160 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.
For your safety and the safety of your passen-
gers, before driving off, always:
• Adjust the dr iver's seat and steering wheel
properly ¢
page 143,
• Adjust the front passenger's seat properly
¢ page 63 ,
• Wear safety be lts properly ¢ page 155,
• Always properly use the proper child re-
straint t o protect children ¢
page 181.
In a collision airbags must inflate within the
blink of an eye and with considerable force .
The supplemental airbags can cause injuries if
the dr iver or the front seat passenger is not
seated properly . Therefore in order to he lp the
a irbag to do its job, it is important, both as a
d river and as a passenger to sit properly 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 supp lemental protec-
tion in certain frontal collisions ¢
page 143,
Proper occupant seating positions.
For details
on the operat ion of the seat adjustment con-
trols ¢
page 64.
It's especially important that children are
properly restrained ¢
page 181.
There is a lot that the driver and the passen-
ge rs can and must do to help the individua l
safety features installed in your Aud i work to-
gether as a system.
Proper seat ing pos ition is important so that
the front airbag on the driver side can do it s
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 peda ls, spec ial
modifications to your vehicle may be necessa-
ry.
Contact your authorized Audi dea ler, or call
Audi Customer Relations at 1-800-822-2834 .
When the airbag system dep loys, a gas gener-
ator will f ill the airbags, break open the pad-
ded covers, 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
th rough the windshield aga in without inter-
ruption .
All of th is take s place in the blink of an eye, so
fast that many people don't even realize that
the a irbags have deployed . The airbags also
inflate with a great deal of force and nothing
shou ld be in their way when they deploy.
Front airbags in combination with properly
worn safety belts slow down and limit the oc-
cupant's forward movement. Together they
help to prevent the driver and front seat pas-
senger from hitting parts of the inside the ve-
hicle while reducing the forces acting on the
occupant dur ing 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 a irbags will not inflate in all fronta l
collisions . The trigge ring of the airbag system
depends on the vehicle dece lerat ion rate
caused by the collision and registered by the
electron ic control unit. If this rate is below
the reference value programmed into the con-
trol unit, the airbags will not be trigge red ,
even though the car may be bad ly damaged as
a resu lt of the collision . Vehicle damage, re-
pair costs or even the lack of veh icle damage
is not necessarily an indication of whether an
airbag should inflate or not .
It is not possib le to define a range of vehicle
speeds that will cover every possib le kind and .,.
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