four wheel drive BUICK CENTURY 1993 Owners Manual

Iff-Road Recovery
You may find sometime that your right wheels have
dropped
off the edge of a road onto the shoulder while
you’re driving.
If the level of
the shoulder is only slightly below the
pavement, recovery should be hirly easy. Ease off the
accelerator and then, if there is nothing in the way, steer
so that your vehicle straddles the edge of the pavement.
You can
turn the steering wheel up to % turn until the
right front tire contacts the pavement edge. Then
turn
your steering wheel to go straight down the roadway.
I
If the shoulder appears to be about four inches (100 mm)
or more below the pavement, this difference can cause
problems. If there
is not enough room to pull entirely
onto the shoulder and stop, then follow the same
procedures. But if the right front tire scrubs against the
side of the pavement, do
NOT steer more sharply. With
too much steering angle, the vehicle may jump back onto
the road with
so much steering input that it crosses over
into the oncoming traffic before you can bring it back
under control.
Instead, ease
off again on the accelerator and steering
input, straddle the pavement once more, then
try again.
passing
The driver of a vehicle about to pass another on a two-
lane highway waits for just the right moment, accelerates,
moves around the vehicle ahead, then goes back into the
right lane again.
A simple maneuver?
Not necessarily! Passing another vehicle on a two-lane
highway is a potentially dangerous move, since the
passing vehicle occupies the same lane as oncoming
traffic for several seconds.
A miscalculation, an error in
judgment, or a brief surrender to frustration or anger can
suddenly put the passing driver face to face with the
worst of all traffic accidents-the head-on collision.
152
ProCarManuals.com

*
I A CAUTION:
Mlxing tires could cause you to lose control
while driving.
If you mlx tires of different sizes
or types (radial and bias-belted tires) the
vehlcle may not handle
properly, and you
could have
a crash. Be sure to use the same
size and type
tires on all four wheels. It’s all
right to drive wlth your compact spare,
though.
It was developed far use on your
vehicle.
I
Uniform Tire Quality Grading
The following information relates to the system developed
by the United States National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration which grades tires by treadwear, traction
and temperature performance. (This applies only to
vehicles
sold in the United States.)
Treadwear
The treadwear grade is a comparative rating based on the
wear rate of the tire when
tested under controlled
conditions on a specified government test course. For
example, a tire graded
150 would wear one and a half
(1%) times as well on the government course
as a tire
graded
100. The relative performance of tires depends
upon the actual conditions of their use, however, and may
depart significantly from the norm due to variations
in
driving habits, service practices and differences in road
characteristics and climate.
Traction-A, B, C
The traction grades, from highest to lowest are: A, B,
and C. They represent the tire’s ability to stop on wet
pavement as measured under controlled conditions on specified government test surfaces of asphalt and
concrete.
A tire marked C may have poor traction
performance.
Warning: The traction grade assigned to this tire is based
on braking (straight-ahead) traction tests and does not
include cornering (turning) traction.
255
ProCarManuals.com