146 Airbag system
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, always:
• Adjust the driver's seat and steering wheel
properly
¢ page 127,
• Adjust the front passenger's seat properly
¢ page 60,
• Wear safety be lts properly ¢ page 141,
• Always properly use the proper child re-
straint to protect children ¢
page 169.
In a collision, airbags must inflate within the
blink of an eye and with considerable force.
The supplemental airbags can cause injuries if
the driver or the front seat passenger is not
seated properly . Therefore in order to help the
a ir bag to do its job, it is important, both as a
d river and as a passenger to sit prope rly at all
times.
By keeping room between your body and the
steering wheel and the front of the passenger
compartment, the airbag can inflate fully and
comp letely and provide supplemental protec
tion in ce rtain frontal collisions
¢page 127,
Proper occupant seating positions.
F or details
on the operation of the seat adjustment con
t rols ¢
page 60.
It's especially important that children are
properly restrained ¢
page 169.
There is a lot that the driver and the passen
ge rs can and must do to help the individual
safety features installed in your Audi work to
gether as a system.
Proper seating pos ition is important so that
the front airbag on the driver side can do its
job. If you have a physical impairment or con- dition that
prevents you from sitting properly
on the driver seat with the safety belt properly
fastened and reaching the pedals , 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, or call Audi Customer Re
lations at 1-800-822-2834 for possible modi
ficat ions to your veh icle.
When the airbag system deploys, a gas gener
ator will f ill the a irbags, break open t he pad
ded cove rs, and inflate between the steering
whee l and the dr iver and between the instru
ment panel and the front passenger. The air
bags will deflate immediately after deploy
ment so that the front occupants can see
t hr ough the windshie ld again without inter
ruption .
All of this takes pla ce in the blink of an eye, so
fast that many peop le don't even realize tha t
the airbags have deployed. The airbags a lso
inflate with a great dea l of force and nothing
should be in their w ay when they deploy.
Front airbags in combination with properly
worn 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 hitting parts of the inside of the
vehicle while reducing the forces acting on the
occupant during the crash . In this way they
help to reduce the risk of injury to the head
and upper body in the crash. Airbags 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 this rate is below
the reference value programmed into the con
t rol unit , the airbags will not be triggered,
even though the car may be badly damaged as
a res ult of the collision . Vehicle damage, re
pair costs or even the lack of vehicle damage
is not necessari ly an indication of whether an
airbag shou ld inflate or not.
IJll-
