GMC ENVOY XL 2004 Owners Manual

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 are not, they may not operate
properly or may cause failure of the tape player.
The tape player should be cleaned regularly after every
50 hours of use. The radio may display CLEAN to
indicate that the tape player has been used for 50 hours
without resetting the tape clean timer. If this message
appears on the display, the cassette tape player
needs to be cleaned. It will still play tapes, but it should
be cleaned as soon as possible to prevent damage
to the tapes and player. If there is 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.
For best results, use 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 dealer.
The broken tape detection feature of the cassette
tape player may identify the cleaning cassette as a
damaged tape, in error. To prevent the cleaning cassette
from being ejected, use the following steps:1. Turn the ignition on.
2. Turn the radio off.
3. Press and hold the TAPE CD button for ve
seconds. READY will appear on the display and
a cassette symbol will ash for ve seconds.
4. Insert the scrubbing action cleaning cassette.
5. Eject the cleaning cassette after the manufacturer’s
recommended cleaning time.
After the cleaning cassette is ejected, the broken
tape detection feature will be active again.
A non-scrubbing action, wet-type cleaner which uses a
cassette with a fabric belt to clean the tape head
can be used. 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 the player is cleaned, press and hold the EJT
button for ve seconds to reset the CLEAN indicator.
The radio will display CLEANED 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 the tape player is serviced.
3-121

Care of Your CDs and DVDs
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 side without writing when
handling discs. Pick up discs by grasping the outer
edges or the edge of the hole and the outer edge.
Care of Your CD and DVD Player
The use of CD lens cleaners for CDs 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 xed mast antenna can withstand most car
washes without being damaged. If the mast should
ever become slightly bent, straighten it out by hand.
If the mast is badly bent, replace it.
Check occasionally to make sure the mast is still
tightened to the fender. If tightening is required, tighten
by hand, then with a wrench one quarter turn.
XM™ Satellite Radio Antenna
System
The XM™ Satellite Radio antenna is located on the roof
of your vehicle. Keep this antenna clear of snow and
ice build up for clear radio reception.
The performance of the XM™ system may be affected if
the sunroof is open.
Loading items onto the roof of your vehicle can interfere
with the performance of the XM™ system. Make sure
that the XM™ satellite antenna is not obstructed.
Chime Level Adjustment
The radio is the vehicle’s chime producer. To change
the volume level, press and hold pushbutton 6 with the
ignition on and the radio power off. The chime volume
level will change from the normal level to loud, and LOUD
will appear on the radio display. To change back to the
default or normal setting, press and hold pushbutton 6
again. The chime level will change from the loud level to
normal, and NORMAL will appear on the radio display.
Removing the radio and not replacing it with a factory
radio or chime will disable vehicle chimes.
3-122

Your Driving, the Road, and Your Vehicle..........4-2
Defensive Driving...........................................4-2
Drunken Driving.............................................4-2
Control of a Vehicle........................................4-6
Braking.........................................................4-6
Traction Assist System (TAS)...........................4-9
Locking Rear Axle........................................4-11
Steering......................................................4-11
Off-Road Recovery.......................................4-13
Passing.......................................................4-13
Loss of Control.............................................4-14
Off-Road Driving with Your Four-Wheel-Drive
Vehicle....................................................4-16
Driving at Night............................................4-30
Driving in Rain and on Wet Roads..................4-31City Driving..................................................4-34
Freeway Driving...........................................4-35
Before Leaving on a Long Trip.......................4-36
Highway Hypnosis........................................4-37
Hill and Mountain Roads................................4-38
Winter Driving..............................................4-40
If You Are Stuck: In Sand, Mud,
Ice or Snow..............................................4-44
Towing..........................................................4-45
Towing Your Vehicle.....................................4-45
Recreational Vehicle Towing...........................4-45
Loading Your Vehicle....................................4-49
Adding a Snow Plow or Similar Equipment.......4-55
Towing a Trailer...........................................4-55
Section 4 Driving Your Vehicle
4-1

Your Driving, the Road, and
Your Vehicle
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. SeeSafety Belts: They Are for
Everyone on page 1-8.
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 is 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 oor — makesproper 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 is 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, more than
16,000 annual motor vehicle-related deaths have been
associated with the use of alcohol, with more than
300,000 people injured.
4-2

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 is 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 eliminate the leading highway safety
problem is for people never to drink alcohol and then
drive. But what if people do? How much is “too much” if
someone plans to drive? It is 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 liquors
like whiskey, gin or vodka.It is 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.
4-3

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 will when
each has the same number of drinks.
The law in an increasing number of U.S. states, and
throughout Canada, sets the legal limit at 0.08 percent.
In some other countries, the limit is even lower. For
example, it is 0.05 percent in both France and Germany.
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 have 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!
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 will be careful” is not the
right answer. What if there is 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.
4-4

There is something else about drinking and driving that
many people do not 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.
{CAUTION:
Drinking and then driving is very dangerous.
Your reexes, 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 do not drink and drive or ride with a
driver who has been drinking. Ride home in a
cab; or if you are with a group, designate a
driver who will not drink.
4-5

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 are driving on snow or ice,
it is 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 involvesperception timeand
reaction time.
First, you have to decide to push on the brake pedal.
That isperception time.Then you have to bring up your
foot and do it. That isreaction time.
Averagereaction timeis about 3/4 of a second. But that
is 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 is 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.
4-6

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 are driving, brake
normally but do not 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 Brake System
Your vehicle has anti-lock brakes. 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. This is normal.
If there is a problem with
the anti-lock brake system,
this warning light will
stay on. SeeAnti-Lock
Brake System Warning
Light on page 3-42.
Along with ABS, your vehicle has a Dynamic Rear
Proportioning (DRP) system. If there is a DRP problem,
both the brake and ABS warning lights will come on
accompanied by a 10-second chime. The lights and
chime will come on each time the ignition is turned on
until the problem is repaired. See your dealer for service.
4-7

Let us say the road is wet and you are driving safely.
Suddenly, an animal jumps out in front of you. You slam
on the brakes and continue braking. Here is 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
both 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. This can help you steer around
the obstacle while braking hard.
As you brake, your computer keeps receiving updates
on wheel speed and controls braking pressure
accordingly.
4-8