GMC YUKON 2004 Owner's Manual

Your Driving, the Road, and Your Vehicle..........4-2
Defensive Driving...........................................4-2
Drunken Driving.............................................4-2
Control of a Vehicle........................................4-5
Braking.........................................................4-6
Traction Assist System (TAS)...........................4-9
Locking Rear Axle........................................4-11
Stabilitrak
®System.......................................4-11
Steering......................................................4-14
QUADRASTEER™........................................4-16
Off-Road Recovery.......................................4-19
Passing.......................................................4-19
Loss of Control.............................................4-21
Off-Road Driving...........................................4-22
Driving at Night............................................4-36
Driving in Rain and on Wet Roads..................4-38City Driving..................................................4-41
Freeway Driving...........................................4-42
Before Leaving on a Long Trip.......................4-43
Highway Hypnosis........................................4-44
Hill and Mountain Roads................................4-44
Winter Driving..............................................4-46
If You Are Stuck: In Sand, Mud, Ice or Snow........4-50
Towing..........................................................4-53
Towing Your Vehicle.....................................4-53
Recreational Vehicle Towing...........................4-53
Loading Your Vehicle....................................4-56
Level Control...............................................4-61
Autoride™...................................................4-62
Trailer Recommendations...............................4-62
Towing a Trailer...........................................4-63
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 1-23.
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 — 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 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.
4-2

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.
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.
4-3

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.
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.
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.
4-4

{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.
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. Also seeTraction Assist
System (TAS) on page 4-9.
4-5

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.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.
4-6

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 3-47.
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.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’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 both rear wheels.
4-7

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.Remember: Anti-lock does not 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 will not 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
Do not pump the brakes. Just hold the brake pedal
down rmly and let anti-lock work for you. You may feel
the brakes vibrate, or you may notice some noise,
but this is normal.
Braking in Emergencies
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.
4-8

Traction Assist System (TAS)
Your vehicle may have a Traction Assist System (TAS)
that limits wheel spin. This is especially useful in slippery
road conditions. The system operates only if it senses
that one or both of the rear wheels are spinning or
beginning to lose traction. When this happens, the
system reduces engine power to limit wheel spin.
The traction control system is enabled every time your
vehicle is started. The system will activate if it senses
that any of the wheels are spinning or beginning to lose
traction.
You may hear or feel the system working or notice a
lack of accelerator response, but this is normal.
The Traction Assist System may operate on dry roads
under some conditions. When this happens, you
may notice a reduction in acceleration. This is normal
and doesn’t mean there’s a problem with your vehicle.
Examples of these conditions include a hard
acceleration in a turn, an abrupt upshift or downshift of
the transmission or driving on rough roads.If your vehicle is in cruise control when the TAS 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” underTurn Signal/Multifunction
Lever on page 3-8.
When the traction off light
is on, the TAS is off and
will not limit wheel
spin. Adjust your driving
accordingly.
4-9

The traction off light will come on under the following
conditions:
The Traction Assist System is turned off, either by
pressing the TAS on/off button or turning off the
automatic engagement feature of the TAS.
The transmission is in FIRST (1); TAS will not
operate in this gear. This is normal.
The vehicle is driven on an extremely rough road.
When the vehicle leaves the rough surface, slows
down or stops, the light will go off and TAS will
be on again. This is normal.
A Traction Assist System, Anti-Lock Brake System
or engine-related problem has been detected and
the vehicle needs service.
If the vehicle has been driven with the TAS system
on for long periods of time, or if the vehicle has
gone through many high speed braking maneuvers
the system may be automatically disabled. The
system will automatically re-enable after
approximately two minutes of not using the brakes.
SeeTraction Off Light on page 3-48.The Traction Assist System, as delivered from the
factory, will automatically come on whenever you start
your vehicle. To limit wheel spin, especially in
slippery road conditions, you should always leave the
system on. But you can turn the TAS off if you ever need
to. You should turn the TAS off if your vehicle ever
gets stuck in sand, mud or snow and rocking the vehicle
is required. See “Rocking Your Vehicle” underIf You
Are Stuck: In Sand, Mud, Ice or Snow on page 4-50.
To turn the system on or
off, press the TAS on/off
button located on the
instrument panel.
If you used the button to turn the system off, the traction
off light will come on and stay on. You can turn the
system back on at any time by pressing the button
again. The traction off light should go off.
4-10