAS SENGER AIR
BAG OFF
light comes on and stays on) .
A WARNING
Sitting in the wrong position can increase
the risk of serious injury in crashes.
- To reduce the risk of injury when the air
bags inflate, the driver and passengers
must always sit in an upright position,
must not lean against or place any part
of the ir body too close to the area where
the a irbags are located .
- Occupants who are unbelted, out of posi
t ion or too close to the airbag can be se
riously injured by an airbag as it unfolds
with great force in the blink of an eye
~page 110.
A WARNING
-
A child in a rearward -facing child sa fety
seat insta lled on the front passenger seat
w ill be seriously injured and can be ki lled if
the front airbag inflates - even wit h an Ad
vanced Airbag System.
-The inflating ai rbag will hit the child
safety seat or infant carrier with g reat
force and w ill smash the ch ild safety seat
and child against the backrest, ce nter
arm rest, door o r roof.
- Always install rear-facing child safety
seats on the rear seat.
- If you must install a rearward facing child safety seat on the front passenger
seat because of exceptional circ umstan
ces and the
PASSENGER AIR BAG OFF
light does not come on and stay on, im
med iately install the rea r-facing child
safety seat in a rear seating po sition and
have the airb ag sys tem inspec ted by you r
Audi dealer .
A WARNING
Objects between you and the a irbag will
increase the risk of in jury in a c rash by in
terfering with the way the airbag unfolds
or by being pushed into yo u as the a irbag
inf lates. -
Never hold things in you r hands o r on
your lap when the veh icle is in use.
- Never transpo rt items on or in t he a rea
of the front passenger seat. Objects
could move into the area of the front air
bags during braking or other sudden ma
neuver and become dangerous p rojec
tiles that can cause ser ious personal in
jury if the a irbags inf late .
- Never p lace or attach accesso ries o r oth
er objects (such as cup hold ers, te le
phone b ra ck ets, large, heavy or bulky ob
jects) on the doors, ove r o r ne ar the are a
marked "AIRBAG" on the s teer ing whee l,
instr ument panel, sea t bac krests o r be
tween those areas and yourself. These
objects could ca use in jury in a crash, es
pecially when the airbags inflate.
- Never recline the front passenger 's seat
to transport objects. Items can a lso
move into the area of the s ide airbag or
the front a irbag during braki ng or in a
sudden maneuve r. Objects near the air
bags can become projectiles and cause
in jur y, partic ularly when the seat is re
clined.
- Never tilt the front passenger seat back
rest forwar d w hen the vehi cle is moving.
An in flating airbag w il l force the ba ck
rest backwar d an d can injure rear seat o c
cupants.
A WARNING
=
The fine dust create d when air bags deploy
can cause breathing prob lems fo r people
with a history of asthma or other breath
i ng cond itions.
- To reduce the risk of breathing problems ,
those with asthma or other respiratory
conditions shou ld get fresh air right
away by getting o ut o f the veh icle or
open ing windows or doors.
- If you are in a collision in which airbags
deploy , wash your hands and face with
mild soap and wate r before eating .
- Be ca reful not to get the dust into your
eyes, o r into any c uts or sc ratches .
-a safety be lt extender has not been left in
the safety belt latch for the front passenger
seat .
I n addition to the
P ASS ENGER AIR B AG OFF
light in the center of the instrument panel,
the message
PA SSENGE R AIR BAG OFF or
PASSENGER AI R BAG ON will briefly appear
in the instrument cluster display. Th is is to in
form the driver of the current front passenger
airbag status .
Important safety instructions on
monitoring the Advanced Airbag System
A WARNING
An airbag system that is not functioning
properly cannot provide supplemental pro
tection in a frontal crash.
- If the airbag indicator light comes on, it
means that there may be someth ing
wrong with the Advanced Airbag System .
It is possible that the airbag will inflate
when it is not supposed to, or w ill not in
flate when it should.
- Have the airbag system inspected imme
diately by your Aud i dealer.
A WARNING
If the front airbag inflates, a ch ild without
a child restra int, in a rearward-facing child
safety seat or in a forward-facing chi ld re
straint that has not been properly insta lled
wi ll be seriously injured and can be ki lled .
- Even though your veh icle is equipped
with an Advanced Airbag System, make certain that a ll children, especially 12
years and younger, a lways ride on the
back seat properly restrained for their
age and size.
- Always install forward or rear-facing
child safety seats on the rear seat -even
with an Advanced Airbag System.
- If you must install a rearward-facing
child safety seat on the front passenger
seat because of exceptional circumstan ces and the
PAS SENG ER AIR BAG OFF
light does not appear and stay on, imme-
A irbag system 12 1
diately install the rear- facing child safety
seat in a rear seat ing pos ition and have
the airbag system inspected by your Audi
deale r.
- A t ight tether or other strap on a rear
ward-facing child restraint attached to
the front passenger seat can put too much p ressu re on the weight-sensing
mat in the seat and reg ister more weight
than is a ctually on the seat. The heavier
weight regis tered can make the system
wo rk as tho ugh an adult we re on the seat
and deploy the Advanced Airbag when it
m ust be suppressed causing serious or
even fata l injury to the ch ild.
- If, in exceptiona l circumstances, you
m ust install a forward-fac ing ch ild re
straint on the front passenger seat, al
ways move the seat into its rearmost po
sition in the seat's fore and aft adjust
ment range, as fa r away from the a irbag
as poss ible. The backrest must be ad just
ed to an upright pos ition. Make sure that
the
PASSENGER AIR BAG OFF light
comes on and stays on all the time when
ever the ignition is switched on .
A WARNING
-
-If the PASSENGER AIR BAG OFF light
does not go out when an ad ult is sitting
on the front passenger seat after taking
the steps described above, make sure the adu lt is properly seated and restra ined at
one of the rear seat ing pos itions.
- Have the airbag system inspected by
your Aud i dea ler before transporting
anyone on the front passenger seat.
(l) Tips
If the weight-sensing mat in the front pas
senger seat detects an empty seat, the
front airbag on the passe nger side will be
turned off, and
PASSENGER AIR BAG OFF
will stay on.
•
•