
148 Airbag system
wheneve r the i gnition is on . Each t ime yo u
turn on the ignition, the
II airbag mo nitoring
indicator light w ill come on for a few seconds
(self diagnostics) .
The sy stem must be inspected when the
fl indicator light:
- does not come on when the ignit ion is
switched on,
- does not go out a few seconds after you
have switched on the ignition, or
- comes on w hile d riving .
If an airbag system ma lf u nct ion is de te cted,
the ind ica tor light will fi rs t start fl ash ing to
catch the driver's attention and then stay on
continuously to serve as a constant reminder
to have the system inspected immediately.
If a mal func tion oc curs that turns the fron t
ai rbag on the passenger side off, the
PASSEN
GER AIR BAG OFF
li ght will come on and stay
on whenever the ign ition is on.
.&_ WARNING
An airbag system that is not funct ion ing
properly ca nnot provide supplemental p ro
tect io n in a frontal crash.
- If the airbag indicator light
c:> page 20
comes whe n the vehicle is be ing used,
have t he system inspected immed iate ly
by yo ur aut ho rize d Aud i dea le r. It is pos
sibl e that t he airbag will inf late when it
is no t su ppo sed to, or w ill not inflate
w he n i t sho uld.
PASSENGER AIR BAG OFF light
Fig . 13 5 Sect ion from th e in str umen t pa nel: PASSEN
GER AIR BAG O FF ligh t
-
The PASSENGER AIR BAG OFF light is located
in the center of the instrument pane l
c:> fig. 135.
T he
PASSENGER AIR BAG OFF lig ht wi ll come
on and stay on to tell you w hen the front Ad
vanced Airbag on the passenge r si de has been
turned off by the electron ic contro l unit. Each
t ime you turn on the ignition , the
PASSEN
GER AIR BAG OFF
light will flash for a few
seconds a nd:
- will stay on i f the front passenger seat is not
occ upied,
- will stay on if t he re is a small c hild or child
restraint on the front passenger seat,
- wi ll go out if the front passenge r seat is oc
cupied by an adult as registered by the
weight-sensing mat.
T he
PASSENGER AIR BAG OFF light must
come on and stay on
if the ignition is on and
- a car bed h as been ins talled o n the fron t
sea t, o r
- a rearwa rd- fa cing child rest rain t has bee n
installed o n the front pa ssenger seat, or
- a forwa rd-fac ing c hild restra int has been in
stalled on the front p assenger sea t, o r
- t he weight reg iste red o n the fron t passen
ge r seat i s equal to or less t han t he com
bined weight o f a typic al 1 year -ol d restr ain
ed in one of the rea r-facing or forw ard-fac
ing infant restraints listed i n Fed eral Motor
Ve hicle Safety Standard 208 with which the
Advanced A irbag System in your vehicle was
certified .
If the front passenger seat is not occupie d,
t h e front airbag will not deploy, and the
PAS·
SENGER AIR BAG O FF
light will stay on. Nev
er install a rearward-facing child restraint on
t h e fro nt passenger seat, the safest p lace for
a ch ild in any k ind of ch ild restrai nt is at one
of the seating posit ions on the rear sea t
c:> page 138, Child restraints on the front seat
- some important things to know and
c:> page 161, Child Safety.
If
the PASSENGER AIR BAG OFF light comes
on
w hen o ne of the cond itions listed above is
met, be su re to check t he lig ht regu larly to
II>-

make certain that the PASSENGER AIR BAG
OFF
light stays on continuous ly whenever the
i gnit ion is on. If the
PASSENGER AIR BAG
OF F
light does not appear and not stay on all
the t ime, stop as soon as it is safe to do so
and
- react ivate the system by turning the ignition
off and then turning it on again;
- remove and reinstall the child restraint .
