2014 AUDI S7 belt

150 Airbag sys te m
Since the cir cumstances will vary considerab ly
between one collision and anot her, it is not
possib le to def ine a range of vehicle speeds
that will cover every possible k ind and angle
of impact t hat will always trigger the airbags.
Important factors include, for example, the
nature (hard or soft) of the object which the
car h its, the ang le of impact, vehicle speed,
etc. The front airbags will also not inflate in
side or rea r collisions, or in ro ll-overs .
Always rememb er: Airbags will deploy only
once, and only in certa in k inds of co llisions.
Your safety belts are always there to offer pro­
tection in those s ituations in which airbags
a re not supposed to deploy, or when they have
a lready deployed; for example, when your ve­
hicle strikes or is struck by another vehicle af­
ter the first co llision.
This is just one of the reasons why an airbag is
a supplementary restraint and is not a substi­
tute for a safety belt . The airbag system
works most effect ively when used with the
safety belts. Therefore, always properly wear
your safety belts¢
page 140.
A WARNING
Sitting too close to the steer ing wheel or
instrument panel will dec rease the effec­
t iveness of the airbags and will increase
the risk of personal injury in a collision .
- Never sit closer than 10 inches (2S cm)
to the stee ring wheel or instrument pan­
el.
- If you cannot sit more than 10 inches
( 2 5 cm) from the s teer ing whee l, investi­
gate whethe r adaptive equipmen t may
be available to help you reach the pedals
and increase your seating distance from
the steering wheel.
- If you are unrestrained, lean ing fo rward,
sitting sideways or out of position in any
way, your risk of in jury is much higher.
- You will also receive serio us injuries and
cou ld even be killed if you are up against
the airbag or too close to it when it in­
flates - even with an Advanced Airbag. -
To reduce the risk of injury when an a ir­
bag inflates, always wear safety be lts
properly ¢
page 143, Safety belts.
-Always make certain that ch ildren age 12
or younger always ride in the rear seat. If
children are not properly restrained, they
may be severely injured or killed when an
airbag inflates.
- Never let children ride unrestrained or
improperly restrained in the vehicle. Ad­
just the front seats prope rly .
- Never ride with the back rest reclined.
- Always sit as far as possible from the
steer ing whee l or the instrument pane l
¢page 131.
-Always sit upright with your back against
the backrest of your seat .
- Never p lace your feet on the instrument
panel or on the seat. Always keep both
feet on the floor in front of the seat to
help prevent serio us in ju ries to the legs
and h ips if the airbag inflates.
- Never recline the front passenger 's seat
to transport objects , Items can a lso
move into the a rea of the s ide airbag or
the front a irbag d uring bra king or in a
sudden maneuve r. Objects nea r the air ­
bags can become projectiles and cause
in jur y when an airbag inflates.
A WARNING ~
Airbags that have deployed in a crash must
be replaced.
- Use on ly orig inal equipment airbags ap­
proved by Aud i and installed by a trained
technician who has the necessary too ls
and d iagnost ic equipment to properly re­
p lace any airbag in your vehicle and as­
sure system effectiveness in a crash .
- Never permit salvaged or recycled air­
bags to be installed in your vehicle.

-Always carefully follow instru ctions from
c hild restraint manufacturers when in­
sta lling child restraints.
A WARNING
If, in exceptional circumstances, you must
install a forward or rearward-facing child
restraint on the front passenger's seat:
- Improper installation of child restraints
can reduce their effectiveness or even
prevent them from providing any protec­
tion.
- 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
seat or carrier .
- Always make sure that there is nothing
on the front passenger seat that will
cause the capacitive passenger detection
system in the seat to signal to the Airbag
System that the seat is occupied by a
person when it is not, or to signal that it
is occupied by someone who is heavier
than the person actually sitting on the
seat. The presence of additional objects
could cause the passenger front airbag
to be turned on when it should be off, or
could cause the airbag to work in a way
that is different from the way it would
have worked without the object on the
seat .
Airbag system 153
Front airbags
Description of front airbags
The airbag system can provide supplemental
protection to properly restrained front seat occupants.
Fig. 161 Loc ation of driver airbag: in steering w heel
Fig. 162 Loc ation of front passenger's a irbag: in the in·
strument panel
Your vehicle is equipped with an "Advanced
Airbag System" in compliance with United
States Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard
(FMVSS) 208 as applicable at the time your
vehicle was manufactured. The system senses
the position of the front seats and controls
front airbag inflation with a valve, depending
on the distance between the respective seat
and the steering wheel or instrument panel.
