
Black plate (7,1)Buick LaCrosse Owner Manual - 2011
Seats and Restraints 3-7
This feature is turned on or off using
the vehicle personalization menu.
See“Remote Recall” underVehicle
Personalization on page 5‑39 for
more information.
To stop recall movement, press
one of the memory, power mirror,
or power seat controls.
If something has blocked the
driver seat while recalling a
memory position, the recall may
stop. Remove the obstruction;
then press and hold the appropriate
manual control for the memory item
that is not recalling for two seconds.
Try recalling the memory position
again by opening the driver door
and pressing the RKE transmitter K
button. If the memory position is
still not recalling, see your dealer
for service. Easy Exit Driver Seat
This feature moves the seat
rearward allowing the driver
more room to exit the vehicle.
To activate, place the ignition in
OFF and open the driver door. If the
driver door is already open, placing
the ignition in OFF will activate the
easy exit driver seat.
This feature is turned on or off
using the vehicle personalization
menu. See
“Driver Seat Easy Exit”
under Vehicle Personalization on
page 5‑39 for more information.
To stop recall movement, press
one of the memory or power seat
controls.
If something has blocked the driver
seat while recalling the exit position,
the recall may stop. Remove the
obstruction; then press and hold
the power seat control rearward for
two seconds. Try recalling the exit
position again. If the exit position is
still not recalling, see your dealer
for service.Lumbar Adjustment
To increase or decrease lumbar
support, press and hold the front
or rear of the control.
To raise or lower lumbar support,
press and hold the top or bottom
of the control.
Release the control when the
seatback reaches the desired
level of lumbar support.
See Power Seat Adjustment on
page 3‑5 for more information.

Black plate (23,1)Buick LaCrosse Owner Manual - 2011
Seats and Restraints 3-23
If the shoulder portion of a
passenger belt is pulled out
all the way, the child restraint
locking feature may be engaged.
If this happens, let the belt go
back all the way and start again.
3. Push the latch plate into thebuckle until it clicks.
Pull up on the latch plate to
make sure it is secure. If the belt
is not long enough, see Safety
Belt Extender on page 3‑27. Position the release button on
the buckle so that the safety belt
could be quickly unbuckled if
necessary.
If equipped with a shoulder
belt height adjuster, move it
to the height that is right for
you. See
“Shoulder Belt Height
Adjustment” later in this section
for instructions on use and
important safety information.
4. To make the lap part tight, pull up on the shoulder belt.
It may be necessary to pull
stitching on the safety belt
through the latch plate to fully
tighten the lap belt on smaller
occupants.
To unlatch the belt, push the button
on the buckle. The belt should
return to its stowed position. Slide
the latch plate up the safety belt
webbing, when the safety belt is not
in use. The latch plate should rest
on the stitching on the safety belt,
near the guide loop on the side wall.
Before a door is closed, be sure
the safety belt is out of the way. If a
door is slammed against a safety
belt, damage can occur to both the
safety belt and the vehicle.

Black plate (32,1)Buick LaCrosse Owner Manual - 2011
3-32 Seats and Restraints
Rear Seat Driver Side Shown,Passenger Side Similar
If the vehicle has second row
seat‐mounted side impact airbags,
they are in the sides of the rear
seatback closest to the door.
{WARNING
If something is between an
occupant and an airbag, the
airbag might not inflate properly
or it might force the object into (Continued)
WARNING (Continued)
that person causing severe
injury or even death. The path
of an inflating airbag must be
kept clear. Do not put anything
between an occupant and an
airbag, and do not attach or put
anything on the steering wheel
hub or on or near any other
airbag covering.
Do not use seat accessories
that block the inflation path of a
seat-mounted side impact airbag.
Never secure anything to the roof
of a vehicle with roof-rail airbags
by routing a rope or tie down
through any door or window
opening. If you do, the path
of an inflating roof-rail airbag
will be blocked.
When Should an Airbag
Inflate?
Frontal airbags are designed
to inflate in moderate to severe
frontal or near frontal crashes to
help reduce the potential for severe
injuries mainly to the driver's or right
front passenger's head and chest.
However, they are only designed
to inflate if the impact exceeds
a predetermined deployment
threshold. Deployment thresholds
are used to predict how severe a
crash is likely to be in time for the
airbags to inflate and help restrain
the occupants.
Whether the frontal airbags will
or should deploy is not based on
how fast your vehicle is traveling.
It depends largely on what you hit,
the direction of the impact, and how
quickly your vehicle slows down.

