2003 PONTIAC GRAND AM Owners Manual

To remove the child restraint, just unbuckle the vehicle’s
safety belt.
It will be ready to work for an adult or
larger child passenger.
Securing a Child Restraint in the
Right Front Seat Position
Your vehicle has a right front passenger air bag.
Never put a rear-facing child restraint in this seat.
Here’s why:
A child in a rear-facing child restraint can be
seriously injured or killed if the right front
passenger’s air bag inflates. This is because
the back of the rear-facing child restraint
would be very close to the inflating air bag.
Always secure a rear-facing child restraint in a rear seat.
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Although a rear seat is a safer place, you can secure a
forward-facing child restraint in the right front seat.
You’ll be using the lap-shoulder belt. See
Top Strap on
page 1-42, if the child restraint has one. Be sure to
follow the instructions that came with the child restraint.
Secure the child in the child restraint when and as
the instructions say.
1. Because your vehicle has a right front passenger
air bag, always move the seat as far back as
it will
go before securing a forward-facing child restraint.
See
Manual Seats on page 1-2.
2. Put the restraint on the seat.
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3. Pick up the latch plate, and run the lap and shoulder
portions of the vehicte’s safety belt through or
around the restraint. The child restraint instructions
will show you how.
5. Pull the rest of the shoulder belt all the way out of
the retractor to set the lock.
4. Buckle the belt. Make sure the release button is
positioned so you would be able to unbuckle the
safety belt quickly
if you ever had to.
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6. To tighten the belt, feed the shoulder belt back into
the retractor while you push down on the child
restraint. You may find it helpful to use your knee to
push down on the child restraint as you tighten
the belt.
directions to be sure it
is secure.
7. Push and pull the child restraint in different
To remove the child restraint, just unbuckle the vehicle’s
safety belt and let it
go back all the way. The safety
belt will move freely again and be ready to work for an
adult or larger child passenger.
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Supplemental Restraint
System
(SRS)
This part explains the Supplemental Restraint System
(SRS) or air bag system.
Your vehicle has air bags
- one air bag for the driver
and another air bag for the right front passenger.
Frontal air bags are designed to help reduce the risk
of
injury from the force of an inflating air bag. But these
air bags must inflate very quickly
to do their job
and comply with federal regulations.
Here are the most important things to know about the
air bag system: You can be severely injured or killed
in a crash
if you aren’t wearing your safety belt
- even if
you have air bags. Wearing your safety belt during a crash helps reduce your chance of hitting things inside the vehicle or being
ejected from
it. Air bags are designed to work
with safety belts, but don’t replace them. Air bags are designed to work only
in moderate to
severe crashes where the front of your vehicle hits something. They aren’t designed to inflate
at all
in rollover, rear or low-speed frontal
crashes, or
in many side crashes. And, for
some unrestrained occupants, air bags may
provide less protection in frontal crashes than
more forceful air bags have provided in the
past. Everyone in your vehicle should wear a
safety hp!t prnperly - whether nr not there’s
an air bag for that person.
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Air bags inflate with great force, faster than the blink of an eye. If you’re too close to an
inflating air bag, as you would be
if you were
leaning forward,
it could seriously injure you.
Safety belts help keep you
in position before
and during a crash. Always wear your safety
belt, even with air bags. The driver should sit
as far back as possible while still maintaining
control of the vehicle. Anyone who is up against, or very close
to,
any air bag when
it inflates can be seriously
injured or killed. Air bags plus lap-shoulder
belts offer the best protection for adults, but
not for young children and infants. Neither the
vehicle’s safety belt system nor its air bag system is designed for them.Young children
and infants need the protection that
a child
restraint system can provide. Always secure
children properly in your vehicle.
To read how,
see
the parts of this manual called “Older
Children” and “Infants and Young Children”.
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There is a air bag
readiness light on the
instrument panel, which
shows
AIR BAG. AIR
BAG
Where Are the Air Bags?
The system checks the air bag electrical system for
malfunctions. The light tells you
if there is an electrical
problem. See
Air Bag Readiness Light on page 3-25.
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The driver’s air bag is in the middle of the
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The right front passenger’s air bag is in the instrument
panel on the passenger’s side.
If something is between an occupant and an
air bag, the bag might not inflate properly or it
might force the object into that person causing
severe injury
or even death. The path of an
inflating air bag must be kept clear. Don’t put
anything between
an occupant and an air bag,
and don’t attach or put anything on the
steering wheel hub or on or near any other air
bag covering.
When Should an Air Bag Inflate?
An air bag is designed to inflate in moderate to severe
frontal or near-frontal crashes. The air bag will inflate
only
if the impact speed is above the system’s designed
“threshold level”.
If your vehicle goes straight into a wall that doesn’t
move or deform, the threshold level is about
9 to 14 mph
(14 to 23 km/h). The threshold level can vary, however,
with specific vehicle design,
so that it can be somewhat
above or below this range.
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if your vehicle strikes something that will move or
deform, such as a parked car, the threshold level will be
higher. The air bag is not designed
to inflate in
rollovers, rear impacts, or in many side impacts because
inflation would not help the occupant.
In any particular crash, no one can say whether an air
bag should have inflated simply because of the damage
to a vehicle or because of what the repair costs were.
Inflation is determined by the angle of the impact
and how quickly the vehicle slows down in frontal and
near-frontal impacts.
What Makes an Air Bag Inflate?
In an impact of sufficient severity, the air bag sensing
system detects that the vehicle is in a crash. The
sensing system triggers a release of gas from the
inflator, which inflates the air bag. The inflator, air bag
and related hardware are all part of the air bag modules
inside the steering wheel and in the instrument panel
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How Does an Air Bag Restrain?
In moderate to severe frontal or near-frontal collisions,
even belted occupants can contact the steering wheel or
the instrument panel. Air bags supplement the
protection provided by safety belts. Air bags distribute
the force of the impact more evenly over the occupant's
upper body, stopping the occupant
more gradually.
But air bags would not help you in many types of
collisions, including rollovers, rear impacts and many
side impacts, primarily because an occupant's motion is
not toward those air bags. Air bags should never be
regarded as anything more than a supplement
to safety
belts, and then only in moderate
to severe frontal or
near-frontal collisions.
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