Seating and Safety Restraints 95Seating 95
Safety restraints 102
Airbags 116
Child restraints 131
Tires, Wheels and Loading 143Tire information 143
Vehicle loading 157
Trailer towing 162
Recreational towing 162
Driving 164Starting 164
Brakes 168
Traction Control™/AdvanceTrac 170
Transmission operation 171
Roadside Emergencies 175Getting roadside assistance 175
Hazard flasher switch 176
Fuel pump shut-off switch 177
Fuses and relays 177
Changing tires 184
Lug nut torque 189
Jump starting 190
Wrecker towing 195
Customer Assistance 196Reporting safety defects (U.S. only) 202Table of Contents
2
2006 Zephyr (378)
Owners Guide (post-2002-fmt)
USA (fus)
SPECIAL NOTICES
New Vehicle Limited Warranty
For a detailed description of what is covered and what is not covered by
your vehicle’s New Vehicle Limited Warranty, refer to the Warranty
Guide that is provided to you along with your Owner’s Guide.
Special instructions
For your added safety, your vehicle is fitted with sophisticated electronic
controls.
Please read the section Supplemental restraint system (SRS)
in the Seating and Safety Restraints chapter. Failure to follow
the specific warnings and instructions could result in personal injury.
Front seat mounted rear-facing child or infant seats should
NEVER be placed in front of an active passenger airbag.
Service Data Recording
Service data recorders in your vehicle are capable of collecting and
storing diagnostic information about your vehicle. This potentially
includes information about the performance or status of various systems
and modules in the vehicle, such as engine, throttle, steering or brake
systems. In order to properly diagnose and service your vehicle, Ford
Motor Company, Ford of Canada, and service and repair facilities may
access vehicle diagnostic information through a direct connection to your
vehicle when diagnosing or servicing your vehicle.
Event Data Recording
Other modules in your vehicle — event data recorders — are capable of
collecting and storing data during a crash or near crash event. The
recorded information may assist in the investigation of such an event.
The modules may record information about both the vehicle and the
occupants, potentially including information such as:
• how various systems in your vehicle were operating;
• whether or not the driver and passenger seatbelts were buckled;
• how far (if at all) the driver was depressing the accelerator and/or the
brake pedal;
2006 Zephyr (378)
Owners Guide (post-2002-fmt)
USA (fus)Introduction
6
Adjusting the front power seat
Never adjust the driver’s seat or seatback when the vehicle is
moving.
Do not pile cargo higher than the seatbacks to reduce the risk of
injury in a collision or sudden stop.
Always drive and ride with your seatback upright and the lap
belt snug and low across the hips.
Reclining the seatback can cause an occupant to slide under the
seat’s safety belt, resulting in severe personal injuries in the
event of a collision.
Sitting improperly out of position or with the seat back reclined
too far can take off weight from the seat cushion and affect the
decision of the front passenger sensing system, resulting in serious
injury or death in a crash. Always sit upright against your seatback,
with your feet on the floor.
To reduce the risk of possible serious injury: Do not hang objects
off seat back or stow objects in the seatback map pocket (if
equipped) when a child is in the front passenger seat. Do not place
objects underneath the front passenger seat or between the seat and
the center console (if equipped). Check the “passenger airbag off” or
“pass airbag off” indicator lamp for proper airbag status. Refer to Front
passenger sensing system section for additional details. Failure to
follow these instructions may interfere with the front passenger seat
sensing system.
The control is located on the outboard side of the seat cushion.
2006 Zephyr (378)
Owners Guide (post-2002-fmt)
USA (fus)Seating and Safety Restraints
96
Front passenger sensing system
For airbags to do their job they must inflate with great force, and this
force can pose a potentially deadly risk to occupants that are very close
to the airbag when it begins to inflate. For some occupants, this occurs
because they are initially sitting very close to the airbag. For other
occupants, this occurs when the occupant is not properly restrained by
safety belts or child safety seats and they move forward during pre-crash
braking. The most effective way to reduce the risk of unnecessary
injuries is to make sure all occupants are properly restrained. Accident
statistics suggest that children are much safer when properly restrained
in the rear seating positions than in the front.