Black plate (35,1)Buick LaCrosse Owner Manual - 2011
Seats and Restraints 3-35
But airbags would not help in
many types of collisions, primarily
because the occupant's motion
is not toward those airbags.
SeeWhen Should an Airbag
Inflate? on page 3‑32 for more
information.
Airbags should never be regarded
as anything more than a supplement
to safety belts.
What Will You See After
an Airbag Inflates?
After the frontal airbags and
seat-mounted side impact airbags
inflate, they quickly deflate, so
quickly that some people may
not even realize an airbag inflated.
Roof-rail airbags may still be at least
partially inflated for some time after
they deploy. Some components of
the airbag module may be hot for several minutes. For location of the
airbag modules, see
What Makes
an Airbag Inflate? on page 3‑34.
The parts of the airbag that come
into contact with you may be warm,
but not too hot to touch. There may
be some smoke and dust coming
from the vents in the deflated
airbags. Airbag inflation does not
prevent the driver from seeing out
of the windshield or being able to
steer the vehicle, nor does it prevent
people from leaving the vehicle.{WARNING
When an airbag inflates, there
may be dust in the air. This dust
could cause breathing problems
for people with a history of
asthma or other breathing trouble.
To avoid this, everyone in the
(Continued)
WARNING (Continued)
vehicle should get out as soon
as it is safe to do so. If you have
breathing problems but cannot
get out of the vehicle after an
airbag inflates, then get fresh air
by opening a window or a door.
If you experience breathing
problems following an airbag
deployment, you should seek
medical attention.
The vehicle has a feature that may
automatically unlock the doors, turn
on the interior lamps and hazard
warning flashers, and shut off the
fuel system after the airbags inflate.
You can lock the doors, turn off the
interior lamps and hazard warning
flashers by using the controls for
those features.

Black plate (1,1)Buick LaCrosse Owner Manual - 2011
Instruments and Controls 5-1
Instruments and
Controls
Controls
Steering Wheel Adjustment . . . 5-2
Steering Wheel Controls . . . . . . 5-2
Heated Steering Wheel . . . . . . . 5-3
Horn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-3
Windshield Wiper/Washer . . . . . 5-3
Compass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-5
Clock (Without DateDisplay) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-5
Clock (With Date Display) . . . . . 5-6
Power Outlets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-7
Warning Lights, Gauges, and
Indicators
Warning Lights, Gauges, and Indicators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-9
Instrument Cluster . . . . . . . . . . . 5-10
Speedometer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-11
Odometer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-11 Tachometer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-11
Fuel Gauge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-11
Engine Coolant Temperature
Gauge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-13
Safety Belt Reminders . . . . . . . 5-14
Airbag Readiness Light . . . . . . 5-14
Passenger Airbag Status
Indicator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-15
Charging System Light . . . . . . 5-16
Malfunction Indicator Lamp . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-17
Brake System Warning Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-19
Electric Parking Brake Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-20
Antilock Brake System (ABS) Warning Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-21
Traction Off Light . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-21
Electronic Stability Control (ESC) Indicator Light . . . . . . . 5-22
Electronic Stability Control (ESC)/Traction Control
System (TCS) Indicator/
Warning Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-22 Tire Pressure Light . . . . . . . . . . 5-23
Engine Oil Pressure Light . . . . 5-23
Low Fuel Warning Light . . . . . . 5-24
Security Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-24
High-Beam On Light . . . . . . . . . 5-24
Front Fog Lamp Light . . . . . . . . 5-25
Taillamp Indicator Light . . . . . . 5-25
Cruise Control Light . . . . . . . . . 5-25
Information Displays
Driver Information
Center (DIC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-25
Head-Up Display (HUD) . . . . . 5-29
Vehicle Messages
Vehicle Messages . . . . . . . . . . . 5-33
Battery Voltage and Charging Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-33
Brake System Messages . . . . 5-33
Compass Messages . . . . . . . . . 5-34
Cruise Control Messages . . . . 5-34
Door Ajar Messages . . . . . . . . . 5-34
Engine Cooling System Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-35