Make sure that the child restraint is properly
installed and that the safety belt for the
front passenger seat has been correct ly
routed around the child restraint as descr i
bed in the child restraint manufacturer's in
structions;
- make sure that the convertible locking fea
ture on the safety be lt for the front passen
ger seat has been activated and that the
safety belt has been pulled tight. The belt
must not be loose o r have loops of slack so
that the sensor below the safety belt latch on the seat can do its job ¢
page 171.
-make sure that things that may increase the
weight of the chi ld and child safety seat are
not being transported on the front passen
ger seat;
- make sure that the safety belt tension sen
sor is not b locked. Shake the safety belt
latch on the front passenger seat back and
forth;
- If a strap or tether is being used to tie the child safety seat to the front passenger
seat, make sure that it is not so tight that it
causes the we ight-sensing mat to measure
more we ight than is actually on the seat.
If the PA SSEN GER A IR B AG OFF light st ill
do es not come o n
and does not stay on con
tinuously (when the ignition is switched on),
- take the chi ld restraint off the front passen-
ger seat and install it properly at one of the
rear seat pos itions . Have the a irbag system
inspected by your author ized Audi dealer
i mmediately .
- move the ch ild to a rear seat posit io n and
make sure that the child is properly restrain
ed in a child restraint that is appropriate for
its size and age.
A irbag system 149
The PAS SENGER AIR BAG OFF light should
NOT come on when the ignitio n is on and an
adult is s itting in a proper seating position on
the front passenger seat. If the
PAS SENGER
AIR B AG OFF
light comes on and stays on or
flashes for about 5 seconds wh ile driving, un
der these c ircumstances, make sure that:
- the adult on the front passenger seat is properly seated on the center of the seat
cushion with his or her back up aga inst the
backrest and the backrest is not recl ined
¢ page 120, Proper occupant seating posi
tions,
- the adult is not tak ing weight off the seat by
holding on to the passenger assist handle
above the front passenger door or support
ing their weight on the armrest,
- the safety belt is being properly wo rn and
tha t the re is not a lot of s lack in the safety
be lt webbing,
- accessory sea t covers or cushions o r other
things that may cause an incorrect reading
or impression on the weight-sensing mat
under the upho lstery of the seat have been
removed from the front passenger seat,
- a safety belt extender has not been left in the safety be lt latch for the front passenger
seat.
In add ition to the
PA SSENGER AIR BAG O FF
light in the center of the instrument panel,
the message
PASSENGER A IR BAG OFF or
PASSENGER AIR BAG ON will briefly appear
in the instrument cluster disp lay. This is to in
form the dr iver 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 ind icator light
¢ page 20
comes when the veh icle is being used,
have the system inspected immediately
by your authorized Audi dealer.
It i s
-
•
•

150 Airbag system
possible that the airbag will inflate when
it is not supposed to, or will not inflate
when it should.
A WARNING
If the front airbag inflates, a child without
a child restraint, in a rearward-facing child
safety seat or in a forward-facing child re
straint that has not been properly installed
will be seriously injured and can be killed.
- Even though your vehicle is equipped
with an Advanced Airbag System, make certain that all children, especially 12
years and younger, always 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
PASSENGER AIR BAG OFF
light does not appear and stay on, imme
diately install the rear-facing child safety
seat in a rear seating position and have
the airbag system inspected by your au
thorized Audi dealer.
- A tight tether or other strap on a rear
ward-facing child restraint attached to
the front passenger seat can put too
much pressure on the weight-sensing
mat in the seat and register more weight
than is actually on the seat. The heavier
weight registered can make the system
work as though an adult were on the seat
and deploy the Advanced Airbag when it
must be suppressed causing serious or
even fatal injury to the child.
- If, in exceptional circumstances, you
must install a forward-facing child 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 far away from the airbag
as possible. The backrest must be adjust
ed to an upright position. 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 adult is sitting
on the front passenger seat after taking
the steps described above, make sure the
adult is properly seated and restrained at
one of the rear seating positions.
- Have the airbag system inspected by
your authorized Audi dealer before trans
porting anyone on the front passenger
seat.
