Page 129 of 302

A WARNING ,~
To help prevent poisonous exhaust gas
from being drawn into the vehicle, always
keep the rear lid closed while driving .
- Never transport objects larger than
those fitting completely into the luggage
area because the rear lid cannot be fully
closed.
- If you absolutely must drive with the rear
lid open, observe the following notes to
reduce the risk of poisoning:
- Close all windows,
- Close the power roof*,
- Open all air outlets in the instrument
panel,
- Switch off the air recirculation,
- Set the fresh air fan to the highest
speed.
A WARNING
Always make sure that the doors, all win dows, the power roof* and the rear lid are
securely closed and locked to reduce the
risk of injury when the vehicle is not being
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. Being trapped in a vehicle can
lead to serious personal injury.
- Never let children play in or around the
vehicle .
- Never let passengers ride in the luggage
compartment. Vehicle occupants must
always be properly restrained in one of
the vehicle's seating positions.
Gj) Tips
-Air circulation helps to reduce window fogging. Stale air escapes to the outside
through vents in the trim panel. Be sure
to keep these slots free and open .
-
Driving Safely 127
-The tire pressure must correspond to the
load. The tire pressure is shown on the
tire pressure label. The tire pressure la
bel is located on the driver's side B-pillar.
The tire pressure label lists the recom
mended cold tire inflation pressures for
the vehicle at its maximum capacity
weight and the tires that were on your
vehicle at the time it was manufactured. For recommended tire pressures for nor
mal load conditions, please see chapter
I:!) page 233.
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<>
page 126, Loading the luggage com
partment.
In a collision, the laws of physics mean that
even smaller items that are loose in the vehi
cle will become heavy missiles that can cause
serious injury. Items in the vehicle possess en
ergy which vary with vehicle speed and the
weight of the item. Vehicle speed is the most
significant factor.
For example , in a frontal collision at a speed
of 30 mph (48 km/h), the forces acting on a 10-lb (4.5 kg) object are about 20 times the
normal weight of the item. This means that
the weight of the item would suddenly be about 200 lbs. (90 kg) . You can imagine the
injuries that a 200 lbs . (90 kg) item flying
freely through the passenger compartment
could cause in a collision like this.
A WARNING
Weak, damaged or improper straps used
to secure items to tie-downs can fail dur
ing hard braking or in a collision and cause
serious personal injury.
-Always use suitable mounting straps and properly secure items to the tie-downs in
'
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Page 130 of 302

128 Driving Safely
th e lu gg age com partment to help pre -Tel.: 1-888-327-4236 (TTY :
vent items from shiftin g or flying
1-800-424-9153) or fo rwar d as dange ro us m iss iles.
- W hen the rear seat back rest is folded
1-800 -424-9393
down, always use su itab le mounting
st raps a nd pro perly secure items t o th e
or you may write to:
tie -downs in t he luggage com partmen t
NHTSA to help prev ent item s from f lying fo r-
w ar d as dan gerous miss iles into t he pas-
U.S. Department of Transporta-
se ng er compartm ent .
tion - N ever at tach a child sa fety seat tet her
s tra p to a tie- down.
1200 New Jersey Ave., S. E.
Reporting Safety
West Building
Washington, DC 20590
Defects
Applicable to U.S.A.
You can also obtain other infor-
mation about motor vehicle
If you believe that your vehicle safety from:
has a defect which could cause
a crash or could cause injury or http:/ /www. safe rca r. gov
death, you should immediately
Applicable to Canada
inform the National Highway If you live in Canada and you
Traffic Safety Admini stration
believe that your vehicle has a
(NHTSA) in addition to notify- defect that could cause a crash,
ing Audi of America, Inc. injury or death, you should im-
If NHTSA receives similar com- mediately inform Transport
plaints, it may open an investi- Canada, Defect Investigations
gation, and if it finds that a and Recalls. You should also no-
safety defects exists in a group tify Audi Canada.
of vehic les, it may order a recall
Canadian customers who wish
and remedy campaign. Howev- to report a safety-related de-
er , NHTSA cannot become in-
feet to Transport Canada, De-
volved in individual problems feet Investigations and Recalls,
between you, your dealer, or may either call Transport Cana-
Audi of America, Inc .
da toll-free at:
....
To contact the NHTSA , you may
either call:
Page 131 of 302
Tel.: 1-800-333-0510 or
Tel.: 1-819-994-3328 (Ottawa region and from other coun
tries)
TTY for hearing impaired: Tel.:
1-888-675-6863
or contact Transport Canada by
mail at:
Transport Canada Motor Vehicle Safety Investiga
tions Laboratory 80 Noel Street
Gatineau, QC
J8Z 0Al
For additional road safety infor
mation, please visit the Road
Safety website at:
http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/
roadsafety/menu.htm
Driving Safely 129
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Page 132 of 302

