2003 PONTIAC GRAND PRIX brake

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.
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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.
Also see Traction Control
System (TCS) on page
4-10 and Enhanced Traction
System (ETS) on page
4-1 1.
Braking
Braking action involves perception time and
reaction time.
First, you have to decide to push on the brake pedal.
That’s perception time. Then you have to bring up your
foot and do it. That’s reaction time.
Average reaction time is about
3/4 of a second. But
that’s only an average. It might be less with one driver
and as long as two or three seconds or more with
another. Age, physical condition, alertness, coordination
and eyesight all play a part.
So do alcohol, drugs and
frustration. But even in
3/4 of a second, a vehicle moving
at
60 mph (1 00 km/h) travels 66 feet (20 m). That
could be a lot of distance in an emergency,
so keeping
enough space between your vehicle and others is
important.
4-6

And, of course, actual stopping distances vary greatly
with the surface of the road (whether it’s pavement
or gravel); the condition of the road (wet, dry, icy);
tire tread; the condition of your brakes; the weight of the
vehicle and the amount of brake force applied.
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 Brake System (ABS)
Your vehicle may have anti-lock brakes. ABS is an
advanced electronic braking system that will help
prevent a braking skid.
If your vehicle has anti-lock
brakes, this warning light
on the instrument panel will
come on briefly when
you start your vehicle.
When you start your engine, or when you begin to
drive away, your anti-lock brake system will check itself.
You may hear a momentary motor or clicking noise
while this test is going on, and you may even notice that
your brake pedal moves or pulses a little.
This is normal.
4-7

Let’s say the road is wet and you’re driving safely.
Suddenly, an animal jumps out in front
of you. You slam
on the brakes and continue braking. Here’s what
happens with
ABS:
A computer senses that wheels are slowing down. If
one of the wheels is about to stop rolling, the computer
will separately work the brakes at each front wheel
and at both rear wheels. The anti-lock
system can change the brake pressure
faster than any driver could. The computer is
programmed to make the most of available tire and road
conditions. This can help you steer around the obstacle
while braking hard.
As you brake, your computer keeps receiving updates
on wheel speed and controls braking pressure
accordingly.
4-8

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
firmly and let anti-lock work for you. You may feel a
slight brake pedal pulsation or notice some noise, but
this is normal.
Braking in Emergencies
At some time, nearly every driver gets into a situation
that requires hard braking.
If you have anti-lock, you can steer and brake at the
same time. However,
if you don’t have anti-lock,
your first reaction
- to hit the brake pedal hard and
hold it down
- may be the wrong thing to do. Your
wheels can stop rolling. Once they do, the vehicle
can’t respond to your steering. Momentum will carry
it in whatever direction it was headed when the wheels
stopped rolling. That could be off the road, into the
very
thing you were trying to avoid, or into traffic.
If you don’t have anti-lock, use a “squeeze’’ braking
technique. This will give you maximum braking while
maintaining steering control. You can do this by pushing
on the brake pedal with steadily increasing pressure.
In an emergency, you will probably want to squeeze the
brakes hard without locking the wheels. If you hear or
feel the wheels sliding, ease off the brake pedal.
This will help you retain steering control.
If you do have
anti-lock, it’s different. See “Anti-Lock Brakes.”
In many emergencies, steering can help you more than
even the very best braking.
4-9

Traction Control System (TCS)
If your vehicle has the 3800 supercharged V6 engine it
has a traction control system that limits wheel spin.
This is especially useful in slippery road conditions. The
system operates only
if it senses that one or both of
the front wheels are spinning or beginning to lose
traction. When this happens, the system works the front
brakes and reduces engine power to limit wheel spin.
LOW
TRAC
This light will come on
when your traction control
system is limiting wheel
spin. See Traction Control
System (TCS) Warning
Light on page 3-29.
You may feel or hear the system working, but this
is normal.
If your vehicle is in cruise control when the traction
control system begins to limit wheel spin, the cruise
control will automatically disengage. When road
conditions allow you to safely use it again, you may
reengage the cruise control. See “Cruise Control” under
Turn SignaVMultifunction Lever on page 3-5.
TCS
OFF
This light should come on
briefly when you start the
engine.
If it stays on or
comes on while you
are driving, there is a
problem with your traction
control system.
See Traction Control System (TCS) Warning Light on
page 3-29. When this warning light
is on, the system will
not limit wheel spin. Adjust your driving accordingly.
The traction control system automatically comes
on whenever you start your vehicle.
To limit wheel spin,
especially in slippery road conditions, you should
always leave the system on. But you can turn the
traction control system
off if you ever need to. You
should turn the system
off if your vehicle ever gets stuck
in sand, mud or snow and rocking the vehicle is
required. See “Rocking Your Vehicle to Get It Out”
under
If You Are Stuck: In Sand, Mud, Ice or Snow
on page
4-32.
4-1 0

1 press the button located
To
turn the system
off,
on the instrument
panel DIC (Driver’s
Information Center) or
Trip Computer,
if equipped.
The traction control system warning light will come on
and stay on. If the system is limiting wheel spin
when you press the button, the warning light will come
on and the system will turn
off instantly.
You can turn the system back on at any time by
pressing the button again. The traction control system
warning light should go
off.
Enhanced Traction System (ETS)
If your vehicle has the 3100 V6 or 3800 V6 engine and
anti-lock brakes, your vehicle may have an Enhanced
Traction System (ETS) that limits wheel spin. This
is especially useful in slippery road conditions. The
system operates only
if it senses that one or both of the
front wheels are spinning or beginning to lose traction.
When this happens, the system reduces engine
power and may also upshift the transaxle to limit
wheel spin.
LOW
TRAC
This light will come on
when your Enhanced
Traction System is limiting
wheel spin. See
Enhanced Traction System
Warning Light
on
page 3-29.
If your vehicle is in cruise control when the enhanced
traction system begins to limit wheel spin, the cruise
control will automatically disengage. When road conditions allow you to safely use
it again, you may
re-engage the cruise control. See ‘Cruise Control’’ under
Turn Signal/Multifunction Lever
on page 3-5.
4-1 1

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.
Variable Effort Steering
If your vehicle has this steering system, the system
provides less steering effort for parking and when driving
at speeds below
20 mph (32 km/h). Steering effort will
increase at higher speeds for improved road feel.
Steering Tips
Driving on Curves
It’s important to take curves at a reasonable speed.
A lot of the “driver lost control” accidents mentioned on
the news happen on curves. Here’s why:
Experienced 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 your 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 accelerate. 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.
The same thing can happen
if you’re steering through a
sharp curve and you suddenly accelerate. Those two
control systems
- steering and acceleration - can
overwhelm those places where the tires meet the
road and make you lose control. See Traction Control
System (TCS) on page
4- 10 or Enhanced Traction
System (ETS)
on page 4- I 1.
What should you do if this ever happens? Ease up on
the brake or accelerator pedal, steer the vehicle the way
you want it
to go, and slow down.
Speed limit signs near curves warn that you should
adjust your speed. Of course, the posted speeds
are based
on good weather and road conditions.
Under less favorable conditions you’ll want to
go slower.
4-1 3