(D Tips
If the weight-sensing mat in the front pas
senger seat detects an empty seat, the
front airbag on the passenger side will be
turned off, and
PASSENGER AIR BAG OFF
will stay on.
Repair, care and disposal of the airbags
Parts of the airbag system are installed at
many different places on your Audi. Installing,
removing, servicing or repairing a part in an
area of the vehicle can damage a part of an
airbag system and prevent that system from
working properly in a collision.
There are some important things you have to know to make sure that the effectiveness of
the system will not be impaired and that dis carded components do not cause injury or pol
lute the environment.
A WARNING
Improper care, servicing and repair proce
dures can increase the risk of personal in
jury and death by preventing an airbag
from deploying when needed or deploying an airbag unexpectedly:
- Never cover, obstruct, or change the
steering wheel horn pad or airbag cover
or the instrument panel or modify them
in any way.

-Never install seat covers or replace
ment upholstery over the front
seatbacks that have not been specifi
cally approved by Audi.
- Never use additional seat cushions that
cover the areas where the side airbags
deploy.
- Damage to the original seat covers or
to the seam in the area of the side air
bag module must always be repaired
immediately by an authorized Audi
dealer .
- Objects between you and the airbag can
increase the risk of injury in an accident
by interfering with the way the airbag
unfolds or by being pushed into you as
the airbag inflates .
- Never place or attach accessories or
other objects (such as cupholders, tele
phone brackets, or even large, bulky
objects) on the doors, over or near the
area marked "AIRBAG" on the seat
backrests.
- Such objects and accessories can be
come dangerous projectiles and cause
injury when the supplemental s ide air
bag deploys .
- Never carry any objects or pets in the
deployment space between them and
the a irbags or a llow children or other
passengers to travel in this position .
- Always use the built-in coat hooks only
for Lightweight clothing . Never leave any
heavy or sharp -edged objects in the
pockets that may interfere with side air
bag deployment and can cause personal
injury in an accident.
-Always prevent the side airbags from be ing damaged by heavy objects knocking
against or hitting the sides of the seat
backs .
- The airbag system can only be triggered
once . If the airbag has been triggered,
the system must be replaced by an au
thorized Audi dealership .
- Damage (cracks, deep scratches etc .) to
the original seat covers or to the seam in
the area of the side airbag module must
Airbag system 157
always be repaired immediately by an au
thorized Audi dealer.
- If children are seated improperly, their
risk of injury increases in the case of an
accident
Q page 161, Child Safety.
- Never attempt to modify any compo
nents of the airbag system in any way .
- In a side collision, side airbags will not
function properly if sensors cannot cor
rectly measure increasing air pressure in
side the doors when air escapes through larger, unclosed openings in the door
panel.
- Never drive with interior door trim pan
els removed .
- Never drive when parts have been re
moved from the inside door panel and
the openings they leave have not been properly closed .
- Never drive when loudspeakers in the
doors have been removed unless the
speaker holes have been properly
closed.
- Always make certain that openings are
covered or filled if additional speakers
or other equipment is installed in the
inside door panels .
- Always have work on the doors done by
an authorized Audi dealer or qualified
workshop .
Side curtain airbags
Description of side curtain airbags
The side curtain airbag system can provide
supplemental protection to properly restrain
ed occupants.
Fig. 140 Sid e curt ain system , driver's s ide: side curtain
airbag l ocati on
~

How side curtain airbags work
Side curtain airbags can work together with
side airbags to help reduce the risk of head
and upper torso injuries for occupants who
are properly restrained.
€
Fig. 141 Illustration of prin ciple: In flated side cur ta in
airbags on the left side
The side curtain airbags inflate between the
occupant and the windows on the side of the
vehicle that is struck in a side collision
c::>fig. 141 .