130 Safety belts
Safety belts
General notes
Always wear safety belts!
Wearing safety belts correctly saves lives!
This chapter explains why safety be lts are nec
essary, how they work and how to adjust and
wear them correctly .
.. Read a ll the information that fo llows and
heed all of the instructions 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 the sing le most effective
means avai lab le to reduce the risk of se
r ious injury and dea th in a utomob ile acci
dents. For your protection and that of
yo ur passenge rs, always co rrectly wear
safety belts when the vehicle is moving.
- Pregnant women, injured, or physically
im paired perso ns m ust also use safety
belts. 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
Your Audi has a total of four seating positions: two in the front and two in the rear. Each seat
ing position has a safety belt .
A WARNING
Not wearing safety belts or weari ng them
improp erly increases th e risk of ser ious
pe rsonal i njury and deat h.
- Never st rap more than one pe rson, in
cl uding small ch ild ren, into any belt.
It is
e speci ally dange rous to pla ce a safety
belt over a child s itting on yo ur lap.
- N ever le t mo re people ride in the ve hicl e
than there are s afe ty be lts avail able. -
Be s ure everyone riding in the vehicle is
properly restrained w ith a separate safe
ty belt or child restra int.
t Safety belt warning light
Your vehicle hos o warning system for the
driver and front seat passenger (on USA mod
els only) to remind you about the importance
of buckling-up .
Fi g. 14 8 Safety belt warni ng light in the instrument
cluster -en larged
Before driv ing off, alway s:
.. Fasten yo ur safety belt and make su re you
are wearing it properly .
.. Make s ure that your passengers also buck le
up and properly wear their safety be lts.
.. Protect childre n w ith a child restraint sys-
tem app ropriate for the s ize and age.
The warn ing light . in the instrument clus
ter lights up when the ign ition is on as a re
minder to fasten the safety be lts. In addition,
you w ill hear a warn ing tone for a ce rtai n pe ri
od of t ime.
Fasten you r safety belt and make sure that
your pass eng ers also properly put on the ir
s afety belt s.
A WARNING .....=-
-Safety b elts are the s ingle most eff ect ive
means avai lable to reduce t he ri sk of se
rio us inju ry and de ath in au tomobile a cci
dents. Fo r you r protection and that of
your passengers, a lways cor rectly wear
safety belts when t he vehicle is moving .
Page 133 of 302

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-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. 149 Unbelted occupants in a ve hicle heading for a
wall
Fig. 150 The vehicle cras hes into the wall
The physical principles are simple. Both the
vehicle and the passengers possess energy
which varies w ith veh icle 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.
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 t imes!
Because the passengers of this vehicle are not
using safety belts¢
fig. 149, they will keep
moving at the same speed the vehicle was
mov ing just before the crash, until something
stops them - here, the wall ¢
fig. 150.
Safety belts 131
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 app ly to frontal collisions, they determine
what happens in all kinds of accidents and col
lisions.
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. 151 A driver not wea ring a safety be lt is vio lently
th rown forward
Fig. 152 A rear passenger not wearing a safety belt
w ill fly forward and strike the driver
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 .,..
Page 134 of 302

