2001AudiA6

Repair shop forgot to reset my front seats active head restraints after I got rear-ended. My car is a 2013 Audi A8 3.0T. I can get the head restraints to retract back in but not catch. What is the trick? I don't feel like wasting another day without the car. Any help greatly appreciated.

JaL3

Quick search came up with this thread, looks like you need to take it to the dealer(?)
https://www.audiworld.com/forums/a8-...reset-2982727/

Sawdusty Dan

Same this happened to my 2011 A8L (rear-end hit, with head restraint activation). I, too, found nothing concerning a reset able to be done by the owner, or an indy shop. My local dealership (Audi Omaha) did it for $150 and it was an insurance-covered action, too.

Honestly, I wouldn't want to mess with any of the safety devices on any of my cars!

2001AudiA6

I had searched and seen this but looking for actual instructions. I dont imagine it is that difficult to reset but there must be some trick. Any help still appreciated.

virtualrc

Instructions are outlined in the service manual. Would be a good investment on your part. Looks like there is a red lever that has to pushed forward in order for the headrest to "catch." You might need to take the headrest back cover off to get a good look at what needs to be done.

2001AudiA6

Is that through Erwin (sp?) online or is there a better source for the service manual?

virtualrc

I ended up using this site: https://www.factory-manuals.com/audi-a8/s8&27&128

To be honest I think it's just a guy who takes your VIN, hops on Erwin, and downloads and consolidates all available documents into one giant PDF (240MB and 9K+ pages). I was new to the forum when I got mine so I'm not sure of all the potential options. If there is a better option that has better navigation or search capabilities I'd consider re-buying another version of the manual. For instance, the biggest pain with what I have is the need to jump around from section to section to review nested procedures, i.e., 'X' procedure (in another part of the manual) must be done before the following instructions. There's no good "breadcrumb" feature to connect the thing you want to do with the other related procedures if that makes sense.