When the system is triggered, the side curtain
airbag is filled with propellant gas and breaks
through a seam above the front and rear side windows identified by the AIRBAG label. In or
der to help provide this additional protection,
the side curtain airbag must inflate within the blink of an eye at very high speed and with
great force. The side curtain airbag could in
jure you if your seating position is not proper
or upright or if items are located in the area
where the supplemental side curtain airbag
inflates . This applies especially to children
c::> page 161.
Although they are not a soft pillow, side cur
tain airbags can ''cushion" the impact and in
this way they can help to reduce the risk of in
jury to the head and the upper part of the
body.
A fine dust may develop when the airbag de ploys . This is quite normal and does not mean
there is a fire in the vehicle .
Airbag system 159
Important safety instructions on the
side curtain airbag system
Airbags are only supplemental restraints . Al
ways properly wear safety belts and ride in a
proper seating position.
There is a lot that you and your passengers
must know and do to help the safety belts and
airbags do their job to provide supplemental
protection.
A WARNING
Improperly wearing safety belts and im
proper seating positions increase the risk
of serious personal injury and death when
ever a vehicle is being used.
- Never let occupants place any parts of
their bodies in the area from which the side curtain airbags inflate.
- Always make sure that the side curtain
airbags can inflate without interference.
Unsuitable accessories fitted inside the
expansion range of a head airbag can
dangerously interfere with its function . A
deploying head airbag develops enough
force to catapult any piece of add-on
component out of its path of inflation
and into the passenger compartment. An
occupant hit by such a projectile can suf
fer serious injury or death
c::> page 267,
Technical Modifications.
- Do not swivel the sun visors to the side if
you have any objects clipped onto them
(for example pens) . If the airbag should
deploy, you could be injured by these ob
jects.
- Use the built-in coat hooks only for light
weight clothing. Never leave any heavy or sharp-edged objects in the pockets that
may interfere with airbag deployment
and can cause personal injury in an acci
dent.
- Never use hangers to hang clothing from
the hooks .
- Only use factory-installed sun shades or,
in the case of shades installed after the
vehicle leaves the factory, only Audi roll-
-
up sunscreens may be used c::, page 266, .,_

Child Safety
Important things to know
Introduction
The rear seat is generally the safest place in a
collision .
The physical principles of what happens when
your veh icle is in a crash app ly also to chi ldren
q page 130, What happens to occupants not
wearing safety belts? .
But unlike adu lts thei r
muscles and bones are not fully developed. In
many respects children are at greater risk of
serio us inju ry in crashes than adults .
Because children's bod ies are not fu lly deve l
oped, they require restraint systems especial
l y des igned for their size, weight, and body
structure. Many co untries and all states of th e
United States and p rovinces of Canada have
laws requ iring the u se of approved ch ild re
straint systems for infants and small children .
In a frontal crash at a speed o f 20 -35 mph
(30-56 km/h) the forces acting on a 13-po und
(6 kg) infant w ill be more than 20 t imes the
weight of the child . Th is means the weight of
the child would suddenly be more than 260 pounds ( 120 kg). Under these conditions,
on ly an appropriate chi ld restrai nt properly
used can reduce the risk of ser ious injury.
Ch ild restr aints must be used p roperly to be
effective. Used improperly, they can inc rease
the risk of serious in jury i n an accident.
Consult the chil d safety seat manufacture r's
i nstr uctions to be s ure the seat is r igh t for
your chi ld's size
q page 164, Important safe
ty instructions for using child safety seats .
Please be sure to read and heed a ll of the im
portant informat ion and WARNINGS abo ut
child safety, Advanced Airbags, and the ins tal
lation of child restraints in this chapter.
T here is a lot you need to know about the Ad
vanced A irbags in your vehicle and how they
work when infants and children in child re
straints are on the front passenger seat . Be
cause of the large amount of important i nfor-
Child Sa fet y 161
mation, we cannot repeat it a ll here . We urge
you to read the detai led information in this
owner 's man ua l about airbags and the Ad
vanced Airbag System in your vehicle and the
very important information about transpor t
ing ch ildren on the front passenger seat.
