2004 Lincoln LS Owner Guide 3rd Printing - Page 166

Seating and Safety Restraints Driver's seat position sensor The driver's seat position sensor allows your Personal safety system to tailor the deployment level of the driver dual-stage air bag based on seat position. The system is designed to help protect smaller drivers sitting close to the driver air bag by providing a lower air bag output level. Air bags can kill or injure a child in a child seat. NEVER place a rear-facing child seat in front of an active air bag. If you must use a forward-facing child seat in the front seat, move the seat all the way back. Always transport children 12 years old and under in the back seat and always properly use appropriate child restraints. 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 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 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. 166 2004 Lincoln LS (dew) Owners Guide (post-2002-fmt) USA English (fus)