CADILLAC SEVILLE 1997 4.G Owners Manual

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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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4-2
4-3
4-6
4-6
4-10
4-13
4-13
4- 14
4-16
Defensive Driving
Drunken Driving
Control
of a Vehicle
Braking
Steeling
Off-Road Recovery
Passing
Loss of Control
Driving
at Night 4-18
4-2
I
4-22
4-23
4-24
4-24
4-26
4-30
4-32 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
4-

Downloaded from www.Manualslib.com manuals search engine 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.

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c 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.
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Alcohol affects four things that anyone needs to drive
a vehicle:
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0 Judgment
0 Muscular Coordination
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, some 17,000 annual motor
vehicle-related deaths have been associated with the
use
of alcohol, with more than 3007000 people injured.
Many addts
-- 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:
a The amount of alcohol consumed
0 The drinker’s body weight
The amount of food that is consumed before and
during drinking
0 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 I - 1/2 ounces
(45 ml j of a liquor like whiskey, gin or vodka.

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 B AC 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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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.
"1'11 be carefui" 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 Ineans that when anyone who has been
drinking
-- driver or passenger -- is in a crash. that
person's chance
of being killed or permanently disabled
1s hlghsr than if the person had not been drinking. ..
/d 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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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
perceptim the and rcaction 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 renctiorr timc.
Average reaction time is about 314 ot’ 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, alettncss. coo~-dination
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 In).
That could be a lot of distance in an emergency, so
keeping enough spacebetween 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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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 brakmg 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 ;I problem with the
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 I The anti-lock system can change the brake pressure faster
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
rcar wheels.
U
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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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.
thg AnJ:i=f,.ciick
Don’t pump the brakes. Just hold the brake pedal down
and let anti-lock work for you.
You may hear the
anti-lock pump or motor operate. and feel the brake
pedal pulsate. but this is normal.
Your vehicle
has a traction control system that limits wheel
spin.
This is especially useful in slippely 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
re-engage the cruise control. (See “Cruise Control”
in
the Index.)
This warning light will
come
on to let you know if
there’s
a problem with your
traction control system.
TRACTION
CONTROL
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