The safety belts for the seats have "preten­
sioners" that help to take slack out of the belt
system. The pretens ioners are also activated
by the electronic control unit for the airbag
system .
The front safety belts also have load limiters
to help reduce the forces applied to the body
in a crash.
The airbag for the driver is in the steering
wheel hub
q fig. 161 and the airbag for the
front passenger is in the instrument panel

154 Airbag system
~fig. 162. The general location of the airbags
is marked "AIRBAG".
There is a lot you need to know about the air­ bags in your vehicle. We urge you to read the
detailed information about airbags, safety
belts and child safety in this and the other
chapters that make up the owner's literature.
Please 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 alone for protection.
- Even when they deploy, airbags provide
only supplemental protection .
- Airbag work most effectively when used
with properly worn safety belts.
- Therefore, always wear your safety belts
and make sure that everybody in your ve­
hicle is properly restrained .
- Always hold the steering wheel with both
hands on the outside of the steering
wheel rim at the 9:00 o'clock and 3 :00
o'clock positions to help reduce the risk
of personal injury if the driver's airbag in­
flates.
- Never hold the steering wheel at the 12
o'clock position or with your hands any­
where inside the steering wheel or on the
steering wheel hub. Holding the steering
wheel the wrong way increases the risk
of severe injury to the arms, hands, and
head if the driver airbag deploys.
A WARNING
Objects between you and the airbag will
increase the risk of injury in a crash by in­
terfering with the way the airbag unfolds
and/or by being pushed into you as the air­
bag inflates.
-Always make sure nothing is in the front
airbag deployment zone that could be
struck by the airbag when it inflates.
- Objects in the zone of a deploying airbag
can become projectiles when the airbag deploys and cause serious personal
in­
jury.
- Never hold things in your hands or on
your lap when the vehicle is in use.
- Never place accessories or other objects
(such as cup holders, telephone brackets,
note pads, navigation systems, or things
that are large, heavy, or bulky) on the
doors; never attach then to the doors or
the windshield; never place them over or near or attach them to the area marked
,,A IRBAG" on the steering wheel, instru­
ment panel or the seat backrests; never
place them between these areas and you
or any other person in the vehicle.
- Never attach objects to the windshield
above the passenger front airbag, such
as accessory GPS navigation units or mu­
sic players. Such objects could cause seri­
ous injury in a collision, especially when
the airbags inflate.
- Never recline the front passenger seat to
transport objects. Items can also move
into the deployment area of the side air­
bags or the front airbag during breaking
or in a sudden maneuver. Objects near
the airbags can fly dangerously through
the passenger compartment and cause
injury, particularly when the seat is re­
clined and the airbags inflate.
A person on the front passenger seat, es­
pecially infants and small children, will re­
ceive serious injuries and can even be kil­
led by being too close to the airbag when
it inflates.
- Although the Advanced Airbag System in
your vehicle is designed to turn off the
front passenger 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
ble situations that may happen during
the useful life of your vehicle.
~

-The Advanced Airbag System can deploy
in accordance with the .,low risk" opt ion
for 3- and 6-year-old children under the U.S. Federal Standard if a child w ith elec­
trical capac itance greater than the com­
bined capacitance of a typical one-year
old infan t restra ined in one of the for­
ward fac ing or rearward-fac ing ch ild
seats with which you r vehicle was cer ti­
fied is on the front passenger seat and
the other conditions for airbag deploy­ ment 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, sho uld al­
ways ride in the back properly restrained
for their age and size.
Advanced front airbag system
Your veh icle is equipped w ith a front Advanced
A irbag System in compliance with Un ited
States Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard
208 as applicab le at the time your vehicle was
manufactured.
The front Advanced Airbag System supple­ ments the safety belts to provide add it ional
p rotection fo r the driver's and front passeng­
e r' s heads and upper bodies in frontal crashes.
The airbags inflate only in frontal impacts
when the vehicle dece leration is high enough .
The front Advanced Airbag System for the
front sea t occ upants is no t a substit ute for
your safety bel ts. Rather, it is par t of the over­
all occupant restraint system in your veh icle.
A lways remember that the airbag system can
only help to protect yo u, if you are s itting up­
right, wearing yo ur 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 veh icle
has been certified to meet the "low r isk" re­
qu irements for 3 and 6 year-o ld children on
the passenge r side and very small adults on
A irbag system 15 5
the driver side . The low risk deployment crite­
ria are intended to help reduce the risk of in­
j u ry through interaction with the front airbag
that can occur, for example, by being too close to the steering wheel and instrument
panel when the airbag inflates.
