CADILLAC ELDORADO 1996 10.G Owners Manual

Downloaded from www.Manualslib.com manuals search engine Understanding Radio Reception
FM Stereo
FM stereo will give you the best sound. But FM signals
will reach only about 10 to 40 miles (16 to 65 km). Tall
buildings or hills can interfere with
FM signals, causing
the sound to come and
go.
AM
The range for most AM stations is greater than for FM,
especially at night. The longer range, however, can
cause stations to interfere with each other.
AM can pick
up noise from things like storms and power lines. Try
reducing the treble
to reduce this noise if you ever get it.
Tips About Your Audio System
Hearing damage from loud noise is almost undetectable
until it is too late. Your hearing can adapt to higher
volumes
of sound. Sound that seems normal can be
loud and harmful to your hearing. Take precautions by
adjusting the volume control on your radio to a safe
sound level before your hearing adapts
to it.
To help avoid hearing loss or damage:
0 Adjust the volume control to the lowest setting.
Increase volume slowly until you hear comfortably
and clearly.
~~
NOTICE:
Before you add any sound equipment to your
vehicle
-- like a tape player, CB radio, mobile
telephone or two-way radio
-- be sure you can
add what you want. If you can, it’s very important
to do it properly. Added sound equipment may
interfere with the operation
of your vehicle’s
engine, Cadillac radio
or other systems, and even
damage them. Your vehicle’s systems may
interfere with the operation of sound equipment
that has been added improperly.
So, before adding sound equipment, check with
your dealer and be sure to check Federal rules
covering mobile radio and telephone units.

Downloaded from www.Manualslib.com manuals search engine 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 or
CLEAN TAPE to indicate that you have used your tape
player for
50 hours without resetting the tape clean timer.
Each time the cassette is cleaned, the
50 hour cassette
timer should be reset. This is done by holding down the
eject button for five seconds or until the
TAPE CLEAN
message
is displayed. If you notice a reduction in sound
quality,
try a known good cassette to see if the tape or
the tape player is at fault.
If this other cassette has no
improvement in sound quality, clean the tape player. Cleaning
may be done with a scrubbing action,
non-abrasive cleaning cassette with pads which scrub
the tape head as the hubs of the cleaner cassette turn. It
is normal for the cassette to eject while cleaning. Insert
the cassette at least six times to ensure thorough
cleaning. A scrubbing action cleaning cassette is
available through your Cadillac dealer.
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. It may not clean as thoroughly as the scrubbing
type cleaner.
Cassettes are subject to wear and the sound quality may
degrade over time. Always make sure that the cassette
tape is in good condition before you have your tape
player serviced.
3-35
T

Downloaded from www.Manualslib.com manuals search engine 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.
bwer Antenna M9st Car,
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.
I 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 tnast 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.

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.
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.
4-1

Downloaded from www.Manualslib.com manuals search engine I
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:
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, some 18,000 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
21, 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
The drinker’s body weight
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,
4-2

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 US. 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!
4-3

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. 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.
4-4

Downloaded from www.Manualslib.com manuals search engine 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.
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 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; and the condition of your brakes.
aometimes, 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.
i 4-5

Downloaded from www.Manualslib.com manuals search engine 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. Your
vehicle has anti-lock brakes
(ABS). ABS is an
advanced electronic braking system that will help
prevent
a braking skid.
When you start your engine and begin to drive away,
your anti-lock brake system will check itself. You may
hear
a momentary motor or clicking noise while this test
is going on, and you may even notice that your brake
pedal moves a little. This is normal,
ANTI -
LOCK
If there’s a problem with the
anti-lock brake system, this
warning light will stay on.
See “Anti-Lock Brake
System Warning Light” in
the Index.

Downloaded from www.Manualslib.com manuals search engine 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 the
rear wheels. 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.
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.
4-7