2003 PONTIAC GRAND PRIX Owners Manual

Disabling the Theft-Deterrent Feature
Enter your secret code as follows; pause no more than
15 seconds between steps:
1. Turn the ignition on.
2. Turn the radio off.
3. Press the 1 and 4 pushbuttons at the same time.
Hold them down until
SEC shows on the display.
4. Press MIN and 000 will appear on the display.
5. Press MIN 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.
Audio Steering Wheel Controls
If your vehicle has this feature, you can control certain
radio functions using the buttons on your steering
wheel.
PRESET: Press this button to play the stations you
have programmed on the radio preset pushbuttons.
The radio will go to a preset station, play for a few
seconds, then go to the next station. When a cassette
tape is playing, press this button to change tape
sides. Press this button again to stop scanning the
preset stations.
3-56

AM FM: Press this button to select AM, FMI or FM2.
The band you select will be displayed. The frequency
will also be displayed and,
if the station is in stereo, the
stereo indicator will also be displayed.
If a cassette
tape or compact disc is playing, it will stop and the radio
will play.
SEEK A : Press the up or the down arrow to go to
the next or to the previous radio station and stay there.
If a cassette tape is playing, press the up or the down
arrow to search for the next or the previous selection on
the tape. Your tape must have at least three seconds of
silence between each selection for
SEEK to work. If a
compact disc is playing, press the up arrow to go to the
start of the next track. Press the down arrow to
go to the
start of the current track
if more than eight seconds have
played.
If less than eight seconds have played, press the
down arrow to go to the previous track.
A VOL (Volume) v: Press the up or the down arrow
to increase or to decrease volume.
PLAY: Press this button to play a cassette tape or
compact disc when listening to the radio.
MUTE: Press this button to silence the system. Press it
again, or any other radio button, to turn on the sound.
Understanding Radio Reception
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.
FM stereo will give you the best sound, but
FM signals
will reach only about
10 to 40 miles (1 6 to 65 km).
Tall buildings or hills can interfere with FM signals,
causing the sound to come and go.
3-57

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 the tape or the tape player is at fault.
If this other cassette has no improvement in sound
quality, clean the tape player.
For best results, use a scrubbing action, non-abrasive
cleaning cassette with pads which scrub the tape
head as the hubs of the cleaner cassette turn. The
recommended cleaning cassette is available through
your dealership. The
cut tape detection feature of your cassette tape
player may identify the cleaning cassette tape as
a damaged tape,
in error. To prevent the cleaning
cassette from being ejected, use the following steps:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Turn the ignition on.
Turn the radio
off.
Press and hold the TAPE/PLAY button for five
seconds. The tape symbol on the display will
flash for two seconds.
Insert the scrubbing action cleaning cassette.
Eject the cleaning cassette after the manufacturer’s
recommended cleaning time.
After the cleaning cassette is ejected, the cut tape
detection feature will be active again.
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 will
not eject on its own. A non-scrubbing action cleaner
may not clean as thoroughly as the scrubbing type
cleaner. The use of a non-scrubbing action, dry-type
cleaning cassette is not recommended.
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.
3-58

Cassettes are subject to wear and the sound quality
may degrade over time. Always make sure the cassette
tape is in good condition before you have your tape
player serviced.
Care of Your CDs
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 side without writing when
handling discs. Pick up discs by grasping the outer
edges or the edge of the hole and the outer edge.
Care of Your CD Player
The use of CD lens cleaner discs is not advised, due to
the risk
of contaminating the lens of the CD optics
with lubricants internal to the CD mechanism.
Backglass Antenna
The AM-FM antenna is integrated with the rear window
defogger, located in the rear window. Be sure that
the inside surface of the rear window is not scratched
and that the lines on the glass are not damaged.
If the inside surface is damaged, it could interfere with
radio reception. Also, for proper radio reception,
the antenna connector at the top-center of the rear
window needs to be properly attached to the post on
the glass.
Notice; Do not try to clear frost or other material
from the inside of the rear window with a razor blade
or anything else that
is sharp. This may damage
the rear defogger grid and affect your radio’s ability
to pick up stations clearly. The repairs wouldn’t
be covered by your warranty.
Because this antenna is built into your rear window,
there is a reduced risk of damage caused by car washes
and vandals.
If you choose
to add a cellular telephone to your
vehicle, and the antenna needs to be attached
to the
glass, be sure that you do not damage the grid lines for
the AM-FM antenna. There is enough space between
the lines
to attach a cellular telephone antenna
without interfering with radio reception
Do not apply aftermarket glass tinting to the back glass.
The metallic film in some tinting materials will interfere
with or distort the incoming radio reception. Care
must be taken when cleaning the rear window because
it breaks in the resistive material heating element
and will adversely affect radio and defogger
performance. See your dealer for details.
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Section 4 Driving Your Vehicle
Your Driving. the Road. and Your Vehicle .......... 4-2
Defensive Driving
........................................... 4.2
Drunken Driving
............................................. 4-3
Braking
......................................................... 4.6
Steering
...................................................... 4.13
Off-Road Recovery
....................................... 4-15
Passing
....................................................... 4.15
Loss
of Control ............................................. 4.16
Driving at Night
............................................ 4.18
Driving in Rain and on Wet
Roads .................. 4-19
Control
of a
Vehicle ........................................ 4-6
Traction Control System (TCS)
....................... 4.10
Enhanced Traction System
(ETS) .................... 4-1 1 City
Driving
.................................. ..... 4-22
Freeway Driving ............................... ..... 4.23
Highway Hypnosis
........................................ 4.25
Winter Driving
.............................................. 4.27
Ice or Snow
.............................................. 4-32
Towing Your Vehicle
................. ......... 4.33
Loading Your Vehicle
.................................... 4.35
Before Leaving
on a Long Trip
....................... 4-24
Hill and Mountain Roads
................................ 4-25
If You Are Stuck: In Sand, Mud,
Towing ....................... ............................ 4.33
Recreational Vehicle Towing
....... ..... 4.33
Towing
a Trailer ........................................... 4.37
4- 1

Your Driving, the Road, and
Your
Vehicle
Defensive Driving
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: They Are for
Everyone on page
1-7.
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.
Defensive driving requires that a driver concentrate on
the driving task. Anything that distracts from the
driving task
- such as concentrating on a cellular
telephone call, reading, or reaching for something on
the floor
- makes proper defensive driving more difficult
and can even cause a collision, with resulting injury.
Ask a passenger to help do things like this, or pull
off the
road in a safe place to do them yourself. These simple
defensive driving techniques could save your life.
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 to!!, claiming thousands
of victims
every year.
Alcohol affects four things that anyone needs to drive a
vehicle:
Judgment
Muscular Coordination
Vision
0 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, more than
16,000 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
21,
it’s against the law in every US. state to drink alcohol.
There are
good medical, psychological and
developmental reasons for these laws.
The obvious way to eliminate the leading highway
safety problem
is for people never to drink alcohol and
then drive. But what
if people do? How much is “too
much”
if someone 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
The drinker’s body weight
The amount of food that is consumed before and
during drinking
0 The length of time it has taken the drinker to
consume the alcohol.
4-3