Audi A6 Typ 4G: Front airbags

Description of front airbags

The airbag system can provide supplemental protection to properly restrained front seat occupants.

Fig. 153 Location of driver airbag: in steering wheel

Fig. 154 Location of front passenger's airbag: in the instrument panel

Your vehicle is equipped with an "Advanced Airbag System" in compliance with United States Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) 208, as well as Canada Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (CMVSS) 208 as applicable at the time your vehicle was manufactured. The safety belts for the seats have "pretensioners" that help to take slack out of the belt system.

The pretensioners 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 fig. 153 and the airbag for the front passenger is in the instrument panel fig. 154. The general location of the airbags is marked "AIRBAG" .

There is a lot you need to know about the airbags 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 infants and small children.

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 vehicle 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 inflates.
• Never hold the steering wheel at the 12 o'clock position or with your hands anywhere 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.

WARNING

Objects between you and the airbag will increase the risk of injury in a crash by interfering with the way the airbag unfolds and/or by being pushed into you as the airbag 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 injury.
• 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 "AIRBAG" on the steering wheel, instrument 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 music players. Such objects could cause serious 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 airbags 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 reclined and the airbags inflate.

WARNING

A person on the front passenger seat, especially infants and small children, will receive serious injuries and can even be killed 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 conceivable situations that may happen during the useful life of your vehicle.
• The Advanced Airbag System can deploy in accordance with the "low risk" option for 3- and 6-year-old children under the U.S. Federal Standard if a child with electrical capacitance greater than the combined capacitance of a typical one-year old infant restrained in one of the forward facing or rearward- facing child seats with which your vehicle was certified is on the front passenger seat and the other conditions for airbag deployment are met.
• Accident statistics have shown that children are generally safer in the rear seat area than in the front seating position.
• For their own safety, all children, especially 12 years and younger, should always ride in the back properly restrained for their age and size.

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