Please be sure to heed the WARNINGS -they
ar e extremely importa nt for your safety and
the safety of you r passenge rs, especially in
f an ts and small chi ld ren.
A WARNING
- Accident statistics have shown that c hil
dren are generally safer in the rear seat
area than in the front seating position.
Always restrain any child age 12 and un
der in the rear.
- All vehicle occupants and especially chil
dren must be restrained p roperly when
ever riding i n a vehicle. An unrestrained
or improper ly restrained chi ld could be
in ju red by str iking the interior o r by be
ing ejected from the vehicle during a
sudden maneuve r or impact. A n un re
s tra ine d or improperly restrained ch ild is
a lso at greate r risk of injury o r dea th
through contact with an inflating airbag .
- A suitable ch ild restrai nt properly inst al
led and used a t one o f the rear seat ing
positions prov ides the highest degree of
protection for infants and small children
in most accident situations.
A WARNING
Children on the front seat of any car even
with Advanced Airbags can be ser iously in
ju red or even killed when an a irbag i n
flates. A child in a rearward -fac ing ch ild
safety seat installed on t he front passen
ger seat w ill be ser iously injured and can
be killed if the front airbag infla tes.
- The infla ting airbag will h it the ch ild
s afe ty seat or i nfant carrie r wi th grea t
force and will sm ash the child safety se at
and child against the bac krest, cen ter
armrest o r door .
- Always install re arward-fac ing ch ild safe-
ty seats on the rea r seat .
~
•
•

162 Child Safety
-If you must install a rearward facing
child safety seat on the front passenger
seat in exceptional circumstances and
the
PASSENGER AIR BAG OFF light does
not come on and stay on, immediately
install the rearward-facing child safety
seat in a rear seating position and have
the airbag system inspected immediately
by your authorized Audi dealer.
.&, WARNING
If, in exceptional circumstances, you must
install a forward-facing child restraint on
the front passenger's seat:
- Always make sure the forward-facing
seat has been designed and certified by
its manufacturer for use on a front seat
with a passenger front and side airbag.
- Always follow the manufacturer's in
structions provided with the child safety
seat or carrier.
- Always move the passenger seat into its
rearmost position in the seat's fore and
aft adjustment range, as far away from
the airbag as possible before installing
the child restraint. The backrest must be adjusted to an upright position .
- Always make sure that the
PASSENGER
AIR BAG OFF
light comes on and stays
on all the time whenever the ignition is
switched on.
(D Tips
Always replace child restraints that were
installed in a vehicle during a crash. Dam
age to a child restraint that is not visible
could cause it to fail in another collision
situation.
Advanced front airbag system and children
Your vehicle is equipped with a front "Ad
vanced Airbag System" in compliance with
United States Federal Motor Vehicle Safety
Standard (FMVSS) 208 as applicable at the
time your vehicle was manufactured . 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 small adults on the driver side. The low risk deployment criteria
are intended to reduce the risk of injury
through interaction with the airbag that can
occur, for example, by being too close to the
steering wheel and instrument panel when
the airbag inflates . In addition, the system
has been certified to comply with the "sup
pression" requirements of the Safety Stand
ard, to turn off the front airbag for infants up
to 12 months who are restrained on the front
passenger seat in child restraints that are list
ed in the Standard.
Even though your vehicle is equipped with an
Advanced Airbag system, all children, espe
cially those 12 years and younger, should al
ways ride in the back seat properly restrained
for their age and size. The airbag on the pas
senger side makes the front seat a potentially
dangerous place for a child to ride . The front
seat is not the safest place for a child in a for
ward-facing child safety seat.
It can be a very
dangerous place for an infant or a larger child
in a rearward-facing seat.
Advanced Airbags and the weight
sensing mat in the front seat
The Advanced Airbag System in your vehicle detects the presence of an infant or child in a
child restraint on the front passenger seat us
ing the weight-sensing mat in the seat cush
ion and the sensor below the safety belt latch
on the front passenger seat that measures the
tension on the safety belt.