13 2 Safety belts
occupant will slam violently into the steering
wheel, instrument panel, windshield, or what
ever else is in the way
c::> fig. 151. This impact
with the vehicle interior has all the energy
t hey had just before the crash.
Never rely on a irbags 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 othe r passen
gers
~ fig. 152. 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. 153 Driver is co rr ect ly re strain ed in a sudd en brak
ing maneuve r
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 tha t 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
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 r isk 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 no t enough decelera tion
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!
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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.
- Always fasten your safety be lts 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 d riv
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 be ing 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 .
Safety belts 133
-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 requ ired 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
damaged, have belts replaced by an au
thorized Audi dealer or qualified work
shop.
- Safety belts that have been worn and
loaded in an accident must be replaced
with the correct replacement safety belt
by an authorized Audi dealer. Replace
ment may be necessary even if damage
cannot be clearly seen . Anchorages that
were loaded must also be inspected.
- Never remove, modify, disassemble, or
try to repair the safety belts yourself.
- Always keep the belts clean. Dirty belts
may not work properly and can impair
the function of the inertia reel~
ta
ble Cleaning interior on page 203.
Safety belts
Fastening safety belts
Safety first -everybody buckle up!
Fig. 154 Bel t b uckle and to ngue on the drive r's seat
Page 136 of 302

134 Safet y belt s
To provide maximum protection, safety belts
must always be positioned correctly on the
wearer 's body .
.,. Adjust the front seat and head restr aint
properly
c::, page 53, General recommenda
t ions .
.,. Make sure the seatback of the rear seat
bench is in an upright pos ition and securely
latched in place before using the belt
c::, .&, .
.,. Hold the be lt by the tongue and pull it even
ly across the chest and pelv is
c::, .&, .
.,. Inse rt the tongue into the correct buckl e of
yo ur sea t until you hea r it latc h securely
c::>fig. 154.
.,. Pull on the be lt to make sure that it is se-
curely latched in t he buckle.
Automatic safety belt retractors
Every safety belt is equipped w ith an automat
i c belt retracto r on the shoulder be lt. This fea
ture locks the be lt whe n the belt is pulled out
fast, dur ing hard braking and i n an accident.
The belt may also lock when you drive up or
down a steep hill or throug h a sharp curve.
During normal driv ing the belt lets you move
freely.
Safety belt pretensioners
The sa fety belts are equipped with a be lt pre
tensioner that helps to tighten the safety belt
and remove s lack when the pretensioner is ac
tivated ¢
page 136. The function of the pre
tensioner is mon it ored by a warning light
¢ page 18.
Convertible locking retractor
Every safety belt except the one on the driver
seat is eq uipped w ith a convertib le loc king re
tractor that
must be used when the safety
be lt is used to attach a child seat. Be su re to
read the important information about this
featu re
c::> page 176.
.,& WARNING
Imprope rly posit ioned safety belts can
cause se rious injury in an accident
c::> page 13 4, Safety bel t posi tion.
- Safety belts offer opt imum protection
only when the seatback is upr ight and
be lts are properly posit ioned o n the
body .
- If the rear seat backrest is not securely
latched, the passenger w ill move for
ward with the bac krest dur ing sudden
b ra ki ng, in a sudden maneuver and espe
cially in a cra sh.
- N ever attach t he safety belt to t he buck
le for another seat . Attaching the belt to
the wrong buckle will reduce s afety be lt
effec tiveness and can cause seri ous per
sonal injury .
- A passenger who is not prope rly restrain
e d ca n be seriously injured by the safe ty
be lt itse lf w hen it moves from the st ron
ge r parts of the body into cr itical areas
like the abdomen.
- A lways loc k the conve rtible locking re
tractor when you are secu ring a child
seat in t he veh icle
c::, page 178.
(D Tips
F o r i nforma tion on safe ty belt pre tension
e rs, refer to
c::, page 136.
Safety belt position
Correc t belt position is the key to getting
maximum protection from safety belts .
Fig. 155 Sa fety belt pos it ion
U se the height adjustment to change the posi
tion of t he shoulder belt of the front safety
belts.
~