GMC SAVANA 1998 Owners Manual

Care of Your Cassette Tape Player
A tape player that is not cleaned regularly can cause
reduced sound quality, ruined cassettes or a damaged
mechanism. Cassette tapes should be stored in their
cases
away from contaminants, direct sunlight and
extreme heat.
If they aren’t, they may not operate
properly or may cause failure of the tape player.
Your tape player should be cleaned regularly after every
50 hours of use. Your radio may display CLN to indicate
that you have used your tape player for
50 hours without
resetting
the tape clean timer. If this message appears on
the display, your cassette tape player needs to be
cleaned. It will still play tapes, but you should clean it as
soon
as possible to prevent damage to your tapes and
player. If you notice
a reduction in sound quality, try a
known good cassette to see if it is the tape or the tape
player at fault.
If this other cassette has no improvement
in sound quality, clean the tape player.
The recommended cleaning method for your cassette
tape player is the use of a scrubbing action,
non-abrasive cleaning cassette with pads which scrub
the tape head as the hubs of the cleaner cassette turn.
The recommended cleaning cassette is available through
your dealership
(GM Part No. 12344789).
When using a scrubbing action, non-abrasive cleaning
cassette, it is normal for
the cassette to eject because
your unit is equipped with a cut tape detection feature
and a cleaning cassette may appear as a broken tape.
To
prevent the cleaning cassette from being ejected, use the
following steps.
If your vehicle is equipped with the
AM-FM Stereo with
Cassette Tape Player:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Turn the ignition to RUN or ACC.
Turn the radio on.
Insert the scrubbing action cleaning cassette.
Within five seconds, press and hold the
REV and
FWD buttons at the same time for five seconds.
The tape symbol on the display will flash for two
seconds, showing that the cut tape detection feature
is no longer active.
Eject
the cleaning cassette after the manufacturer’s
recommended cleaning time.
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If your vehicle is equipped with the AM-FM Stereo with
Cassette Tape Player and Automatic Tone Control:
1. Turn the ignition to
RUN or ACC.
2. Turn the radio off.
3. Press and hold the TAPE AUX button for five
seconds. The tape symbol on the display will flash
for two seconds.
4. Insert the scrubbing action cleaning cassette while
the tape symbol is flashing.
5. Eject the cleaning cassette after the manufacturer’s
recommended cleaning time.
When the cleaning cassette has been ejected,
the cut tape
detection feature is active again.
You may also choose a non-scrubbing action, wet-type
cleaner which uses a cassette with a fabric belt
to clean
the tape head. This type of cleaning cassette will not
eject
on its own. A non-scrubbing action cleaner may
not clean as thoroughly as the scrubbing type cleaner.
The
use of a non-scrubbing action, dry-type cleaning
cassette is not recommended. After
you clean
the player, press and hold EJECT for
five seconds to reset the CLN indicator.
The radio will
display
--- to show the indicator was reset.
Cassettes are subject
to wear and the sound quality
may degrade over time. Always make sure the cassette
tape is in good condition before
you have your tape
player serviced.
Care of Your Compact Discs
Handle discs carefully. Store them in their original cases
or other protective cases and away from direct sunlight
and dust. If the surface
of a disc is soiled, dampen a
clean, soft cloth
in a mild, neutral detergent solution and
clean
it, wiping from the center to the edge.
Be sure never to touch the signal surface when handling
discs. Pick up discs by grasping the outer edges or the
edge of the hole and the outer edge.
Care of Your Compact Disc Player
The use of CD lens cleaner discs is not advised, due to
the risk of contaminating the lens of the CD optics with
lubricants internal to the CD mechanism.
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Power Antenna Mast Care
Your power antenna will look its best and work
well
if it’s cleaned from time to time. To clean the
antenna mast:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Turn on the ignition and radio to raise the antenna.
Dampen a clean cloth with mineral
spirits or
equivalent solvent.
Wipe the cloth over the mast sections, removing
any dirt.
Wipe dry with a clean cloth.
Make the antenna go up and down by turning the
radio or ignition off and
on.
Repeat if necessary.
I NOTICE:
Don’t lubricate the power antenna. Lubrication
could damage it.
