air VOLKSWAGEN JETTA 2017 User Guide

WARNING
Improper use of the steering column adjustment feature can result in serious personal injury and even death.
x Always pull the lever (1) firmly upward after adjusting the steering column so that the steering wheel does not change position suddenly while the vehicle is moving.
x Never adjust the steering column while the vehicle is moving. If you find that you need to adjust the steering wheel while driving, stop the vehicle in a safe place and make the proper adjustment.
x Never adjust the steering wheel so that it points toward your face. Always make sure that the steering wheel points toward your chest. Otherwise, the airbag system cannot protect you properly in the event of a crash.
x Always hold the steering wheel on the outside of the steering wheel rim with your hands at the 9 o'clock and 3 o'clock positions to help reduce the risk of serious personal injury if the driver's airbag inflates.
x 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 de-ploys.
Center armrest

Fig. 48 Front center armrest.

WARNING
A wet seat can cause the seat heating to malfunction and increase the risk of serious burns.
x Always make sure the seats are dry before using the seat heating.
x Never sit on the seat with wet clothes.
x Never put damp or wet things including clothes on the seat.
x Never spill liquids on the seats.
NOTICE
x To help prevent damage to electrical and other parts in the seat, do not kneel on the front seats or apply concentrated pressure to a small area of the seat or backrest.
x Liquids, sharp objects and things that do not let the heat in the seat escape into the air, including, for example, a child restraint, a blanket, or seat covers on the seat can damage seat heating.
x If you smell an odor, immediately shut off seat heating and have it checked by an authorized Volkswagen dealer or authorized Volkswagen Service Facility.
x Never install leather upholstery on a vehicle with seat heating that originally had cloth upholstery. The seat heating elements for seats with cloth seats will overheat if the cloth up-holstery is replaced with leather upholstery.
Switch off seat heating when it is not needed to help reduce unnecessary fuel consumption.

WARNING
Damage to safety belts reduces their overall effectiveness and increases the risk of serious personal injury and death whenever the vehicle is being used.
x Never let safety belts become damaged by being caught in the door or seat hardware.
x Torn or frayed safety belts can tear, and damaged safety belt hardware can break in an accident.
x Inspect belts regularly for damage. If webbing, bindings, buckles, or retractors are dam-aged, have the belts replaced immediately with the correct replacement belts approved by Volkswagen for your vehicle, model, and model year.
x Safety belts that were subject to stress in an accident and stretched must be replaced with a correct, new safety belt, preferably by an authorized Volkswagen dealer or authorized Volkswagen Service Facility.
x Replacement after a crash may be necessary even if a safety belt shows no visible dam-age. Anchorages that have been loaded must also be inspected.
x Damaged safety belts must be replaced; they cannot be repaired.
x Never try to repair a damaged safety belt yourself. Never remove or modify the safety belts in any way.
x Have safety belts, bindings, retractors and buckles replaced by an authorized Volkswagen dealer or authorized Volkswagen Service Facility.
x Always keep the belts clean. Dirty belts may not work correctly and can impair the func-tion of the inertia reel.
Warning light

Fig. 52 Warning light in the instrument cluster.

Accident statistics show that vehicle occupants properly wearing safety belts have a lower risk of being injured and a much better chance of surviving a collision. Properly using safety belts also greatly increases the ability of the supplemental airbags to do their job in a collision. For this reason, wearing a safety belt is required by law in most countries including the United States and Canada.
Although your Volkswagen is equipped with airbags, you still have to wear the safety belts provided. Front airbags, for example, are activated only in some frontal collisions. The front airbags are not activated in all frontal collisions, in side and rear collisions, in rollovers, or in cases when the condi-tions for deployment stored in the electronic control unit are not met. The same goes for the other airbag systems on your Volkswagen.
So always wear your safety belt and make sure that everybody in your vehicle is properly restrained!
Using safety belts

WARNING
Improper use and care of safety belts increases the risk of severe personal injury or death.
x Regularly check safety belts and related parts for damage.
x Damaged safety belts must be replaced; they cannot be repaired.
x Always keep safety belts clean.
x Never catch, damage or chafe safety belt webbing on sharp edges.
x Always keep objects and liquids away from the belt buckle and buckle opening.
Fastening and unfastening safety belts

Fig. 58 Inserting the buckle tongue into the belt buckle.

Fig. 59 Releasing the buckle tongue from the belt buckle.

