CHEVROLET CORVETTE 1995 4.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). And,
:ausing the sound to come and go.
1 tall buildings or hills can interfere with FM signals,
4M
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
reducing the treble to reduce this noise if you ever get it.
1 up noise from things like storms and power lines. Try
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 cause failure of the tape player.
'
Your tape player should be cleaned regularly after every
50 hours of use. 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 cartridge to eject while cleaning. Insert
the cassette at least
3 times to ensure thorough cleaning.
A scrubbing action cleaning cassette is available through
your Chevrolet dealership.
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.
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Downloaded from www.Manualslib.com manuals search engine 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.
Power Antenna Mast Care
Your power antenna will look its best and work well if
it’s cleaned from time to time.
To clean the antenna mast:
1. Turn on the radio to raise the antenna.
2. Dampen a clean cloth with mineral spirits or an
equivalent solvent.
3. Wipe the cloth over the mast, removing any dirt.
4. Wipe the mast dry with a clean cloth.
5. Turn the radio off and on to make the antenna go up
and down.
If the antenna
is still dirty, repeat the steps.
NOTICE:
Don’t lubricate the power antenna. Lubrication
I could damage it. I
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 antenna mast is damaged, you can replace it. See
your dealer for a replacement kit and follow the
instructions
in the kit. The antenna mast can be replaced
without removing the entire antenna from the vehicle.
3-19

Downloaded from www.Manualslib.com manuals search engine ~ NOTES
3-20

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
Corvette: 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 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
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, 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:
How much 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
4-2

Downloaded from www.Manualslib.com manuals search engine According to the American Medical Association, a
1 80-pound (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. 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
U.S. 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.
4-3

Downloaded from www.Manualslib.com manuals search engine 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
increas’es 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 twelve times greater; at a
level
of 0.15 percent, the chance is twenty-five 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.
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.
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.
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
314 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.
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.
Anti-Lock Brakes (ABS)
Your Corvette has an advanced electronic braking
system that will help prevent a braking skid.
This light on the
E RVI E come on briefly when
instrument
panel will
you start your vehicle.
I r I
When you start your vehicle and begin to drive away, you
may hear a momentary motor or clicking noise. And you
may even notice that your brake pedal moves a little while
this is going on.
This is the ABS system testing itself. If
there’s a problem with the anti-lock brake system, the
anti-lock brake system 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. 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 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.
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