1 NOTICE:
Before entering an automatic car wash, turn off
your radio to make the power antenna
go down.
This will prevent the mast from possibly getting
damaged. If the antenna does not
go down when
you turn the radio off,
it may be damaged or
need to be cleaned. In either case, lower the
antenna
by hand by carefully pressing the
antenna down.
If the mast portion of your antenna is damaged, you can
easily replace
it. See your dealer for a replacement kit
and follow the instructions in the kit.
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drdn NOTES
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Section 4 Your Driving and the Road
Here you’ll find information about driving on different kinds of roads and in varying weather conditions. We’ve also
included many other useful tips on driving.
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4-5
4-6
4-8 4-1 1
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14
Defensive Driving
Drunken Driving
Control
of a Vehicle
Braking Steering
Off-Road Recovery
Passing
Loss
of Control
Driving at Night Driving in Rain and
on Wet Roads
City Driving
Freeway Driving
Before Leaving on a Long Trip
Highway Hypnosis Hill and Mountain Roads
Winter Driving
Loading Your Vehicle
Towing a Trailer
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15
4-18
4- 19
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Defensive Driving
The best advice anyone can give about driving is:
Drive defensively.
Please start with a very important safety device
in your
vehicle: Buckle up. (See “Safety Belts’’ in the Index.) Defensive driving really means “be ready
for anything.”
On city streets, rural roads or freeways, it means
“always expect the unexpected.”
Assume that pedestrians or other drivers are going to be
careless and make mistakes. Anticipate what they might
do. Be ready for their mistakes.
Rear-end collisions are about the most preventable of
accidents. Yet they are common. Allow enough
following distance. It’s the best defensive driving
maneuver, in both city and rural driving.
You never
know when the vehicle in front of you is going to brake
or turn suddenly.
Defensive driving requires that a driver concentrate
on the driving task. Anything that distracts from the
driving task
-- such as concentrating on a cellular
telephone call, reading, or reaching for something on the
floor
-- makes proper defensive driving more difficult
and can even cause
a collision, with resulting injury. Ask
a passenger
to help do things like this, or pull off the road
in a safe place to do them yourself. These simple
defensive driving techniques could save your life.
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Drunken Driving
Death and injury associated with drinking and driving is
a national tragedy. It’s the number
one contributor to
the highway death toll, claiming thousands of victims
every year.
Alcohol affects four things that anyone needs
to drive
a vehicle:
0 Judgment
0 Muscular Coordination
0 Vision
0 Attentiveness.
Police records show that almost half
of all motor
vehicle-related deaths involve alcohol. In most cases,
these deaths are the result of someone who was drinking
and driving. In recent years, over
17,000 annual motor
vehicle-related deaths have
been associated with the use
of alcohol, with more than
300,000 people injured.
Many adults
-- by some estimates, nearly half the adult
population
-- choose never to drink alcohol, so they
never drive after drinking. For persons under
2 1, it’s
against the law in every
U.S. state to drink alcohol.
There are good medical, psychological and
developmental reasons for these laws. The
obvious way to solve this highway safety problem
is for people never
to drink alcohol and then drive. But
what if people do? How much is
“too much” if the
driver plans to drive? It’s a lot less than many might
think. Although it depends on each person and situation,
here
is some general information on the problem.
The Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) of someone
who is drinking depends upon four things:
The amount of alcohol consumed
0 The drinker’s body weight
0 The amount of food that is consumed before and
during drinking
consume the alcohol.
The length of time it has taken the drinker to
According to the American Medical Association, a
180-lb. (82 kg) person who drinks three
‘i 2-ounce
(355 ml) bottles
of beer in an hour will end up with a
BAC of about 0.06 percent. The person would reach the
same BAC by drinking three 4-ounce (120 ml) glasses
of wine or three mixed drinks if each had
1 - 1/2 ounces
(45 ml) of a liquor like whiskey, gin
or vodka.
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I I
man of her same body weight when each has the same
number of drinks.
It’s the amount of alcohol that counts. For example, if
the same person drank three double martinis
(3 ounces
or
90 ml of liquor each) within an hour, the person’s
BAC would be close to 0.12 percent. A person who
consumes food just before or during drinking will have
a somewhat lower BAC level.
