Airbag system
The airbag system is not a substitute for your
safety belt. Rather, it is part of the overa ll occu-
pant restraint system in your vehicle. Always re-
member that the airbag system can only help to
protect you if you are wearing your safety belt
and wear ing it properly . This is why you should
always wear your safety belt, not just because
the law req uires you to do so
q page 260, Gener-
al notes.
Remember too, airbags will deploy only once and
only in certain kinds of accidents - your safety
be lts are always there to offer protect ion in those
accidents in wh ich airbags are not suppose d t o
deploy or when they have a lready deployed, fo r
examp le when your vehicle str ikes or is str uck by
another after the firs t collision .
This is jus t one of t he reasons why an airbag is
not a subs t itut e for the safety belt. The air bag
syst em works most effec t ively when used with
the safety belts. Therefore, a lways wear your
safety belts correct ly.
It is important t o remember th at whi le the sup-
plemen t al knee airbag system is des igned to re-
duce the likelihood of se rious injuries, other inju-
ries, for example, swe lling, bruising an d minor
ab rasions and friction burns can also occur when
an airbag inf lates .
The knee airbag system basically consists of :
- The elec tr onic control module
- Two inflatab le airbags (airbag a nd gas genera-
t or), one for t he driver an d one fo r the fron t
passenger
- The airbag indicato r ligh t in the ins t rumen t
pane l
The knee airbag system will not deploy:
- whe n the ignition is switched off
- in frontal collisions when the decele ration
measured by the control unit is too low
- in s ide collisions
- in rear -end collisions
- in rollove rs
- in the eve nt of a syst em ma lf unct ion (warning/
indicator light is on)
q page 26 .
286
A WARNING
,-
- Safety belts and the airbag system can only
provide protect io n when occupa nts are in
the prope r seat ing pos ition ~ page 2 79.
- If the a irbag ind icator light ¢ page 26
comes when the veh icle is being used, have
t he system inspected immedia t ely by your
author ized Audi de aler.
It is possib le th at
the air bag will inflat e when it is not sup -
po sed t o, or will not infla te when it sho uld.
How knee airbags work
Applies to: vehicles with knee airbags
The risk of injury to the leg area can be reduced
by fully inflated knee airbags.
Fig. 241 Inflated airbags protec tin g in a fro nta l collision
The knee airbag system has been designed so
that the airbags for the driver and front passen-
ger dep loy in certain but not all fronta l collisions .
If the front airbags deploy, the knee airbags also
deploy in frontal collisions when the dep loyment
th reshold stored in the cont rol unit is met.
When the system deploys , the a irbags f ill with a
compressed pro pellant gas, and inflate between
the lowe r part of the instrument panel and the
driver and the lower part of the instrument panel
and t he front passenger¢
page 2 79, fig. 238 .
Althoug h they are not a soft pillow, they can
"cushion" the impact and in this way they ca n
help to red uce the risk of inj ury to the lower ex-
trem ities.
All of th is takes place in the blink of an eye, so
fast that many people don 't even rea lize that the
airbags have deployed. The airbags a lso inflate
with a g reat deal of force and it is important fo r Ill-
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