CHEVROLET CORVETTE 1996 4.G Owners Manual

Downloaded from www.Manualslib.com manuals search engine Power Antenna Mast Care
Your power antenna will look its best and work well if it’s
cleaned fiom time to
@e. To clean the antenna mast:
1. Turn on the ignition and radio to raise the antenna.
2. Dampen a clean cloth with mineral spirits or
3. Wipe the cloth over the mast sections, removing
4. Wipe dry with a clean cloth.
5. Make the antenna go up and down by turning the
radio
or ignition off and on.
6. Repeat if necessary.
equivalent solvent.
any
dirt.
NOTICE:
Don’t lubricate the power antenna. Lubrication
could damage it.
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 dqes 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
I antenna down.
If the mast 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 e Section 4 Your Driving and the Road
I I
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
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
US. 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
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 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 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!
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.
I
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.
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.
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
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.
SERVICE
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

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
and let anti-lock work for you. You may hear a motor or
clicking noid and feel the brake pedal move a little
during
a stop, but this is normal.
ABS
ACTIVE
When your anti-lock system
is adjusting brake pressure
to help avoid a braking skid,
this light will come on. See
“Anti-Lock Brake System
Active Light” in the Index.
ASR (Acceleration Slip Regulation) System
Your vehicle has a traction control system called ASR
that limits wheel spin. This is especially useful in
slippery road conditions’. The system operates only if it
senses that the rear wheels
are spinning too much or are
beginning to lose traction. When this happens, the
system works the rear brakes and reduces engine power
(by closing the throttle and managing engine spark) to
limit wheel spin.
ASR
ACTIVE
This light will come on
when the ASR system is
limiting wheel spin. See
“ASR System Active Light”
in the Index. You may feel
or hear the system working,
but this is normal.
If your vehicle is in cruise control when the ASR 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.)
J

Downloaded from www.Manualslib.com manuals search engine SERVICE
ASR
This warning light will
come on to let you know if
there’s a problem with your
ASR system. See “ASR
System Warning Light” in
the Index.
When this warning light is on, the system will not limit
wheel spin. Adjust your driving accordingly. (The ASR
OFF light will also come on when the ASR system
warning light comes on.)
The ASR system automatically comes on whenever you
start your vehicle.
To limit wheel spin, especially in
I slippery road conditions, you should always leave the
system on. But you can
turn the ASR 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.) To
turn the system off, press the button located
above-the
headlamp switch. The ASR
OFF light will come on and
stay on.
If the ASR system is limiting wheel spin when
you press the button,
the system will turn off right away.
You can turn the system back on at any time by pressing
the button again. The ASR
OFF light should go off.
Braking in Emergencies
Use your anti-lock braking system when you need to.
With anti-lock, you can steer and brake at the same
time. In many emergencies, steering can help you more
than even the very best braking.
4-9