1994 CHEVROLET S10 Owners Manual

Downloaded from www.Manualslib.com manuals search engine Your Driving and the Road
Section
.
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 .......................................... 4-2
Drunken Driving
........................... : ............... 4-2
Control of a Vehicle
Braking
................................................ 4-5
Steering ................................................ 4-8
Steering Tips
............................................ 4-8
Passing
............................................... 4-11
Loss of Control ......................................... 4-12
Driving Guidelines
......................................... 4-13
Off-Road Driving With Your Four-wheel Drive Vehicle
.......... 4-13
DrivingatNight
........................................... 4-25
Driving in the Rain
........................................ 4-26
Freeway Driving
.......................................... 4-29
CityDriving
.............................................. 4-28
Hill and Mountain Roads
.................................... 4-31
WinterDriving
............................................ 4-33
Recreational Vehicle Towing (Four-wheel Drive Only)
........... 4-36
TowingaTrailer
........................................... 4-38
4-1

Downloaded from www.Manualslib.com manuals search engine Defensive Driving
:c. 1-
1 -- ,- -. , ..
The best advice anyone can give about driving is: Drive defensively\
,
Please start with a
very important safety device in your vehicle: 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 carel\
ess 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 d\
efensive
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.
Drunken Driving
Death and injury associated with drinking and driving is a nat\
ional tragedy.
It’s the number one contributor to the highway death toll, \
claiming
thousands
of victims every year. Alcohol takes away three things that
anyone needs to drive a vehicle:
Judgment
Muscular Coordination
Vision
Police records show mar almost half
of all motor vehicle-related deaths
involve alcohol
- a driver, a passenger or someone else, such as a
pedestrian, had been drinking. In most cases, these deaths are \
the result of
someone who was drinking and driving. About
20,000 motor
vehicle-related deaths occur each year because of alcohol, and \
thousands
01
people are injured.
Just how much alcohol is too much if a person plans to drive\
? Ideally, no one should drink alcohol and then drive. But
if one does, then what’s “too
much”? It can be a lot less than many might think. Although it depends on
each person and situation, here is some.genera1 information
on the problem.
The Blood Alcohol Content (BAC)
of someone who is drinking depends
upon four things:
How much alcohol is in the drink.
0 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.
4-2

Downloaded from www.Manualslib.com manuals search engine 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 &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.
It’s the amount of alcohol that counts. For example,
if the sue 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 slightly lower
BAC level.
I
The law in most U.S. states sets the legal limit at a BAC of 0.10 percent. In
Canada the limit is
0.08 percent, and in some other countries it’s lower than
that. 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.
4-3

Downloaded from www.Manualslib.com manuals search engine “I’ll be carehl” 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
P~~SOS with a
bgher
BAC might not be able to react quickly enough to avoid the collis\
ion.
There’s something else about drinking-and driving that many p\
eople don’t
know. Medical research shows that alcohol in a person’s system can make
crash injuries worse. That’s especially true for brain, spinal cord and heart
injuries. That means that
if anyone who has been drinking - driver or
passenger
- is in a crash, the chance of being killed or permanently
disabled is higher than if that person had not been drinking. And we’ve\

already seen that the chance
of a crash itself is higher for drinking drivers. .~
4-4

Downloaded from www.Manualslib.com manuals search engine 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
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4-5

Downloaded from www.Manualslib.com manuals search engine 1
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’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 vehicle has an advanced electronic braking system that can help\
you
keep it under control.
If your vehicle has an anti-lock brake system warning light on th\
e
instrument panel, it has four-wheel anti-lock brakes. Otherwise, it has
rear-wheel anti-lock brakes. When you start a vehicle that has \
four-wheel anti-lock brakes and begin to drive away, you may hear
a momentary motor
or clicking noise. This is the ABS system testing itself.
Here’s how anti-lock works. Let’s say the road is wet. Y\
ou’re driving safely. Suddenly an animal jumps out in front of you.
You slam on the brakes. Here’s what happens with ABS.
A computer senses that wheels are slowing down. With four-wheel
anti-lock:
If one of the wheels is about to stop rolling, the computer will
separately work the brakes at each front wheel
and at the rear wheels. The
four-wheel anti-lock system can change the brake pressure faster\
than any
4-6

Downloaded from www.Manualslib.com manuals search engine driver could. With rear-wheel anti-lock: If one of the rear wheels is about
to stop rolling, the computer will work the brakes at the rear wheels. The
computer is programmed to make the most of available tire and road
conditions.
As you brake, your computer keeps receiving updates on wheel speed\
and
controls braking pressure accordingly.
Remember: Anti-lock doesn’t change the time you need to get \
your foot up
to the brake pedal.
If you get too close to the vehicle in front of you, you
won’t have time to apply your brakes if that vehicle sudden\
ly slows or
stops. Always leave enough room up ahead to stop, even though you have
anti-lock brakes.
To Use Four-wheel Anti-Lock
Don’t pump the brakes. Just hold the brake pedal down and let anti-lock
work for you.
You may feel the brakes vibrate. or you may notice some
noise, but this is
1 mal.
To Use Rear-Wheel Anti-Lock
Use rear-wheel anti-lock like regular brakes. You may feel the brakes
vibrate, or you may notice some noise outside your vehicle, bu\
t
this is
normal. Let anti-lock work for you, but remember: Your Eront wheels can
still stop rolling. If that happens, release enough pressure on the brakes to
get the wheels rolling again
so that you can steer.
With the four-wheel drive option, you won’t have rear-wheel anti-lock
braking when you shift into four-wheel drive. But you will hav\
e regular
braking. When you shift back into two-wheel drive, you will ha\
ve rear-wheel anti-lock again.
4-7

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Braking in Emergencies
At some time, nearly every driver gets into a situation that \
requires hard
braking.
The four-wheel anti-lock system lets you steer and brake at the same time.
If you have the rear-wheel anti-lock braking system, your front wh\
eels can
stop rolling when you brake very hard. Once they do, the vehicle can’t
respond to your steering. Momentum will carry it in whatever direction it
was headed when the front wheels stopped rolling. That could b\
e off the
road, into the very thing you were trying to avoid, or into traffic.
So, unless you have four-wheel anti-lock, use a “squeeze” braking
technique. This will give you maximum braking while maintaining \
steering
control. You do this by pushing on the brake pedal with steadily increasing
pressure. When you do, it will help maintain steering control. \
In many
emergencies, steering can help you more than even the very best braking.
Steering
Power Steering
If you lose power steering assist because the engine stops or the system is
not functioning, you can steer but it will take much more effort.
Steering Tips
Driving on Curves
It’s important to take eurves at a reasonable speed.
A lot of the “drrver lost control” accidents mentit- ~~- -- - -~ -1-3 news happen
on curves. Here’s why:
bxperienced driver or beginner, each of us is subject to the same laws of
physics when driving on curves. The traction of the tires against the road
surface makes
it possible for the vehicle to change its path when you turn
the front wheels. If there’s no traction, inertia will keep the vehicle going in
the same direction.
If you’ve ever tried to steer a vehicle on wet ice, you’ll
understand this.
The traction you can get in a curve depends on the condition of your tires
and the road surface, the angle at which the curve is banked, and you\
r
speed. While you’re in
a curve, speed is the one factor you can control.
Suppose you’re steering through a sharp curve. Then you suddenly apply
the brakes. Both control systems
- steering and braking - have to do their
work where the tires meet the road. Unless you have four-wheel\
anti-lock
brakes, adding the hard braking can demand too much of those places. You
can lose control.
4 -8
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