2004 Mercury Monterey Owner's Manual - Page 122

Seating and Safety Restraints passenger seat contrary to proper child-seating or restraint usage recommendations. Even with this technology, parents are STRONGLY encouraged to always properly restrain children in the rear seat. The sensor also turns off the air bag(s) when the passenger seat is empty to prevent unnecessary replacement of the air bag(s) after a collision. Front safety belt usage sensors The front safety belt usage sensors detect whether or not the driver and front outboard passenger safety belts are fastened. This information allows your Personal Safety System to tailor the air bag deployment and safety belt pretensioner activation depending upon safety belt usage. Refer to Safety belt section in this chapter. Front safety belt pretensioners The safety belt pretensioners at the front outboard seating positions are designed to tighten the safety belts firmly against the occupant's body during a frontal or near-frontal collision. This maximizes the effectiveness of the safety belts and helps properly position the occupant relative to the air bag to improve protection. The safety belt pretensioners can be either activated alone or, if the collision is of sufficient severity, together with the air bags. Front safety belt energy management retractors The front outboard safety belt energy management retractors allow webbing to be pulled out of the retractor in a gradual and controlled manner in response to the occupant's forward momentum. This helps reduce the risk of force-related injuries to the occupant's chest by limiting the load on the occupant. Refer to Energy management feature section in this chapter. Determining if the Personal Safety System is operational The Personal Safety System uses a warning light in the instrument cluster or a back-up tone to indicate the condition of the system. Refer to the Warning light section in the Instrument cluster chapter. Routine maintenance of the Personal Safety System is not required. The Restraints control module (RCM) monitors its own internal circuits and the circuits for the air bag supplemental restraints, crash sensor(s), safety belt pretensioners, front safety belt buckle sensors, driver seat position sensor, and passenger occupant classification sensor. In addition, the RCM also monitors the restraints warning light in the instrument cluster. A difficulty with the system is indicated by one or more of the following. 122 2004 Monterey (mty) Owners Guide (post-2002-fmt) USA English (fus)