In add ition, the system has been certified to
comply with the "s uppression" requirements
of the Safety Standard, to turn off the front
airbag for infants 12 months old and younger
who are restrained on the fro nt passenger
seat in child restraints that are l isted in the
Standard
¢ page 177, Child restraints and
Advanced front airbag system.
"Suppress ion " requires the front a irbag 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 i n one
of the rear-fac ing or forward-facing infant
restraints listed in Federal Motor Vehicle
Safety Standard 208 with wh ich the Ad­
vanced Airbag System in your ve hicl e was
certified. For a listing of the chi ld restraints
tha t were used to certify your vehicle's com ­
pliance with the US Safety Standard
¢ page 177,
-When a person is detected on the front pas ­
senger seat that has an electrical capaci­
tance that is more than the tota l electrical
capacitance of a child that is about 1 year
old restrained in one of the rear-facing o r
forward -facing infant restraints (listed in
Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 208
w ith which the Advanced A irbag System in
your veh icle was certified), the front airbag
on the passenger side may or may no t de­
p loy.
T he
PASSENGER AIR BAG OFF light comes on
whe n the elect ro ni c cont ro l unit de tects a to­
ta l elec trical c apac itance on the front passen­
ger seat that requi res 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 condi -
tions stored in its memory .
IJJ,,
•
•

156 Airbag sys te m
If the tota l electrical capacitance registe red
on the front passenger seat is more than that
of a typ ica l 1 year-old, but less than the
weight of a small adult, the front a irbag on
the passenger side may deploy (the
PA SSE N­
GER AIR BAG OFF
li ght does not come on).
For e xample , the airbag m ay deploy if :
-a small child that is heavier than a typical 1
year-o ld child is on the front passenger seat
(regardless of whether the child is in one of
the chi ld seats listed
¢ page 177),
-a chi ld who has outgrown child restraints is
on the front passenger seat.
If the front passenger airbag is turned off, the
PASSENGER AIR BAG OFF light in the center
of the instrument panel wi ll come on and stay
on.
If the front passenger airbag deploys, the
F ederal Standard requires the airbag to meet
the " low risk" deployment criteria to help re­
d uce the risk of injury through interaction
with the airbag. "Low risk" deployment occurs
in those crashes that take place at lower de­
celerations as defined in the electronic control un it
¢ page 161.
Alw ays rem ember : Even though your vehicle
is equipped with Advanced Airbags, the safest
place for children is properly restrained on the
back seat . Please be sure to read the impor­
tant information in the sect ions that follow
and be sure to heed a ll of the WARNINGS.
.&_ WARNING
To reduce the risk of injury when an airbag
inflates, a lways wear safety belts prope rly.
- If you are unrestrained, lean ing fo rward,
sitting sideways or out of position in any
way, your risk of injury is much higher.
- You w ill also receive serio us injuries and
cou ld even be killed if you are up against
the a irbag or too close to it when it in ­
flates - even with an Advanced Airbag
¢page 149.
.&_ WARNING
A child in a rearward-fac ing ch ild seat in­
stalled on the front passenger seat will be
seriously injured and can be killed if the
front airbag inflates - even w ith an Ad­
van ced A irbag System.
- Altho ugh the Advanced Airbag System in
your veh icle is designed to turn off the
front airbag when a rearward-facing
child restraint has been instal led on the
front passenger seat, nobody can abso ­
lutely g uarantee that dep loyment is im­
possible in all conceivable situations that
may happen dur ing the usefu l life of your
veh icle.
- The inflating airbag will h it the ch ild seat
or infant carrier with great force and will
smash the child seat and child against
the backrest, center armrest, door, or roof.
- Always install rearward-facing ch ild re­
straints on the rear seat .
- If you must install a rearward fac ing
child seat on the front passenger seat because of exceptional circumstances
and the
PASSENGER AIR BAG OFF light
does not come on and stay on, immed i­
a tely insta ll the rear-facing child seat in a
rear seat ing pos ition and have the airbag
system inspected by your Audi dealer.
.&_ WARNING ,..___
If, in except iona l circumstances, you m ust
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 s ide a irbag.
- Never p ut the forward-facing child re­
straint up against or very near the instru­
ment panel.
- Always move the passenger seat into its
rearmost pos ition in the seat's fore and
aft ad justment range, as far away from
the airbag as possible, before install ing
the forward-fac ing ch ild restra int. The
-

backrest must be adjusted to an upright
posit ion.
- Always make sure that there is nothing
on the front passenger seat that will
cause the capacitive passenger detection
system in the seat to s ignal to the A irbag
System that the seat is occupied by a person when it is not, or to signa l that it
is occupied by som eone who is heavier
than t he pe rson actually s itting on t he
sea t. T he presence of addition al obje cts
cou ld cause the passenger front airbag
to be t urned on when it sho uld be off, or
cou ld cause t he airbag to work in a way
that is different from the way it wou ld
have worked without the object on the
seat.
