CADILLAC DEVILLE 1998 7.G Owners Manual

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Downloaded from www.Manualslib.com manuals search engine 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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4-6 4-6
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4-15 Defensive Driving
Drunken Driving
Control of a Vehicle
Braking Steering
Off-Road Recovery
Passing
Loss of Control
Driving at Night 4-
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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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Downloaded from www.Manualslib.com manuals search engine Defensive Driving
The best advice anyone can give about driving is:
Drive defensively.
Please start with a very important safety device in
your
Cadillac: 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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Downloaded from www.Manualslib.com manuals search engine Drunken Driving
Death and injury.%saclared 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:
Judgment
Muscular Coordination
Vision
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:
0 The amount of alcohol consumed
0 The drinker’s body weight
0 The amount of food that is consumed before and
during drinking
The length of time it has taken the drinker to
consume the alcohol.
According to the American Medical Association, a
180-lb. (82 kg) person who drinks three 12-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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Downloaded from www.Manualslib.com manuals search engine 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
man
of her same body weight when each has the same
number of drinks.
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!
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Downloaded from www.Manualslib.com manuals search engine 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
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.
I
A CAUTION:
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.
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Downloaded from www.Manualslib.com manuals search engine Control of a Vehicle Braking
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. 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 rnph (100 km/h) 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.
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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Downloaded from www.Manualslib.com manuals search engine Avoid needless’heavy braking. Some people drive in Anti-Lock Brakes (ABS)
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 Your
vehicle has anti-lock brakes
(ABS). ABS is an
,advanced electronic braking system that will help
prevent a braking skid.
do a lot of heavy braking.
If you keep pace with the
When you start your engine and begin to drive away,.
traffic and
allow realistic. following distances, you will
your anti-lock brake system will check itself. You may
eliminate a lot
of unnecessary braking. That means
hear a momentary motor or clicking noise while this test
better braking and longer brake life.
is going on, and you ‘may even notice that your brake
If your engine ever stops while,you’re driving, brake pedal moves a
little. This is normal.
no-&mlly 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.
ANTI -
LOCK
’ If there’s a problem with the
1 anti-lock brake system, this
warning light will stay on.
See “Anti-Lock Brake
System -Warning Light” in
the Index. ~
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Downloaded from www.Manualslib.com manuals search engine The anti-lock system can change the brake pressure faster
than any driver could. The computer is programmed to
make the most of available tire and road conditions.
Here’s how anti-lock works. Let’s say the road is wet.
You’re driving safely. Suddenly an animal jumps out
in
front of you.
You slam on the brakes. Here’s what happens with
ABS.
A computer senses that wheels are slowing down. If one
of the wheels is about to stop rolling, the computer will
separately work the brakes at each front wheel and at
both rear wheels. You
can steer around the obstacle while braking hard.
As you brake, your computer keeps receiving updates on
wheel speed and controls braking pressure accordingly.
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Downloaded from www.Manualslib.com manuals search engine Remember: Anti-lock doesn’t change the time you need to get your foot up to the brake pedal or always decrease
stopping distance.
If you get too close to the vehicle in
front of you, you won’t have time to apply your brakes
if that vehicle suddenly slows or stops. Always leave
enough room up ahead to stop, even though you have anti-lock brakes.
Using Anti-Lock
Don’t pump the brakes. Just hold the brake pedal down
firmly and let anti-lock work for you. You may hear the
anti-lock pump or motor operate, and
1 1 the brake
pedal pulsate, but this is normal.
Traction Control System
Your vehicle has a traction control system that limits wheel
spin.
This is especially useful in slippery road conditions.
The system operates only
if it senses that one or both of
the front wheels are spinning or beginning to lose traction.
When
this happens, the system works the front brakes and
reduces engine power to limit wheel spin.
The TRACTION
ENGAGED message will display on
the Driver Information Center when the traction control
system is limiting wheel spin. See “Driver Information
Center Messages” in the Index. You may feel or hear the
system working, but this is normal. If
your vehicle is in cruise control when the traction
control system begins to limit wheel spin, the cruise
control will automatically disengage. When road
conditions allow
you to safely use it again, you may
reengage the cruise control. (See “Cruise Control” in
the Index.)
TRACTION
CONTROL
This warning light will come on to let you know if
there’s a problem with your
traction control system.
See “Traction Control System Warning Light” in the
Index. When this warning light is on, the system will not
limit wheel spin. Adjust your driving accordingly.
The traction control system automatically comes on whenever you start your vehicle. To limit wheel spin,
especially in slippery road conditions, you should always leave the system
on. But you can turn the
traction control system
off if you ever need to. (You
should turn the system
off if your vehicle ever gets stuck
in sand, mud, ice or snow. See ‘.‘Rocking Your Vehicle”
in the Index.)
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