The weight-sensing mat measures total
weight of the child and the child safety seat
and a child blanket on the front passenger
seat. The weight on the front passenger seat
is related to the design of the child restraint
and its "footprint", the size and shape of the
bottom of the child restraint as it sits on the
seat. The weight of a child restraint and its "footprint" vary for different kinds of child re -
straints and for the different models of the .,.

same kind of child restrain t offered by child
restraint manufacturers.
T he weight ranges for the ind iv idual types,
makes and models o f ch ild restra ints tha t the
NHTSA has specified in the Safety Standard
together with the weight ranges of typical in
fants and typical 1 year-o ld child have been
stored in the control unit of the Advanced A ir
bag System. When a child res traint is being
used on the front passenger seat with a typi
cal 1 year-old ch ild, the Advanced Airbag Sys
tem compares the we ight measured by the
weight sens ing mat with the info rmat ion s to r
ed i n the electron ic cont rol unit.
The electron ic control unit a lso registers the
tension on the front passenger safety be lt .
The te nsio n on the safety be lt fo r the front
p assenger seat will be d iffe ren t fo r an ad ult
who is properly using the safety belt as com
pared to the tension on the be lt when it is
used to attach a child restraint to the seat.
T he sensor below the latch for the safety be lt
for the front seat passenger measures the
t ension on the be lt. The input from this sen
sor is then used with the we ight to "decide",
whether there is a ch ild restrai nt with a typ ical
1 year-o ld child on the front passenge r seat
and whether or no t the airbag must be turned
off.
Child restraints and Advanced Airbags
Regard less o f the child res traint that you use,
make sure that it has been certified to meet
United States Federal Motor Vehicle Safety
Standards and has been certified by its manu
facturer for use with an airbag. Always be sure
that the child restraint is properly insta lled at
one of the rear seat ing pos itions .
If in excep
tional c ircumstances you must use it on the
fr ont passenge r seat, caref ully read all of the
information on c hild safety and Adv ance d Air
bags an d heed a ll of the app licable WAR N
I NGS . Make certai n that the child restraint is
correctly recognized by the weig ht-sensing
mat inside the front passenger seat, that the
front passenger airbag is turned off and that
Child Sa fet y 163
the a irbag s tat us is a lways cor rect ly signaled
by the
PASSENGER AIR BAG OFF light .
Many types and models of child res traints
have been available over t he years, new mod
els are introduced regu larly incorporating new
and improved designs and o lde r models are
ta ken o ut of product ion . Ch ild restraints are
not standa rd iz ed. Child restraints of the same
type typically have d ifferent weights and si zes
and different 'footpr ints, ' the size and shape
of the bottom of the ch ild restra int that sits
on the seat, when they a re insta lled on a vehi
cl e sea t. T hese d iffe rences make i t vir tually
i mpossible to certify compl ian ce wi th t he re
quiremen ts for advanced airbags with each
and every ch ild restraint that has eve r been
so ld in the past or wi ll be sold over the course
of the useful life of your veh icle.
For t his reason, the United S tates Na tional
Hig hway T raffic Safety Administration has
published a list of specific type, makes and
models of child restraints that must be used
to certify comp liance of the Advanced Airbag
Sys tem in your veh icle with the suppression
requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety
Standard 208. These child res traints are :
Subpart A - Car bed child restraints
Model Manufactured on or
after
A ngel Guard A ngel September 25, 2007
Ride AA2403FOF
Subpart B -Rear-facing child restraints
Model Manufactured on or
after
Ce ntury Smart Fit Decembe r 1, 1999
4 543
Cosco Arriva September 25, 2007 22-013PAW and base
22 -999WHO
Evenflo Discovery Ad -December 1, 1999
just Right 212
Evenflo First Choice December 1, 1999
204
Graco Infant 8457 December 1, 1999
•
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