
When the weather is cool or damp, operating the system
in recirculation for extended periods of time may cause
fogging of the vehicle’s windows. To clear the fog, select
either defog or front defrost.
You may also notice that the A/C compressor will run
while in recirculation mode. This is normal and helps to
prevent fogging.
9(Off):Press this button to turn off the entire climate
control system. Outside air will still enter the vehicle,
and will be directed to thefloor. This direction can
be changed by pressing the mode button. The
temperature can also be adjusted using either
temperature knob. Press the up or down arrows on the
fan switch, the defrost button, the AUTO button, or
the air conditioning button to turn the system on when it
is off.
Display
If you press the MODE button to select an air delivery
mode, the display will change to show you the selected
air delivery mode. After ten seconds, the display will
change to show the driver temperature setting and the
selected mode.
If you press the up or down arrows on the fan switch,
the display will change to show the selected fan speed.
After ten seconds, the display will change to show
the driver temperature setting and the selected mode.Whenever you press AUTO, the display will change to
show the following:
•the current driver’s set temperature and an arrow
forfive seconds,
•the current passenger’s set temperature setting and
an arrow forfive seconds and
•the automatic air delivery mode and fan speed.
If the driver’s and passenger’s temperature settings are
the same when AUTO is pressed, the temperature
setting and both arrows will be displayed forfive
seconds along with the automatic air delivery mode and
fan speed. After thefive second update, the display
will change to show the temperature setting, both arrows
and AUTO.
Air Conditioning
#
(Air Conditioning):Press this button to turn the air
conditioning (A/C) compressor on and off. The
snowflake symbol will appear on the display when the
A/C is on.
When air conditioning is selected or in AUTO mode, the
system will run the air conditioning automatically to
cool and dehumidify the air entering the vehicle. If you
select A/C off while in front defrost, defog or
recirculation, the A/C snowflake symbol will turn off, but
the A/C compressor will still run to help prevent
fogging.
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2003 - Sierra Denali

Driver Information Center (DIC)
The DIC display is located on the instrument panel
cluster above the steering wheel. The DIC can display
information such as the trip odometer, fuel economy and
personalization features.
A (Trip Information):This button will display the
odometer, personal trip odometer, business trip
odometer, hourmeter, annual log and the timer.
B (Fuel Information):This button will display the
current range, average fuel economy, instant fuel
economy and engine oil life.
C (Personalization):This button will change personal
options available on your vehicle.D (Select):This button resets certain functions and
turns off or acknowledges messages on the DIC.
If your vehicle is not equipped with the DIC steering
wheel buttons you will not have all of the features listed
above, and you will turn off, or acknowledge DIC
messages by using the trip odometer reset stem located
on the instrument panel cluster.
DIC Operation and Displays
The DIC comes on when the ignition is on. After a short
delay the DIC will display the current driver and the
information that was last displayed before the engine
was turned off.
If a problem is detected, a warning message will appear
on the display. Pressing the select button will
acknowledge any current warning or service messages.
The DIC has different modes which can be accessed
by pressing the four buttons on the DIC. These buttons
are trip information, fuel information, personalization
and select. The button functions are detailed in
the following.
If your vehicle is not equipped with the DIC steering
wheel buttons not all of the features listed will be
available on your vehicle.
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2003 - Sierra Denali

Fuel Range
Press the fuel information button until RANGE appears
to display the remaining distance you can drive
without refueling. It’s based on fuel economy and the
fuel remaining in the tank. The display will show LOW if
the fuel level is low.
The fuel economy data used to determine fuel range is
an average of recent driving conditions. As your
driving conditions change, this data is gradually updated.
Fuel range cannot be reset.
Average Fuel Economy
Press the fuel information button until AVG appears in
the display. Average fuel economy is how many
miles per gallon your vehicle is getting based on current
and past driving conditions.
Press and hold the select button while AVG.ECON is
displayed to reset the average fuel economy. Average
fuel economy will then be calculated starting from
that point. If the average fuel economy is not reset, it
will be continually updated each time you drive.
Instant Fuel Economy
Press the fuel information button until INST appears in
the display. Instant fuel economy is how many miles
per gallon your vehicle is at the particular moment
in time. The instant fuel economy cannot be reset.
GM Oil Life System™
Press the fuel information button until ENGINE OIL LIFE
appears in the display. The GM Oil Life System™
shows an estimate of the oil’s remaining useful life. It
will show 100% when the system is reset after an
oil change. It will alert you to change your oil on a
schedule consistent with your driving conditions.
Always reset the engine oil life after and oil change.
To reset the Oil Life System press and hold the select
button while ENGINE OIL LIFE is displayed. OIL
LIFE RESET will appear on the display for 10 seconds
to let you know the system is reset.
The DIC does not replace the need to maintain your
vehicle as recommended in the Maintenance Schedule
in this manual. Also, the oil change reminder does
not measure how much oil you have in your engine.
So, be sure to check your oil level often. SeeEngine Oil
on page 5-13.
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2003 - Sierra Denali