- Make sure that the
PASSENGER AIR BAG
OFF
light comes on and stays on all the
t ime w henever the ignition is switc hed
on.
Advanced Airbag System components
The front passenger seat in your vehicle has a
l ot of very important parts of the Advanced
A irbag System in it. These parts incl ude t he
c a pac itive passenger de te ct ion sys tem, wir­
ing, b racke ts, and more . The cont ro l uni t
monitors the system o n the front passenger
seat when the ign ition is switched on and
turns the airbag indicator light on w hen a
malfunct ion in the one of the system compo­
nents is detected ¢
page 162. Because the
fro nt passenge r seat contains important parts
of the Advanced Airbag System, you must
take care to p revent it from bei ng damaged.
D amage to the seat may preven t the Ad ­
vanced A irbag System for the front passenger
seat from doing its job in a crash .
The front Advanced Airbag System
consists of the following:
-Crash sensors in the front of the veh icle tha t
measure ve hicle acceleration/dece le ration
to provide information to the Advanced Air­ bag System about the severity of the crash.
A irbag system 157
- An elect ron ic contro l unit, with integrated
crash sensors fo r front and side impacts .
T he control un it "decides" whether to f ire
the front a irbag s based on the informat ion
received from the crash sensors. The control
unit also "decides" whether the safety belt
prete nsione rs should be act iva ted .
- An Advanced A irbag w it h gas generator and
cont ro l valve for the driver ins ide the steer ­
ing wheel h ub.
- An Advanced A irbag w ith gas generator and
cont ro l valve inside the instrument pa nel for
the front passenger .
- A capacit ive passenger detection system un ­
de rneath the front passenger seat cover .
This system measu res the ele ct rical capac i­
t ance of the perso n in the seat. The informa ­
t ion regis tered is se nt cont inuo usly to the
elec tronic con trol un it to regu late dep loy­
ment of the front Advanced A irbag on the
passenger side.
-An airbag monitoring system an d ind icator
light in the instr ument cluster ¢
page 161.
-A senso r in each front seat registers the dis ­
tance between the respective seat a nd the
steering whee l or instrument panel. The in­
formation registered is sent cont inuo usly to
the electron ic contro l unit to regulate de­
ployment of the front Adva need A irbags .
- The
PASSENGER AIR BAG OFF li ght comes
on and stays on in the center of the instr u­
ment panel ¢
page 162, fig . 164 and tells
you whe n the front Advanced Airbag on the
passenger side has been tu rned off.
- A senso r in t he safety belt latch fo r the d riv ­
er and fo r the front seat passenger that
senses whethe r th at safety belt is latched or
no t and tra nsmi ts this informa tion to the
elec tro nic con trol un it.
A WARNING
D amage to the fron t passenger se at can
p revent the front air bag from work ing
p roperly.
- Imp roper repai r or disassembly of the
front passenge r and dr iver seat will pre­
vent the Advanced Airbag System from
functioning properly.
-
•
•

things on the seat cushion can have the
same eff ect. I f the front passen ger fron­
tal airbag is turned on, the
PASSENGER
AIR BAG OFF
light light will go out.
How the Advanced Airbag System
components work together
The fron t Advanced Airbag System and the
side airbags supplement the protection of­
fered by the front three -point safety be lts
with p retensioners and load limiters and the
adjustab le head restraints to he lp reduce the
risk of injury in a wide range of accident and
crash situat ions. Be sure to read the impor­
tant information about safety and heed the
WARNINGS in this chapter .
Dep loyment of the Advanced Airbag System
and the act ivation of the safety be lt preten­
sioners depend on the dece lerat ion measured
by the crash sensors and registered by the
e lectronic control un it. The amount of infla­
tion of the front airbags can also be adapted to the front seat posi tion, depend ing on the
d istance between the respective front seat
and the steering whee l or instrument panel as
registe red by sensors in the seats. Crash se­
verity depends on speed and deceleration as
well as the mass and stiffness of the vehicle
or object involved in the crash .
On the passenger s ide, regard less of safety
be lt use, the front passenger f ronta l airbag
will be turned off if the electrical capacitance
measured by the capac itive passenger detec­
tion system on the front passenger seat is less
tha n the amount programmed in the electron­
ic control unit. The front passenger fronta l air­
bag will a lso be turned off if the capa cita nce
measured by the system for the front pa ssen­
ger seat equa ls t hat of an infant of abo ut one
yea r of age in one o f the child seats that was
used to cert ify the Advanced Airbag System
under Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard
208. The
PASSENGER AIR BAG OFF li ght
comes on and stays on to tell you when t he
front Adva nced Airbag System o n the passen­
ger s ide has been turned off~
page 162 .
