2004 GMC SONOMA Owner's Manual

CD Messages
CHECK CD:If this message appears on the radio
display, it could be for one of the following reasons:
•It is very hot. When the temperature returns to
normal, the CD should play.
•You are driving on a very rough road. When the
road becomes smoother, the CD should play.
•The CD is dirty, scratched, wet, or upside down.
•The air is very humid. If so, wait about an hour and
try again.
•There may have been a problem while burning
the CD.
•The label may be caught in the CD player.
If the CD is not playing correctly, for any other reason,
try a known good CD.
If any error occurs repeatedly or if an error cannot be
corrected, contact your dealer. If your radio displays an
error message, write it down and provide it to your
dealer when reporting the problem.
Theft-Deterrent Feature
(Non-RDS Radios)
THEFTLOCK®is designed to discourage theft of your
radio. The feature works automatically by learning
a portion of the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN). If
the radio is moved to a different vehicle, it will not
operate and LOC will appear on the display.
With THEFTLOCK
®activated, your radio will not
operate if stolen.
Theft-Deterrent Feature
(RDS Radios)
THEFTLOCK®is designed to discourage theft of your
radio. The feature works automatically by learning
a portion of the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN). If
the radio is moved to a different vehicle, it will not
operate and LOCKED will appear on the display.
When the radio and vehicle are turned off, the blinking
red light indicates that THEFTLOCK
®is armed.
With THEFTLOCK
®activated, your radio will not operate
if stolen.
3-73

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.
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.
XM™ Satellite Radio Service
(48 Contiguous US States)
XM™ Satellite Radio gives you digital radio reception
from coast to coast. Just as with FM, tall buildings
or hills can interfere with satellite radio signals, causing
the sound to come and go. Your radio may display
NO SIGNAL to indicate interference.
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 are not, 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 CLEAN 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 dealer.
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The broken tape detection feature of your cassette tape
player may identify the cleaning cassette as a
damaged tape, in error. To prevent the cleaning cassette
from being ejected, use the following steps:
1. Turn the ignition on.
2. Turn the radio off.
3. Press and hold the TAPE CD button for five
seconds. READY will appear on the display and a
cassette symbol will flash for five seconds.
4. Insert the scrubbing action cleaning cassette.
5. Eject the cleaning cassette after the manufacturer’s
recommended cleaning time.
After the cleaning cassette is ejected, the broken 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 the EJT
button for five seconds to reset the CLEAN indicator.
The radio will display CLEANED to show the indicator
was reset.
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 CDs carefully. Store them in their original cases
or other protective cases and away from direct
sunlight and dust. If the surface of a CD 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 CDs. Pick up CDs by grasping the outer edges
or the edge of the hole and the outer edge.
3-75

Care of Your CD Player
The use of CD lens cleaners for CDs is not advised,
due to the risk of contaminating the lens of the CD optics
with lubricants internal to the CD mechanism.
Fixed Mast Antenna
The fixed mast antenna can 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, you should replace it.
Check occasionally to be sure the mast is still tightened
to the fender. If tightening is required, tighten by
hand, then with a wrench one quarter turn.
XM™ Satellite Radio Antenna
System (48 Contiguous US States)
Your XM™ Satellite Radio antenna is located on the roof
of your vehicle. Keep this antenna clear of snow and
ice build up for clear radio reception.
Loading items onto the roof of your vehicle can interfere
with the performance of your XM™ system. Make
sure that the XM™ satellite antenna is not obstructed.
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Your Driving, the Road, and Your Vehicle..........4-2
Defensive Driving...........................................4-2
Drunken Driving.............................................4-2
Control of a Vehicle........................................4-5
Braking.........................................................4-6
Locking Rear Axle..........................................4-8
Steering........................................................4-9
Off-Road Recovery.......................................4-11
Passing.......................................................4-11
Loss of Control.............................................4-13
Off-Road Driving with Your Four-Wheel-Drive
Vehicle....................................................4-14
Driving at Night............................................4-27
Driving in Rain and on Wet Roads..................4-29
City Driving..................................................4-32Freeway Driving...........................................4-33
Before Leaving on a Long Trip.......................4-34
Highway Hypnosis........................................4-35
Hill and Mountain Roads................................4-36
Winter Driving..............................................4-38
If You Are Stuck: In Sand, Mud,
Ice or Snow..............................................4-42
Towing..........................................................4-45
Towing Your Vehicle.....................................4-45
Recreational Vehicle Towing...........................4-45
Loading Your Vehicle....................................4-45
Truck-Camper Loading Information..................4-52
Trailer Recommendations...............................4-54
Pickup Conversion to Chassis Cab..................4-54
Towing a Trailer...........................................4-55
Section 4 Driving Your Vehicle
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. SeeSafety Belts: They Are for
Everyone on page 1-8.
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 is 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 — makesproper 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.Drunken Driving
Death and injury associated with drinking and driving is
a national tragedy. It is 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:
•Judgment
•Muscular Coordination
•Vision
•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.
4-2

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 is 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 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 is 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:
•The amount of alcohol consumed
•The drinker’s body weight
•The amount of food that is consumed before and
during drinking
•The length of time it has taken the drinker to
consume the alcohol.
According to the American Medical Association, a 180 lb
(82 kg) person who drinks three 12 ounce (355 ml)
bottles of beer in an hour will end up with a BAC
of about 0.06 percent. The person would reach thesame BAC by drinking three 4 ounce (120 ml) glasses
of wine or three mixed drinks if each had 1-1/2 ounces
(45 ml) of liquors like whiskey, gin or vodka.
It is the amount of alcohol that counts. For example, if
the same person drank three double martinis (3 ounces
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.
4-3

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 will when
each has the same number of drinks.
The law in an increasing number of U.S. states, and
throughout Canada, sets the legal limit at 0.08 percent.
In some other countries, the limit is even lower. For
example, it is 0.05 percent in both France and Germany.
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 have 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 BAC 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 of0.05 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!
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 will be careful” is not the
right answer. What if there is 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 be able to react quickly enough to avoid the
collision.
There is something else about drinking and driving that
many people do not know. Medical research shows
that alcohol in a person’s system can make crash
injuries worse, especially 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.
4-4