Black plate (4,1)Buick LaCrosse Owner Manual - 2011
5-4 Instruments and Controls
&(Adjustable Interval Wipes):
Turn the band up for more frequent
wipes or down for less frequent
wipes.
9(Off): Use to turn the windshield
wipers off.
3(Mist): For a single wipe,
briefly move the wiper lever down.
For several wipes, hold the wiper
lever down.
Clear ice and snow from the
wiper blades before using them.
If they are frozen to the windshield,
carefully loosen or thaw them. Damaged wiper blades should
be replaced. See
Wiper Blade
Replacement on page 10‑29.
Heavy snow or ice can overload the
wipers. A circuit breaker stops them
until the motor cools.
Wipe Parking
If the ignition is turned to
LOCK/OFF while the wipers
are on 1, 2, or
&, they will
immediately stop.
If the windshield wiper lever is
then moved to OFF before the
driver door is opened, or within
10 minutes, the wipers will restart
and move to the base of the
windshield.
If the ignition is turned to
LOCK/OFF during a windshield
wash, the wipers will stop when
they reach the base of the
windshield.
Windshield Washer
Pull the windshield wiper lever
toward you to spray windshield
washer fluid and activate the wipers.
The wipers will continue until the
lever is released or the maximum
wash time is reached.
When the windshield wiper lever
is released, additional wipes may
occur depending on how long
the windshield washer had been
activated. See Washer Fluid on
page 10‑24 for information on
filling the windshield washer
fluid reservoir.
{WARNING
In freezing weather, do not use
the washer until the windshield
is warmed. Otherwise the
washer fluid can form ice on the
windshield, blocking your vision.

Black plate (39,1)Buick LaCrosse Owner Manual - 2011
Instruments and Controls 5-39
Window Messages
OPEN, THEN CLOSE DRIVER
WINDOW
This message is displayed when the
window needs to be reprogrammed.
If the vehicle's battery has been
recharged or disconnected, you
will need to reprogram each front
window for the express-up feature
to work. SeePower Windows on
page 2‑19 for more information.
OPEN, THEN CLOSE
PASSENGER WINDOW
This message is displayed when the
window needs to be reprogrammed.
If the vehicle's battery has been
recharged or disconnected, you
will need to reprogram each front
window for the express-up feature
to work. See Power Windows on
page 2‑19 for more information.
Vehicle
Personalization
The audio system controls are
used to access the personalization
menus for customizing vehicle
features.
CONFIG (Configuration):
Press to access the Configuration
Settings Menu.
MENU/SELECT Knob: Press
the center of this knob to enter
the menus and select menu items.
Turn the knob to scroll through the
menus.
0BACK: Press to exit or move
backward in a menu.
Entering the Personalization
Menus
1. Press CONFIG to access the Configuration Settings menu.
2. Turn the MENU/SELECT knob to highlight Vehicle Settings. 3. Press the center of the
MENU/SELECT knob to select
the Vehicle Settings menu.
The following list of menu items will
be available:
.Climate and Air Quality
.Comfort and Convenience
.Collision/Detection Systems
.Language
.Lighting
.Power Door Locks
.Remote Lock/Unlock/Start
.Return to Factory Settings
Turn the MENU/SELECT knob to
highlight the menu. Press the knob
to select it. Each of the menus is
detailed in the following information.

Black plate (42,1)Buick LaCrosse Owner Manual - 2011
5-42 Instruments and Controls
Collision/Detection Systems
Select the Collision/Detection
Systems menu and the following
will be displayed:
.Side Blind Zone Alert System
Side Blind Zone Alert System
This allows the Side Blind Zone
Alert System feature to be turned
on or off.
Press the MENU/SELECT knob
when Park Assist is highlighted.
Turn the knob to select On or Off.
Press the knob to confirm and go
back to the last menu.
Language
Select the Language menu and the
following will be displayed:
.English
.French
.Spanish Turn the MENU/SELECT knob
to select the language. Press the
knob to confirm and go back to the
last menu.
Lighting
Select the Lighting menu and the
following will be displayed:
.Exit Lighting
.Vehicle Locator Lights
Exit Lighting
This allows the selection of how
long the exterior lamps stay on
when leaving the vehicle when
it is dark outside.
Press the MENU/SELECT knob
when Exit Lighting is highlighted.
Turn the knob to select Off,
30 Seconds, 1 Minute, or 2 Minutes.
Press the knob to confirm and go
back to the last menu. Vehicle Locator Lights
This allows the vehicle locator
lights to be turned on or off. The
vehicle locator lights come on when
unlocking the vehicle with the RKE
transmitter.
Press the MENU/SELECT knob
when Vehicle Locator Lights is
highlighted. Turn the knob to select
On or Off. Press the knob to confirm
and go back to the last menu.
Power Door Locks
Select Power Door Locks and the
following will be displayed:
.Unlocked Door Anti Lock Out
.Delayed Door Lock
.Auto Door Unlock