WARNING
Improperly positioned safety belts can cause serious personal injury in an accident or a sud-den braking maneuver.
x Always make sure that all vehicle occupants are correctly restrained and stay in a correct seating position whenever the vehicle is being used.
x Safety belts offer optimum protection only when the seat backrest is upright and belts are correctly positioned on the body.
x A loose-fitting safety belt can cause serious injuries by shifting its position on your body from the strong bones to more vulnerable soft tissue and cause serious injury.
x The shoulder belt portion of the safety belt must be positioned over the middle of the occupant's shoulder and never across the neck or throat.
x The safety belt must lie flat and snug on the occupant's upper body.
x Never wear the shoulder part of the safety belt under your arm or otherwise out of posi-tion.
x The lap portion of the safety belt must be positioned as low as possible across the pelvis and never over the abdomen. Make sure the belt lies flat and snug against the pelvis. Pull on the safety belt to tighten if necessary.
x Expectant mothers must always wear the lap portion of the safety belt as low as possible across the pelvis and below the rounding of the abdomen.
x Do not twist the belt when attaching it. If you cannot untwist a twisted safety belt, wear it anyway, but make sure the twisted part is not in contact with your body. Have the problem corrected right away by an authorized Volkswagen dealer or authorized Volkswagen Service Facility.
x Never hold the safety belt away from your body with your hand.
x Never wear belts over rigid or breakable objects, such as eyeglasses, pens or keys.
x Never modify the position of the belt using comfort clips, loops or similar devices.
If you have a physical impairment or condition that prevents you from sitting properly on the seat with the safety belt properly fastened, special modifications to your vehicle may be necessary. Contact your authorized Volkswagen dealer or authorized Volkswagen Service Facility or call the Volkswagen Customer CARE Center at 1-800-822-8987 for information about possible modifications to your vehi-cle.

person who is not using the safety belt. Leaving the extender attached to the safety belt buckle when the front seat is occupied and the safety belt is not being used will signal the airbag control unit during a collision that the front passenger seat is occupied and that the safety belt is being used. The elec-tronic control unit for the airbag system will then receive incorrect information that will cause the safety belt pretensioner to deploy unnecessarily and the front passenger airbag to deploy later in collisions that would normally trigger the front airbag earlier in the collision to help protect an unrestrained front seat occupant. The airbag will not be able to provide enough protection for an occupant not wearing a safety belt.
x Only use the safety belt extender approved by Volkswagen for your vehicle.
WARNING
Improper use or positioning of a safety belt extender increases the risk of serious personal injury and death.
x A driver or passenger who is not properly restrained can be seriously injured by striking the interior of the passenger compartment or by the safety belt itself, which can be displaced from stronger parts of the body into sensitive areas like the abdomen.
x Safety belt extenders offer optimum protection only when they are properly used.
x Only use the extender when the belt is not long enough to be worn low and snug and the person is in the correct seating position. Remove and stow extender safely when not needed.
x Always make sure the safety belt tongue of the safety belt extender is securely inserted into the buckle for the seating position that belongs to the seat where the safety belt extender is being used. Attaching the safety belt to the wrong buckle will reduce safety belt effective-ness and can cause serious personal injury.
x Never use the safety belt extender if you can properly attach the safety belt without it. Using a safety belt extender when not needed can increase the risk of injury, especially in a collision.
x Never use a safety belt extender if the distance (B) between the front edge of the safety belt extender buckle (A) and the centerline of the person using the safety belt extender
⇒ fig. 64 (C) is less than 6 inches (15 cm).
x Never leave a safety belt extender attached to the vehicle safety belt buckle when the extender is not needed and being used with the safety belt. Otherwise, the airbag control module will receive an incorrect signal from the safety belt buckle and this will prevent the airbag from working properly for a person who is not using the safety belt.
x Never use more than 1 extender with a safety belt. Using more than 1 extender can change the way the safety belt passes over the body and can cause serious injury.
x Never use the safety belt extender to secure a child restraint.
x Never use a safety belt extender on your Volkswagen that you got from another automo-bile manufacturer or from an automotive parts store.
x Never use the safety belt extender you got for your vehicle for any other vehicle, regard-less of make, model, or model year.
NOTICE
x Leaving the extender attached to the safety belt buckle when the front seat is occupied and the safety belt is not being used will signal to the airbag control unit that the front passenger seat is occu-pied and that the safety belt is being used. The electronic control unit for the airbag system will then receive incorrect information that will
– cause the safety belt pretensioner to deploy unnecessarily in collisions.
– cause the front passenger airbag to deploy later in collisions in which the front airbag would otherwise be triggered earlier to help protect an unrestrained front seat passenger.

x A pretensioner that has deployed cannot be repaired. The entire safety belt must be re-placed.
NOTICE
If the safety belt extender is left attached to the safety belt buckle, the safety belt warning system will sense that the safety belt for that seat is being used. The warning light will not come on and the warning chime will not sound even though the seat is occupied and the safety belt is not being used.
Safety belt retractor, pretensioner, load limiter