Air bags can kill or injure a child in a child seat. NEVER place a
rear-facing child seat in front of an active air bag. If you must
use a forward-facing child seat in the front seat, move the seat all the
way back.
Always transport children 12 years old and under in the back
seat and always properly use appropriate child restraints.
The front passenger sensing system can automatically turn off the front
passenger airbag and passenger seat-mounted side airbag. The system is
designed to help protect small (child size) occupants from frontal airbag
deployments when they are seated or restrained in the front passenger
seat contrary to proper child-seating or restraint usage
recommendations. Even with this technology, parents are STRONGLY
encouraged to always properly restrain children in the rear seat. The
sensor also turns off the passenger front airbag and passenger
seat-mounted side airbag (if equipped) when the passenger seat is empty
and the safety belt is unbuckled, or when a child or a small person
occupies the front passenger seat and the safety belt is unbuckled.
Front safety belt usage sensors
The front safety belt usage sensors detect whether or not the driver and
front outboard passenger safety belts are fastened. This information
allows your Personal Safety System to tailor the airbag deployment and
safety belt pretensioner activation depending upon safety belt usage.
Refer to Safety belt section in this chapter.
2006 Zephyr (378)
Owners Guide (post-2002-fmt)
USA (fus)Seating and Safety Restraints
104
Safety belt precautions
Always drive and ride with your seatback upright and the lap
belt snug and low across the hips.
To reduce the risk of injury, make sure children sit where they
can be properly restrained.
Never let a passenger hold a child on his or her lap while the
vehicle is moving. The passenger cannot protect the child from
injury in a collision.
All occupants of the vehicle, including the driver, should always
properly wear their safety belts, even when an air bag
supplemental restraint system (SRS) is provided.
It is extremely dangerous to ride in a cargo area, inside or
outside of a vehicle. In a collision, people riding in these areas
are more likely to be seriously injured or killed. Do not allow people to
ride in any area of your vehicle that is not equipped with seats and
safety belts. Be sure everyone in your vehicle is in a seat and using a
safety belt properly.
In a rollover crash, an unbelted person is significantly more likely
to die than a person wearing a seat belt.
Each seating position in your vehicle has a specific safety belt
assembly which is made up of one buckle and one tongue that
are designed to be used as a pair. 1) Use the shoulder belt on the
outside shoulder only. Never wear the shoulder belt under the arm. 2)
Never swing the safety belt around your neck over the inside shoulder.
3) Never use a single belt for more than one person.
Always transport children 12 years old and under in the back
seat and always properly use appropriate child restraints.
2006 Zephyr (378)
Owners Guide (post-2002-fmt)
USA (fus)Seating and Safety Restraints
106
When to use the automatic locking mode
In this mode, the shoulder belt is automatically pre-locked. The belt will
still retract to remove any slack in the shoulder belt. The automatic
locking mode is not available on the driver safety belt.
This mode should be used any time a child safety seat, except a
booster, is installed in passenger front or rear seating positions. Children
12 years old and under should be properly restrained in the rear seat
whenever possible. Refer to Safety restraints for children or Safety
seats for children later in this chapter.
How to disengage the automatic locking mode
Ford Motor Company recommends that all passenger safety belt
assemblies and attaching hardware should be inspected by an
authorized dealer after any collision to verify that the automatic
locking retractor feature for child seats is still working properly. Safety
belt assemblies should be inspected by an authorized dealer and must
be replaced if either damage or improper operation is noted. Failure to
replace the belt and retractor assembly could increase the risk of
injury in a collision.
Unbuckle the combination lap/shoulder belt and allow it to retract
completely to disengage the automatic locking mode and activate the
vehicle sensitive (emergency) locking mode.
Safety belt pretensioner
Your vehicle is equipped with safety belt pretensioners at the driver and
front outboard passenger seating positions.
The safety belt pretensioner is a device which removes excess webbing
from the safety belt system. The safety belt pretensioner uses the same
crash sensor system as the front airbag supplemental restraint system
(SRS). When the safety belt pretensioner deploys, webbing from the lap
and shoulder belt is tightened. Refer to the Safety belt maintenance
section in this chapter.
