1996 PONTIAC GRAND-AM Owners Manual

Steering Wheel Controls (Option)
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If your vehicle has this feature, you can control certain
radio functions using the buttons on your steering wheel.
SEEK: Press the up arrow to tune to the next radio
station and the down
arrow to tune to the previous radio
station.
If a cassette tape or compact disc is playing, the
player will advance with the up arrow
and rewind with
the down arrow.
AM-FM: Press this button to choose AM, FM1 or
FM2. If a cassette tape or compact disc is playing, it will
stop and the radio will play.
PRESET Press this button to play a station you have
programmed on the radio preset buttons.
PLAY Press this button to play a cassette tape or
compact disc when the radio
is playing.
MUTE: Press this button to silence the system. Press it
again, or any other radio button, to turn on the sound.
VOL: Press the up arrow to increase the volume and the
down arrow to decrease volume.
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.
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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 hamzful
to your hearing. Take precautions by
adjusting the volume control on your radio to a safe
sound level before
yow hearing adapts to it.
To help avoid hearing loss or damage:
Adjust the volume control to the lowest setting.
0 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, DeYco 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, b'efore adding sound equipment, check with
your
dealer and be sure to check Federal rules
covering mobile radio and telephone units.
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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 you notice a reduction in sound quality,
try a known 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 with pads which scrub
the tape head
as the hubs of the cleaner cassette turn.
Follow these steps to prevent the cassette from being
ejected due to the CUT TAPE DETECTION feature:
1. Turn the radio off and the ignition on.
2. Press and hold the TAPEPLAY button for three
3. Insert the cleaner cassette.
The radio will default back
to CUT TAPE DETECTION
when the cleaner cassette is ejected.
seconds (tape indicator will flash
for two seconds).
You may also choose a non-scrubbing action, wet-type
cleaner which uses a cassette with a fabric belt to clean
the tape head.
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 cb 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.
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Section 4 Your Driving 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.
Defensive Driving
The best advice anyone can give about driving is: Drive
defensively.
Please start with a very important safety device in your
Pontiac: 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 sural driving. You never
know when the vehicle
in front of you is going to brake
or turn suddenly.
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Drunken Driving
Death,'and injury associated with drinking and drivingis
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:
0 'Judgment
Muscular Coordination :.2.
.',, * Vision
Attentiveness.
Police records
show that almost half of dl motor
vehicle-related deaths involve alcohol.
In most cases,
these deaths are the result of someone who was drinking
and driving. In recent years, sortle 18,000 annual motlor
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
-- chbose never to drink alcohol, so they
never
tirive after drinking. For persons under 21, 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 prbblem.
The Blood Alcohol Concentration
(BAC) of someone
who'is drinking depends upon
four things:
e The amount of alcohol consumed
The drinker's body weight
The amount of food 'that is consumed before and
during drinking
consume the alcohol.
The length of time it 'has taken the drinker to
According to the
American. Medical Association, a
180-lb. (82 kg) person who elrinks three 12-ounce (355
nil) 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) df a liquor like whiskey, gin or vodka,
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ts. For examd
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It’s the amount of alcohol that coun e, if
the same person drank three double martinis (3 &nces
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 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 BAlC
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!
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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 careful” 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 b’e able
to react quickly enough
to avoid the collision.
There’s ssmething else.about drinking
and driving that
many people don’t know. Medical research shows that
alcohol
iria person’s system can make crash injuries
worse,‘espekially 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.
Drinking and then driving is very dangerous.
Your reflexes, 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 don’t drink
and drive or ride with a driver
who has been drinking. Ride home in a cab; or if
you’re with a group, designate a driver who will
not drink.
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