seats GMC SAVANA 2004 User Guide

Center Passenger Position
(3rd, 4th and 5th Row)
Lap Belt
If your vehicle has third, fourth or fth row bench seats,
someone can sit in the center positions.When you sit in a center seating position in the third,
fourth or fth row, you have a lap safety belt, which has
no retractor. To make the belt longer, tilt the latch
plate and pull it along the belt.
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To unlatch the belt, just push the button on the buckle.
Rear Safety Belt Comfort Guides for
Children and Small Adults
Rear safety belt comfort guides will provide added
safety belt comfort for older children who have outgrown
booster seats and for small adults. When installed on
a shoulder belt, the comfort guide better positions
the belt away from the neck and head.
There is one guide for each outside passenger position
in the rear seats. To provide added safety belt comfort
for children who have outgrown child restraints and
booster seats and for smaller adults, the comfort guides
may be installed on the shoulder belts.
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Safety Belt Extender
If the vehicle’s safety belt will fasten around you, you
should use it.
But if a safety belt isn’t long enough to fasten, your
dealer will order you an extender. It’s free. When you go
in to order it, take the heaviest coat you will wear, so
the extender will be long enough for you. The extender
will be just for you, and just for the seat in your
vehicle that you choose. Don’t let someone else use it,
and use it only for the seat it is made to t. To wear
it, just attach it to the regular safety belt.
Child Restraints
Older Children
Older children who have outgrown booster seats should
wear the vehicle’s safety belts.
If you have the choice, a child should sit in a seating
position that has a lap-shoulder belt to get the additional
restraint a shoulder belt can provide.
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A forward-facing child seat (C-E) provides restraint for
the child’s body with the harness and also sometimes
with surfaces such as T-shaped or shelf-like shields.A booster seat (F-G) is a child restraint designed to
improve the t of the vehicle’s safety belt system. Some
booster seats have a shoulder belt positioner, and
some high-back booster seats have a ve-point harness.
A booster seat can also help a child to see out the
window.
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If your vehicle is a passenger van with rear seats, an
anchor bracket for a top strap is located at the rear
of the seat cushion for each three-passenger rear bench
seat. Don’t use a child restraint with a top strap in the
right front passenger’s position, or in any four-passenger
rear bench seat.
The top strap is designed for the second row driver side
position and the third/fourth row center searing
positions in a three-passenger rear bench seat.
Anchor the top strap to this bracket. For the second row
only, in the left outboard seating position, use anchor
point (A). For the right outboard seating position,
use anchor point (B). For a center seating position, use
either anchor point (A) or (B).Passenger Van 3–Passenger Rear Seats
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Lower Anchorages and Top Tethers
for Children (LATCH System)
If you have a passenger van, it may have the LATCH
system. If it does, you’ll nd two sets of anchors (A)
in the second row of seats in the driver and passenger
side seating positions, where the seatback meets
the seat cushion.This system, designed to make installation of child
restraints easier, does not use the vehicle’s safety belts.
Instead, it uses vehicle anchors (A, B) and child
restraint attachments to secure the restraints. Some
restraints also use another vehicle anchor to secure a
top tether strap (C).
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In order to use the LATCH system in your vehicle, you
need a child restraint designed for that system.
To assist you in locating the lower anchors for this child
restraint system, each seating position with the
LATCH system has a label on the seatback at each
lower anchor position.The LATCH system labels
are located on the
outboard and inboard
positions of the seats.
{CAUTION:
If a LATCH-type child restraint is not attached
to its anchorage points, the restraint will not
be able to protect the child correctly. In a
crash, the child could be seriously injured or
killed. Make sure that a LATCH-type child
restraint is properly installed using the
anchorage points, or use the vehicle’s safety
belts to secure the restraint, following the
instructions that came with that restraint, and
also the instructions in this manual.
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CAUTION: (Continued)
rear-facing child restraint in the right front seat
position. If your vehicle is a cargo van with a
right front passenger air bag but does not
have an air bag off switch, do not use a
rear-facing child restraint in this vehicle.