Airba g sy stem 159
A WARNING
To reduce the risk of injury w hen an airbag
in flates, always wear safety be lts p ro perly.
- If you are unrestra ined, leaning forward,
sitt ing s ideways or o ut of pos ition in any
way, your ris k of injury is m uc h higher.
- You will a lso receive serious injuries and
co uld even be killed if yo u are up aga inst
the airbag o r too close to it when it in­
flates -even w it h an Advanced A irbag
~ page 149.
More important things to know about
front airbags
Fi g. 16 3 In flated front a irbags
Safety belts a re important to he lp keep front
seat occupants in the proper seated position
so that ai rbags can unfold p roper ly and pro­
v ide s upplement al pro tect ion in a fron tal col­
lis ion .
T he front airbags a re des igned to provide ad­
di tional protection fo r the chest and fa ce of
the driver a nd the front seat p assenger when :
- safety belts are worn properly,
- the seats have been positioned so that the
occupant is properly seated as far as poss i­
b le from th e airbag,
- and the head restraints have been properly adjusted .
Because airbags inflate in the bli nk of an eye
with great force, th ings you have on your lap
or have p laced on the seat cou ld become dan ­
gerous p ro jecti les, and be pushed in to you if
t h e a irbag inf lates.
When an airbag deploys, fine dust is re leased.
This is norma l and is not caused by a fire i n .,,.

160 Airbag sys te m
the vehicle. This dust is made up most ly of a
powder used to lubricate the airbags as they
deploy . It cou ld irritate sk in .
I t is important to remember that whi le the
supp lemental airbag system is designed to re­
duce the likelihood of serious injuries, other
in ju ries, for example swelling, bruising and
minor abrasions, can also happen when air­
bags inflate. Airbags do not protect the arms
or the lower parts of the body . Front airbags
supplement the three-poi nt safety belts only
in some frontal co llisions in which the vehicle
dece lera tion is high enough to deploy the air­
bags.
Front airbags will not d eploy:
- if the ignit ion is switched off when a crash
occurs,
- in s ide collisions,
- in rear-end collisions,
- in ro llovers,
- when the crash deceleration measured by
the airbag system is less than the minimum
threshold needed for airbag deployment as
registered by the electronic control unit.
Th e front pa ssenger airbag al so will not
d epl oy :
-when the front passenger seat is not occu ­
pied,
- when the electrical capacitance measured by
the capacitive passenger detection system
for the front passenger seat indicates that
the passenger side frontal airbag must be
switched off by the electronic control unit (the
PASSENGER A IR B AG OFF light
c::> page 162 and how they wo rk comes on
and stays on).
.&_ WARNING
Sitting in the wrong position can inc rease
the risk of serious injury in crashes .
- To reduce the r isk 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 their body too close to the area where
the airbags are
located .
- Occupants who are unbelted, out of posi­
tion or too close to the airbag can be se­
rious ly injured by an airbag as it unfolds
with great force in the blink of an eye
c::> page 151 .
.&_ WARNING
--A child in a rearward-fac ing ch ild seat in -
stalled on the front passenger seat will be
se riously inju red and can be killed if t he
front ai rbag inflates - even w ith an Ad­
vanced A irbag System.
- The inflating airbag will h it the c hild seat
or infant car rier with great force and will
smash the child sea t and chi ld against
the backrest, center armrest, door or
roof.
- Always install rear -fac ing chi ld seats on
the rear seat.
- If you m ust insta ll a rearward fac ing
chi ld seat on the front passenger seat
because of exceptional circumstances
and the PAS SENGER AIR BAG O FF light
does not come on and stay on, immed i­
ately install the rear-facing child seat in a rear seat ing pos ition and have the airbag
system inspected by you r Audi dealer .
.&_ WARNING
= -
Objects between you and the airbag will
i ncrease the r is k of injury in a crash by in­
terfering with the way the a irbag unfolds
or by be ing p ushed in to you as the airbag
i nflates.
- Neve r hold things in yo ur hands or on
your lap when the veh icle is in use.
- Never transpo rt items on o r in the a rea
of the front p assenger sea t. Objects
could move into the a rea of the front air­
bags during braking or other sudden ma ­
neuvers and become dangero us projec­
tiles that can cause ser ious personal in-
jury if the a irbags inf late. ..,.