The driver and front passenger safety belt system (including
retractors, buckles and height adjusters) must be replaced if the
vehicle is involved in a collision that results in deployment of front
airbags, seat-mounted side airbags and side air curtains (if equipped),
and safety belt pretensioners.
2006 Zephyr (378)
Owners Guide (post-2002-fmt)
USA (fus) Seating and Safety Restraints
109
Reasons given... Consider...
“Traffic is light” Nearly 1 of 2 deaths occur in
single-vehicle crashes, many when
no other vehicles are around.
“Belts wrinkle my clothes” Possibly, but a serious crash can do
much more than wrinkle your clothes,
particularly if you are unbelted.
“The people I’m with don’t wear
belts” Set the example, teen deaths occur 4
times more often in vehicles with TWO
or MORE people. Children and younger
brothers/sisters imitate behavior they
see.
“I have an airbag” Airbags offer greater protection when
used with safety belts. Frontal airbags
are not designed to inflate in rear and
side crashes or rollovers.
“I’d rather be thrown clear” Not a good idea. People who are
ejected are 40 times more likely to
DIE. Safety belts help prevent ejection,
WE CAN’T “PICK OUR CRASH”.
Do not sit on top of a buckled safety belt to avoid the
BeltMinder chime. Sitting on the safety belt will increase the
risk of injury in an accident. To disable (one-time) or deactivate the
BeltMinder feature please follow the directions stated below.
One time disable
If at any time the driver/front passenger quickly buckles then unbuckles the
safety belt for that seating position, the BeltMinder is disabled for the
current ignition cycle. The BeltMinder feature will enable during the same
ignition cycle if the occupant buckles and remains buckled for approximately
30 seconds. Confirmation is not given for the one time disable.
Deactivating/activating the BeltMinder feature
The driver and front passenger BeltMinder are
deactivated/activated independently. When deactivating/activating
one seating position, do not buckle the other position as this will
terminate the process.
2006 Zephyr (378)
Owners Guide (post-2002-fmt)
USA (fus) Seating and Safety Restraints
113
• This will enable the BeltMinder feature for that seating position if it
is currently disabled. As confirmation, the safety belt warning light will
flash 4 times per second for 3 seconds, followed by 3 seconds with the
light off, then followed by the safety belt warning light flashing 4 times
per second for 3 seconds again.
Safety belt extension assembly
If the safety belt is too short when fully extended, there i sa8inch(20
cm) safety belt extension assembly that can be added (part number
611C22). This assembly can be obtained from an authorized dealer.
Use only extensions manufactured by the same supplier as the safety
belt. Manufacturer identification is located at the end of the webbing on
the label. Also, use the safety belt extension only if the safety belt is too
short for you when fully extended.
Do not use extensions to change the fit of the shoulder belt
across the torso.
Safety belt maintenance
Inspect the safety belt systems periodically to make sure they work
properly and are not damaged. Inspect the safety belts to make sure
there are no nicks, tears or cuts. Replace if necessary. All safety belt
assemblies, including retractors, buckles, front safety belt buckle
assemblies, buckle support assemblies (slide bar-if equipped), shoulder
belt height adjusters (if equipped), shoulder belt guide on seatback (if
equipped), child safety seat LATCH and tether anchors, and attaching
hardware, should be inspected after a collision. Ford Motor Company
recommends that all safety belt assemblies in use in vehicles involved in
a collision be replaced. However, if the collision was minor and an
authorized dealer finds that the belts do not show damage and continue
to operate properly, they do not need to be replaced. Safety belt
assemblies not in use during a collision should also be inspected and
replaced if either damage or improper operation is noted.
Failure to inspect and if necessary replace the safety belt
assembly under the above conditions could result in severe
personal injuries in the event of a collision.
For proper care of soiled safety belts, refer to Interior in the Cleaning
chapter.
2006 Zephyr (378)
Owners Guide (post-2002-fmt)
USA (fus) Seating and Safety Restraints
115