If you choose English, all information will be displayed
in English units. For example, distance in miles and fuel
economy in miles per gallon.
Choose one of the two options and press the
personalization button while it is displayed on the DIC to
select it and end out of the personalization options.
Display Language
To select your personalization for display language,
press the select button while DISPLAY LANGUAGE is
displayed on the DIC. Pressing the select button
will scroll through the following languages:
•English
•French
•Spanish
You can also scroll through the different languages by
pressing and holding the trip reset stem for four
seconds, as long as you are in the season odometer
mode.
Choose one of the three options and press the
personalization button while it is displayed on the DIC to
select it.
If you accidentally choose a language that you don’t
want or understand, press and hold the personalization
button and the trip information button at the same
time. The DIC will begin scrolling through the languages
in their particular language. English will be in English,French will be in French and so on. When you see the
language that you would like, release both buttons.
The DIC will then display the information in the language
you chose.
Select Button
The select button is used to reset certain functions and
turn off or acknowledge messages on the DIC display.
The select button also toggles through the options
available in each personalization menu. For example, this
button will reset the trip odometers, turn off the FUEL
LEVEL LOW message, and toggle through the languages
you can select the DIC to display information in.
DIC Warnings and Messages
Warning messages are displayed on the DIC to notify
the driver that the status of the vehicle has changed and
that some action may be needed by the driver to
correct the condition. If there is more than one message
that needs to be displayed they will appear one after
another. Some messages may not require immediate
action but you should press the select button to
acknowledge that you received the message and clear it
from the display because they are more urgent. These
messages require action before they can be removed
from the DIC display. The following are the possible
messages that can be displayed and some information
about them.
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2003 - Sierra Denali

This system relies upon receiving specific information
from these stations and will only work when the
information is available. In rare cases, a radio station
may broadcast incorrect information that will cause
the radio features to work improperly. If this happens,
contact the radio station.
While you are tuned to an RDS station, the station name
or the call letters will appear on the display instead of the
frequency. RDS stations may also provide the time of
day, a program type (PTY) for current programming and
the name of the program being broadcast.
XM™Radio Satellite Service
(USA Only)
XM™is a continental U.S. based satellite radio service
that offers 100 coast to coast channels including
music, news, sports, talk and children’s programming.
XM™provides digital quality audio and text information,
including song title and artist name. A service fee is
required in order to receive the XM™service. For more
information, contact XM™at www.xmradio.com or
call 1-800-852-XMXM (9696).
Playing the Radio
PWR (Power):Press this knob to turn the system on
and off.
VOL (Volume):Turn this knob to increase or to
decrease volume.AUTO VOL (Automatic Volume):Your vehicle is
equipped with Bose AudioPilot
®noise compensation
technology. AudioPilot monitors the level of noise in the
vehicle and automatically increases or decreases the
level of the audio to keep your audio above the noise.
To use this feature press the AUTO VOL button
until AVOL ON appears on the display. This feature
works best at lower volume settings where background
noise may be louder than the audio. At high volume
settings, where the audio is much louder than the
background noise, there will be no change in the audio
level. To turn automatic volume off, press this button
until AVOL OFF appears on the display.
DISP (Display):Push this knob to switch the display
between radio station frequency and time. Time display
is available with the ignition turned off.
For RDS, push this knob to change what appears on
the display while using RDS. The display options
are station name, RDS station frequency, PTY and the
name of the program (if available).
For XM™(USA only, if your radio is equipped with
XM™Satellite Radio Service), push this knob while in
XM mode to retrieve various pieces of information
related to the current song or channel. By pressing and
releasing this knob, you may retrieve four different
categories of information: Artist, Song Title, Category or
PTY, Channel Number/Channel Name.
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2003 - Sierra Denali