There is a gender difference,
too. Women generally have
a lower relative percentage
of body water than men.
Since alcohol is carried in body water, this means that a
woman generally will reach a higher BAC level than a The
law in many
U.S. states sets the legal limit at a BAC
of 0.10 percent. In a growing number of U.S. states, and
throughout Canada, the limit
is 0.08 percent. In some
other countries, it’s even lower. The BAC limit for all
commercial drivers in the United States is
0.04 percent.
The BAC will be over 0.10 percent after three to
six drinks (in one hour). Of course, as we’ve seen, it
depends
on how much alcohol is in the drinks, and how
quickly the person drinks them.
But the ability
to drive is affected well below a BAC of
0.10 percent. Research shows that the driving skills of
many people are impaired at a BAC approaching
0.05 percent, and that the effects are worse at night. All
drivers are impaired at BAC levels above
0.05 percent.
Statistics show that the chance
of being in a collision
increases sharply for drivers who have a BAC of
0.05 percent or above. A driver with a BAC level of
0.06 percent has doubled his or her chance of having a
collision. At a BAC level of
0.10 percent, the chance of
this driver having a collision is 12 times greater; at a
level
of 0.15 percent, the chance is 25 times greater!
The body takes about an hour to rid itself of the alcohol
in one drink.
No amount of coffee or number of cold
showers will speed that up. “I’ll be careful” isn’t
the
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right answer. What if there’s an emergency, a need to
take sudden action, as when a child darts into the street?
A person with even a moderate BAC might not be able
to react quickly enough
to avoid the collision.
There’s something else about drinking and driving that
many people don’t know. Medical research
shows that
alcohol in
a person’s system can make crash injuries
worse, especially injuries
to the brain, spinal cord or
heart. This means that when anyone who has been
drinking
-- driver or passenger -- is in a crash, that
person’s chance
of being killed or permanently disabled
is higher than if the person had not been drinking.
-
CAUTION: 1
Drinking and then driving is very dangerous.
Your reflexes, perceptions, attentiveness and
judgment can be affected by even
a small amount
of alcohol. You can have a serious
-- or even
fatal
-- collision if you drive after drinking.
Please don’t drink and drive or ride with
a driver
who has been drinking. Ride home in a cab; or
if
you’re with a group, designate a driver who will
not drink.
I
Control of a Vehicle
You have three systems that make your vehicle go where
you want it to go. They are the brakes, the steering and
the accelerator. All three systems have to do their work
at
the places where the tires meet the road.
Sometimes, as when you’re driving
on snow or ice, it’s
easy to ask more
of those control systems than the tires
and road can provide. That means you can lose control
of your vehicle.
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Braking
Braking action involves perception time and
reaction time.
First, you have to decide to push on the brake pedal.
That’s
perception time. Then you have to bring up your
foot and do it. That’s
reaction time.
Average reaction time is about 3/4 of a second. But
that’s only an average. It might be less with one driver
and as long as two or three seconds or more with
another. Age, physical condition, alertness, coordination
and eyesight all play a part.
So do alcohol, drugs and
frustration. But even
in 3/4 of a second, a vehicle
moving at
60 mph ( 100 kdh) travels 66 feet (20 m).
That could be a lot of distance in an emergency, so
keeping enough space between your vehicle and others
is important.
And, of course, actual stopping distances vary greatly
with the surface of the road (whether it’s pavement or
gravel); the condition
of the road (wet, dry, icy); tire
tread; the condition
of your brakes; the weight of the
vehicle and the amount of brake force applied. Avoid needless heavy braking.
Some
people drive in
spurts
-- heavy acceleration followed by heavy
braking
-- rather than keeping pace with traffic. This is a
mistake. Your brakes may not have time to cool between
hard stops. Your brakes will wear
out much faster if you
do
a lot of heavy braking. If you keep pace with the
traffic and allow realistic following distances, you will
eliminate a lot
of unnecessary braking. That means
better braking and longer brake life.
If your engine ever stops while you’re driving, brake
normally but don’t pump your brakes.
If you do, the
pedal may get harder to push down. If your engine
stops, you will still have some power brake assist.
But
you will use it when you brake. Once the power assist is
used up, it may take longer
to stop and the brake pedal
will be harder
to push.
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