CHEVROLET ASTRO 1998 2.G Owners Manual

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
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. Turn the ignition to RUN or ACC.
2. Turn the radio on.
3. Insert the scrubbing action cleaning cassette.
4. Within five seconds, press and hold the REV and
FWD buttons at the same time for three seconds.
The tape symbol
on the display will flash showing
that the cut tape detection feature is
no longer active.
5. Eject the cleaning cassette after the manufacturer’s
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.
recommended
cleaning time.
?. Turn the radio off.
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Downloaded from www.Manualslib.com manuals search engine 3.
4.
5.
Press and hold the TAPE AUX button for five
seconds. The tape symbol
on the display will flash
for two seconds.
Insert the scrubbing action cleaning cassette while
the tape symbol is flashing.
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.
Fixed Mast Antenna
The fixed mast antenna can withstand most car washes
without being damaged.
If the mast should ever become
slightly bent,
you can straighten it out by hand. If the
mast is badly bent, as
it might be by vandals, you should
replace
it.
Check every once in a while to be sure the mast is still
tightened to the fender.
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Downloaded from www.Manualslib.com manuals search engine &I NOTES
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Downloaded from www.Manualslib.com manuals search engine fi NOTES
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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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4-2 4-5
4-6
4-a
4-
10
4-11
4- 12
4-13 Defensive
Driving
Drunken Driving
Control of a Vehicle
Braking
Steering
Off-Road Recovery
Passing
Loss of Control
Driving at Night 4-15
4- 17
4-18
4-19
4-20
4-2
1
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4-26
4-28 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

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
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.
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
Muscular Coordination

Downloaded from www.Manualslib.com manuals search engine 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 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:
0 The amount of alcohol consumed
The drinker’s body weight
The amount of food that is consumed before and
0 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 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.
during
drinking
consume
the alcohol.
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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. I5 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
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.

Downloaded from www.Manualslib.com manuals search engine 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.
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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Downloaded from www.Manualslib.com manuals search engine 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 kmh) 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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