3 REV (Reverse):Press and hold this pushbutton to
reverse quickly within a track. Press and hold this
pushbutton for less than two seconds to reverse at six
times the normal playing speed. Press and hold it
for more than two seconds to reverse at 17 times the
normal playing speed. Release it to play the passage.
The display will show ET and the elapsed time.
4 FWD (Forward):Press and hold this pushbutton to
advance quickly within a track. Press and hold this
pushbutton for less than two seconds to advance at six
times the normal playing speed. Press and hold it for
more than two seconds to advance at 17 times the
normal playing speed. Release it to play the passage.
The display will show ET and the elapsed time.
6 RDM (Random):Press this pushbutton to hear the
tracks in random, rather than sequential, order. RDM ON
will appear on the display. RDM T and the track
number will appear on the display when each track
starts to play. Press this pushbutton again to turn
off random play. RDM OFF will appear on the display.
qSEEKr:Press the left arrow to go to the start
of the current or to the previous track. Press the right
arrow to go to the start of the next track. If either
arrow is held or pressed more then once, the player will
continue moving backward or forward through the CD.
qSCANr:To scan the disc, press and hold either
SCAN arrow for more than two seconds until SCAN
appears on the display and you hear a beep. Use this
feature to listen to 10 seconds of each track of the disc.
Press either SCAN arrow again, to stop scanning.
DISP (Display):Press this knob to see how long the
current track has been playing. ET and the elapsed time
will appear on the display. To change the default on
the display (track or elapsed time), push the knob until
you see the display you want, then hold the knob
for two seconds. The radio will produce one beep and
selected display will now be the default.
BAND:Press this button to listen to the radio when a
CD is playing. The CD will stop but remain in the player.
TAPE DISC:Press this button to play a tape when
listening to the radio. Press this button to switch
between the tape and compact disc if both are loaded.
The inactive tape or CD will remain safely inside the
radio for future listening.
Z(Eject):Press this button to stop a CD when it is
playing or to eject a CD when it is not playing. Eject
may be activated with either the ignition or radio off. CDs
may be loaded with the radio and ignition off if this
button is pressedfirst.
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2003 - Sierra Denali

CD Changer
The compact disc changer plays up to six standard size
CDs continuously. Individual CDs may be loaded or
ejected into or from any position.
A green light on each numbered button indicates a CD
is loaded in the respective position. An amber light
on a numbered button indicates that a CD is playing.
When loading CDs, the loading slot indicators turn
amber to indicate that the player is ready to accept a
CD. CDs can be loaded or ejected with the radio or the
ignition being on or off.
You must load CDs with the label side up. If you do not,
the player will automatically eject the CDs.
Notice:Loading CDs with adhesive labels will
damage the player.
To load a CD, perform the following steps:
1. Press the LOAD button. Available positions will
blink amber.
2. Select a position by pressing the desired numbered
button with the amber blinking light. If a button is
not pressed withinfive seconds, the changer will go
to the lowest available position.
3. Load the CD when the loading slot indicators turn
amber. An internal door will open allowing a single
CD to be inserted into the changer. After
approximately 10 seconds the changer will be ready
to play.
To load two or more CDs, perform the
following steps:
1. Press and hold the LOAD button. Thefirst CD will
be loaded into the lowest numbered empty position.
2. Load a single CD when the loading slot indicators
turn amber. After about 10 seconds the changer will
cycle to the next available position.
3. Repeat Step 2 until all CDs are loaded into all of
the desired positions. If you do not wish to load all
of the positions, you can cancel the load all
function by pressing a button with a greenflashing
indicator light or wait 20 seconds for the changer
to time out.
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2003 - Sierra Denali

Remember: Anti-lock doesn’t 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 won’t 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
Don’t 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.
Supplemental Brake Assist System
If your vehicle has vacuum assist power brakes, it is also
equipped with a supplemental brake assist system
that supplies additional vacuum to the vacuum brake
booster if engine vacuum is reduced. Under certain
conditions, the supplemental brake assist system may
run brie y after starting your vehicle or when you
apply and release the brake pedal and it may continueto run even after you have removed your foot from the
brake pedal. When the supplemental brake assist
system is operating, you may hear a motor running or
feel a slight vibration in the steering wheel or brake
pedal. This indicates that the supplemental brake assist
system is working to supply additional vacuum for
your vacuum assist power brakes. This is a normal
operation of your brake system and does not require that
the brake system be serviced.
Each time you start your vehicle and accelerate to
10 mph, the supplemental brake assist system
will perform a self-diagnostic check of the system and
you may hear or feel the supplemental brake assist
motor run brie y. While you are driving your vehicle, the
supplemental brake assist system monitors itself to
ensure that it is operating properly. If there is a problem
with the supplemental brake assist system, the
SERVICE BRAKE BOOSTER message will be displayed
on the Driver Information Center. SeeDIC Warnings
and Messages on page 3-51.
If your supplemental brake assist system runs every
time you apply and release the brake pedal or you notice
that the brake pedal has suddenly become much
harder to push and the vehicle takes longer to stop, you
should have your vehicle serviced as soon as possible.
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2003 - Sierra Denali