Oldsmobile Achieva 1995 Owner's Manuals

AM
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 also
pick up noise from things like storms and power lines.
To lower this noise, try reducing the treble level.
Be aware that hearing damage from loud noise is almost
undetectable until it is too late. Your hearing can adapt
to higher volumes of sound. Sound that seems normal
can be loud and harmful to your hearing. Take
precautions by adjusting the volume control
on your
radio to a safe sound level before your hearing adapts to
it.
To help avoid hearing loss or damage:
Adjust the volume control to the lowest setting.
Increase volume slowly until you hear comfortably
and clearly.
NOTICE:
Before you add any sound equipment to your
vehicle
-- like a tape player, CB radio, mobile
telephone
or two-way radio -- be sure you can
add what you want. If you can, it’s very
important to do it properly. Added sound
equipment may interfere with the operation of
your vehicle’s engine, Delco@ radio or other
systems, and even damage them. And, your
vehicle’s systems may interfere with the
operation
of sound equipment that has been
added improperly.
So, before adding sound equipment, check with
your retailer and be sure
to check Federal rules
covering mobile radio and telephone units.
3-15

Care of Your Cassette Tape Player
A tape player that is not cleaned regularly can cause
reduced sound quality, ruined cassette, 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 after every
50 hours
of use. If you notice a reduction in sound quality, try a
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. This system uses a
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 three times to ensure a thorough cleaning.
A
scrubbing action cleaning cassette is available through
your Oldsmobile retail facility. You
may use 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.
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.

Fixed Mast Antenna
The fixed mast antenna can withstand most car washes
without being damaged.
If the mast should ever become
slightly bent,
you can straighten it out by hand. If the
mast
is badly bent, as it might be by vandals, you should
replace it.
Check every once in
a while to be sure the mast is still
tightened to the fender.
Rear Window Defogger Antenna (Option)
This particular rear window defogger also serves as a
radio antenna. If you have this option, do not apply
aftermarket glass tinting. The metallic film in some
tinting materials will interfere with or distort the
incoming radio reception.
3-17

NOTES
3-18

1 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
Oldsmobile: 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
01- turn suddenly.
4-1

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
0 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 2 1, 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
The drinker’s body weight
The amount of food that is consumed before and
during drinking
0 The length of time it’s taken the drinker to consume
the alcohol
According
to the American Medical Association, a
180-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 nll) 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

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

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 carefbl” 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

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 tir7z.e and rzaction 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 34 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 kmh)
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.
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,
4-5

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 Oldsrnobile has an advanced electronic braking
system that
will help prevent a braking skid.
I LOCK @)
ANTI-
CHECK
OABES
This light on the
instrument panel
will
come on briefly when
you start your vehicle. When you
start yo~~r vehicle, or when
you 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 or flash.
See “Anti-Lock Brake System Warning Light”
in the
Index.
4-6