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After 10 mos of ownership still learning about the car. From the mysterious green foot that shows on the dash sometimes to the car auto-braking. Safety
has come a long way.
Was driving home from a work dinner last night and the off ramp has a confusing set up where the outer lane typically waits longer
and the inner lane can keep moving. I take the outer lane because I have to make a quick left after.
Long story short, a motorcycle was lane splitting on the off ramp and I was first in line to go but it was not clear. The cyclist
was coming up from the rear at lane split speed and like magic, my pre-sense thought a collision was imminent and really
pulled the seatbelts tight.
Question: Did the pretensioner fire? Not sure is there a way to tell. Some systems the airbag light might go off, not sure if
the case in an Audi system. My airbag light is not on.
How I think PreSense works. From Minority Report those Cogs tho!
The pre-tensioner is a one time thing. It's a small explosive charge that fires and tightens the belt.
Actually, that happened to me on a test drive today (2018 S4). At a stop light heading back to dealer and someone approached the rear of the car going too fast apparently. Car tightened up the seat belts, cranked down the seat bolsters and flashed a warning up at me on the dash along with an audible signal. Looked at Audi website when I got home after reading comments above and no, it's a reversible belt tightening system according to Audi. Which makes sense - there were no pyrotechnics during this (sound or smell) and trust me, I've been a passenger in a front collision where everything did fire off. When airbags and explosive pre-tensioners go off, you'll know it. Assuming you're not half concussed like I was with an airbag blowing up in your face. Glad the system is there but I hope it's not overly touchy and goes off everytime someone approaches the rear bumper too quickly!
Ouch makes sense. The system retracted on me again yesterday, so that rules out a one time charge :-)
Was sitting pretty heavy traffic on a parkway coming back home from the gym. Literally in stop and go traffic,
an aggressive driver was weaving in and out of traffic with no space. Talking bumper to bumper, threading the
needle, something you would see on YouTube...
I thought the system fired in error and jolted me. Then saw the driver in the old E class pop in and out and in
and out of the lane with no room. He did that move behind me then a car in front of me, etc.
No need to worry - it's part of the pre sense system and it was just holding you in your seat in case there was a collision. The pretensioners are automatic, so you don't have to worry about it being a one time thing.
Yeah the pretensioners are definitely multi-use.
From the time they tightened when I was making a left, the car screeched almost to a halt with no oncoming traffic and I had to floor it to override the system; to the time the car completely jacked the brakes on the highway for no reason fully engaging the ABS and with the red exclamation point on the HUD; or even today when I was reversing with nothing behind me and it dropped anchor.
Maybe I was getting different types of pretensioners confused.
I believe with DAP, there is an electronic pretensioner which makes sense
for the multiple use.
Was referring to if there was a pyrotechnic pretensioner which is part of the airbag restraint system.
In a crash pulls real tight and real fast.
Stay safe!
-GTSX
real tight and real fast - oh yeah. My wreck was in a friend's S2000. Not a whole lot of room in the cockpit anyway to start and I don't want to go through that again. The seat belt felt like it was trying to pull me through the back of the seat into the trunk (along with the airbag basically blowing up in my face). But we did walk away from that one so glad for modern safety systems. S2000 = 2,800 lbs or so. Big *** Lexus GX450 has to be well over 5,000. Physics is fun, yes? :-p
Last edited by volsfan0911; 05-09-2018 at 07:45 AM.
04-26-2018, 07:05 AM
Pre-Sense from the REAR