Even though the air bag off switch is designed
to turn off the passenger’s frontal air bag, no
system is fail-safe and no one can guarantee
that an air bag will not deploy under some
unusual circumstance, even though it is turned
off. GM recommends that rear-facing child
restraints be transported in vehicles with a
rear seat that will accommodate a rear-facng
child restraint whenever possible.
If you secure a forward-facing child restraint in
the right front passenger position, always move
the passenger seat as far back as it will go.
A rear seat is a safer place to secure a forward-facing
child restraint. SeeWhere to Put the Restraint on
page 1-45.
{CAUTION:
If the air bag readiness light ever comes on
when you have turned off the air bag, it means
that something may be wrong with the air bag
system. The right front passenger’s air bag
could inate even though the switch is off. If
this ever happens, don’t let anyone whom the
national government has identied as a
member of a passenger air bag risk group sit
in the right front passenger’s position (for
example, don’t secure a rear-facing child
restraint in your vehicle) until you have your
vehicle serviced. See″Air Bag Off Switch″in
the Index.
1. If your vehicle has a passenger air bag and an air
bag off switch, and you are using a rear-facing child
restraint in this seat, make sure the air bag is
turned off. SeeAir Bag Off Switch on page 1-75.If
your child restraint is forward-facing, always
move the seat as far back as it will go before
securing it in this seat. SeePower Seat on page 1-4
orManual Seats on page 1-3.
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{CAUTION:
If the air bag readiness light ever comes on
when you have turned off the air bag, it means
that something may be wrong with the air bag
system. The right front passenger’s air bag
could inate even though the switch is off. If
this ever happens, don’t let anyone whom the
national government has identied as a
member of a passenger air bag risk group sit
in the right front passenger’s position (for
example, don’t secure a rear-facing child
restraint in your vehicle) until you have your
vehicle serviced. See″Air Bag Off Switch″in
the Index.If your child restraint does not have the LATCH system,
you’ll be using the lap-shoulder belt to secure the
child restraint in this position. Be sure to follow the
instructions that came with the child restraint. Secure
the child in the child restraint when and as the
instructions say.
1. If your vehicle has a passenger air bag and an air
bag off switch, and you are using a rear-facing child
restraint in this seat, make sure the air bag is
turned off. SeeAir Bag Off Switch on page 1-75.If
your child restraint is forward-facing, always
move the seat as far back as it will go before
securing it in this seat. SeePower Seat on page 1-4
orManual Seats on page 1-3.
2. Put the restraint on the seat.
3. Pick up the latch plate, and run the lap and shoulder
portions of the vehicle’s safety belt through or
around the restraint. The child restraint instructions
will show you how.
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Seat Position Sensors
Vehicles with dual stage air bags are also equipped with
special sensors which enable the sensing system to
monitor the position of both the driver and passenger
front seats. The seat position sensors provide
information which is used to determine if the air bags
should deploy at a reduced level or at full depoyment.
Air Bag Systems
In any particular crash, no one can say whether an air
bag should have inated simply because of the damage
to a vehicle or because of what the repair costs were.
Ination is determined by the angle of the impact
and how quickly the vehicle slows down in front or
near-frontal impacts.
What Makes an Air Bag Inate?
In an impact of sufficient severity, the air bag sensing
system detects that the vehicle is in a crash. The
sensing system triggers a release of gas from the
inator, which inates the air bag. The inator, air bag,
and related hardware are all part of the air bag
modules inside the steering wheel and in the instrument
panel in front of the right front passenger.
How Does an Air Bag Restrain?
In moderate to severe frontal or near-frontal collisions,
even belted occupants can contact the steering wheel or
the instrument panel. Air bags supplement the
protection provided by safety belts. Air bags distribute
the force of the impact more evenly over the occupant’s
upper body, stopping the occupant more gradually.
But air bags would not help you in many types of
collisions, including rollovers, rear impacts and many
side impacts, primarily because an occupant’s motion is
not toward those air bags. Air bags should never be
regarded as anything more than a supplement to safety
belts, and then only in moderate to severe frontal or
near-frontal collisions.
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