Undeployed safety belt pretensioners and airbag modules contain explosive materials that can cause serious injuries to the general public and to people who work at dealerships and workshops, scrap yards, and recycling facilities. For this reason, the systems must be properly handled when they or the vehicles they are installed in are scrapped.
Undeployed safety belt pretensioners and airbag modules can also pollute the environment. Never abandon vehicles or vehicle parts. If your vehicle must be scrapped, please make sure that it is done safely, responsibly, and in compliance with all applicable environmental regulations. Take it to a li-censed facility that has the knowledge and experience to properly dispose of the vehicle and its safety belt system. Your authorized Volkswagen dealer and authorized Volkswagen Service Facility are familiar with these regulations.
WARNING
Improper handling, care, servicing, and repair procedures can increase the risk of personal injury and death by preventing a belt pretensioner from activating when needed or by caus-ing it to activate unexpectedly.
x The pretensioner can be activated only once. If a pretensioner has been activated, the safety belt must be replaced.
x Safety belt systems including the pretensioners cannot be repaired. Special procedures are required to remove, install, and dispose of this system.
x Never repair, adjust, or change pretensioners or any other part of the safety belt system yourself. We strongly recommend that you have any work on the safety belt system per-formed by an authorized Volkswagen dealer or authorized Volkswagen Service Facility. They
have the necessary technical information, training, and special equipment ⇒  Parts, accesso-ries, repairs, and modifications.
WARNING
Undeployed safety belt pretensioners and airbag modules contain explosive materials that can cause serious personal injuries if they are not properly handled when they or the vehi-cles they are installed in are scrapped.
x Never abandon vehicles or vehicle parts.
x Always scrap vehicles and vehicle parts, especially those containing undeployed airbag modules and undeployed safety belt pretensioners, at a licensed facility that has the knowledge and experience to properly dispose of the vehicle and its safety belt and airbag systems.
Undeployed airbag modules and safety belt pretensioners are classified as Perchlorate Materi-al. Special handling may apply – see http://www.dtsc.ca.gov/hazardouswaste/perchlorate. Obey all applicable legal requirements regarding handling and disposal of the vehicle or parts of its restraint system, including airbag modules and safety belts with pretensioners. Authorized Volkswagen dealers and authorized Volkswagen Service Facilities are familiar with the requirements, and we recommend that you have them perform this service for you.

WARNING
Unsecured or incorrectly stowed items can fly through the vehicle, causing serious personal injury during hard braking or sharp steering or in an accident. Loose items can also be struck and thrown through the passenger compartment by the front airbags if they inflate. To help reduce the risk of serious personal injury:
x Always stow all objects securely in the vehicle. Always put luggage and heavy items in the luggage compartment.
x Always secure objects in the passenger compartment properly with suitable straps so that they cannot move into the deployment zone of a side or front airbag during sudden braking, in a sudden maneuver, or in a collision.
x Always keep storage compartments closed while driving.
x Never stow hard, heavy, or sharp objects in the vehicle's open storage compartments, on the shelf behind the rear seat backrest, or on the top of the instrument panel.
x Always remove hard, heavy, or sharp objects from clothing and bags in the vehicle interi-or and stow them securely in the luggage compartment.
WARNING
Transporting heavy objects causes the handling characteristics of the vehicle to change and increases braking distances. Heavy loads which are not properly stowed or secured in the vehicle can lead to a loss of vehicle control and cause serious personal injury.
x Transporting heavy items causes the handling characteristics of the vehicle to change by shifting the vehicle's center of gravity.
x Always distribute luggage evenly and as low as possible within the vehicle. The vehicle capacity weight figures apply when the load is distributed evenly in the vehicle (passengers and luggage).
x Always stow luggage and heavy items in the luggage compartment as far forward of the rear axle as possible and secure them with appropriate straps to the tie-downs provided.
x Never exceed the vehicle's Gross Vehicle Weight Rating or Gross Axle Weight Ratings, which are printed on the Safety Compliance Certification Label located on the door jamb of the driver door. Exceeding the permissible weight can cause the vehicle to skid and behave differently.
x Always adapt your speed and driving style to accommodate your payload and its weight distribution within your vehicle.
x Be especially cautious and gentle when stepping on the accelerator pedal and avoid sud-den braking and other maneuvers.
x Brake earlier than you would if you were not driving a loaded vehicle.
NOTICE
The defroster heating wires or antenna in the rear window can be damaged by objects that rub against them.