Oldsmobile Aurora 1997 Owner's Manuals

Unlocking the Theft-Deterrent Feature After a
Power
Loss
Enter your secret code as follows; pause no more than
15 seconds between steps:
1. LOC appears when the ignition is on.
2. Press MN and 000 will appear on the display.
3. Press MN again to make the last two digits agree
4. Press HR to make the first one or two digits agree
with
your code.
with your code.
5. Press AM-FM after you have confirmed that the
code matches the secret code you have written down.
The display will show SEC, indicating the radio is
now operable and secure.
If you enter the wrong code eight times, INOP will
appear
on the display. You will have to wait an hour
with the ignition on before you can try again. When you
try again, you will only have three chances to enter the
correct code before INOP appears.
If you lose or forget your code, contact your retailer.
Disabling the Theft-Deterrent Feature
1. Turn the ignition to ACCESSORY or RUN.
2. Turn the radio off.
3. Press the 1 and 4 buttons together. Hold them down
until SEC shows on the display.
4. Press MN and 000 will appear on the display.
5. Press MN again to make the last two digits agree
with your code.
6. Press HR to make the first one or two digits agree
with your code.
7. Press AM-FM after you have confirmed that the
code matches the secret code you have written down.
The display will show
---, indicating that the radio is
no longer secured.
If the code entered is incorrect, SEC will appear on the
display. The radio will remain secured until the correct
code is entered.
When battery power is removed and later applied to a
secured radio, the radio won’t turn
on and LOC will
appear on the display.
To unlock a secured radio,
see “Unlocking the
Theft-Deterrent Feature After a Power
Loss” earlier in
this section.
Enter your secret code as follows; pause no more than
15 seconds between steps:
3-27

Steering Wheel Controls for Audio System
With this feature, you can
control certain radio
functions using the buttons
on your steering wheel.
VOL: Press the up or down arrow to increase or
decrease volume.
SEEK: Press this button to tune to the next strongest
radio station signal. When playing a cassette tape
or
compact disc, press SEEK to hear the next selection.
There must be at least a three-second gap between
selections on a cassette tape.
PROG: Press this button to tune in the next preset radio
station. When playing a cassette tape, press
PROG to
hear the other side
of a tape that is playing. When
listening to a disc
in the CD changer, press PROG to
select the next loaded disc.
Some steering wheel controls operate climate controls.
See “Steering Wheel Controls for Climate Control”
earlier in this section.
3-28

Understanding Radio Reception
FM Stereo
FM stereo will give you the best sound. But
FM signals
will reach only about
10 to 40 miles ( 16 to 65 km). Tall
buildings or hills can interfere with
FM signals, causing
the sound to come and
go.
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 pick
up noise from things like storms and power lines. Try
reducing the treble
to reduce this noise if you ever get it.
Tips About Your Audio System
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. 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.
3-29

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 aren’t, they may not operate
properly
or may cause failure of the tape player.
Your tape player should be cleaned regularly after every
50 hours of use. Your radio may display CLN to indicate
that you have used your tape player for
50 hours without
resetting the tape clean timer.
If this message appears on
the display, your cassette tape player needs to be
cleaned.
It will still play tapes, but you should clean it as
soon as possible to prevent damage to your tapes and
player.
If you notice a reduction in sound quality, try a
known good cassette to see if it is the tape or the tape
player 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 with pads which scrub
the tape head as the hubs of the cleaner cassette
turn.
You may also choose 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 may not
clean as thoroughly as the scrubbing type cleaner.
After you clean the player, press and hold
EJECT for
five seconds to reset the CLN indicator. The radio will
display
--- to show the indicator was reset.
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.
3-30

Power Antenna Mast Care
Your power antenna will look its best and work
well if it’s cleaned from time to time.
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
equivalent solvent.
any
dirt.
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.
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 does 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
antenna down.
If the mast portion of your antenna is damaged, you can
easily replace it. See your retailer for a replacement kit
and follow the instructions in the kit.
3-31

b% NOTES
3-32

Section 4 Your Dri.ving and the Road
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.
4-2 4-3
4-6
4-6
4-11
4-13
4-13
4-15 4-16 Defensive
Driving
Drunken Driving Control of a Vehicle
Braking Steering
Off-Road Recovery
Passing
Loss of Control
Driving at Night 4-18
4-2
1
4-22
4-23
4-24
4-24
4-26
4-30 4-32 Driving
in Rain and
on Wet Roads
City Driving
Freeway Driving
Before Leaving on a Long Trip
Highway Hypnosis Hill and Mountain Roads
Winter Driving
Loading Your Vehicle
Towing a Trailer
4-1

Defensive Driving
The best advice anyone can give about driving is:
Drive defensively.
Please start with a very important safety device in your
Aurora: 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.
4-2

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
0 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
17,000 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:
0 The amount of alcohol consumed
0 The drinker’s body weight
0 The amount of food that is consumed before and
0 The length of time it has taken the drinker to
during drinking
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.
4-3

I I
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 befose
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!
4-4