Oldsmobile Intrigue (2002 year). Manual - part 12

3-34

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 eject
button for five seconds to reset the CLEAN PLAYR
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 Compact Discs

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 signal surface when handling
discs. Pick up discs by grasping the outer edges or the
edge of the hole and the outer edge.

Care of Your Compact Disc 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

Your AM

-

FM antenna is integrated with your 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.

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.

3-35

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.

Chime Level Adjustment

The volume level of the vehicle’s chimes can be
controlled by the radio. To change the volume level,
press and hold pushbutton 6 with the ignition on and the
radio power off. The chime volume level will change
from the normal level to loud, and LOUD will be
displayed on the radio. To change back to the default or
normal setting, press and hold pushbutton 6 again. The
chime level will change from the loud level to normal,
and NORMAL will be displayed.

4-

4-1

Section 4

Your Driving and the Road

Here you’ll find information about driving on different kinds of roads and in varying weather conditions. We’ve also
included many other useful tips on driving.

4

-

2

Defensive Driving

4

-

3

Drunken Driving

4

-

6

Control of a Vehicle

4

-

6

Braking

4

-

7

Traction Control System (Option)

4

-

12

Steering

4

-

14

Off

-

Road Recovery

4

-

14

Passing

4

-

16

Loss of Control

4

-

17

Driving at Night

4

-

19

Driving in Rain and on Wet Roads

4

-

22

City Driving

4

-

23

Freeway Driving

4

-

24

Before Leaving on a Long Trip

4

-

25

Highway Hypnosis

4

-

26

Hill and Mountain Roads

4

-

27

Winter Driving

4

-

28

Recreational Vehicle Towing

4

-

34

Loading Your Vehicle

4

-

36

Towing a Trailer

4-2

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” in the Index.

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.

4-3

Drunken Driving

Death and injury associated with drinking and driving is
a national tragedy. It’s 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:
D Judgment
D Muscular Coordination
D Vision
D 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, about 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 U.S. state to drink alcohol.
There are good medical, psychological and
developmental reasons for these laws.

The obvious way to solve 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 the driver 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:
D The amount of alcohol consumed
D The drinker’s body weight
D The amount of food that is consumed before and

during drinking

D 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 the
same 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 a liquor like whiskey, gin or vodka.

4-4

It’s 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.

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 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’ve 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 
of 0.05 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!

4-5

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’ll be careful” isn’t the
right answer. What if there’s 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’s something else about drinking and driving that
many people don’t 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.

CAUTION:

Drinking and then driving is very dangerous.
Your reflexes, perceptions, attentiveness and
judgment can be affected by even a small amount
of alcohol. You can have a serious 

--

 or even 

fatal 

--

 collision if you drive after drinking.

Please don’t drink and drive or ride with a driver
who has been drinking. Ride home in a cab; or if
you’re with a group, designate a driver who will
not drink.

4-6

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” in
the Index.

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 (100 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.

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.

4-7

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 has anti

-

lock brakes. ABS is an advanced

electronic braking system that will help prevent a
braking skid.

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.

United States

Canada

If there’s a problem with the anti

-

lock brake system, this

warning light will stay on. See “Anti

-

Lock Brake

System Warning Light” in the Index.

4-8

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.

4-9

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

With anti

-

lock, you can steer and brake at the same

time. In many emergencies, steering can help you more
than even the very best braking.

Traction Control System (Option)

Your vehicle may have 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, may upshift the
transaxle, and reduces engine power to limit wheel spin.

This light will come on
when your traction control
system is limiting wheel
spin. See “Traction Control
System Active Light” in 
the Index.

The low traction light will come on when the traction
control system is limiting wheel spin. See “Low
Traction Light” in the Index. You may feel or hear 
the system working, but this is normal.

4-10

The Traction Control System operates in all transaxle
shift lever positions. But the system can upshift the
transaxle only as high as the shift lever position you’ve
chosen, so you should use the lower gears only when
necessary. See “Automatic Transaxle” in the Index.

This warning light will
come on to let you know if
there’s a problem with your
traction control system.

See “Traction Control System Warning Light” in the
Index. 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” in the Index.

To turn the system on or 
off, press the TRACTION
CONTROL button located
on the console.

4-11

Precision Control System (PCS) (Option)

If your vehicle is equipped with PCS, this system helps
your vehicle to go in the direction you are steering in
difficult driving conditions. This is accomplished when
the computer senses that your vehicle is starting to spin
and assists the driver by selectively applying any one of
the vehicle’s brakes.

When PCS is active, the
LOW TRAC light will
come on. Continue to steer
in the direction you want
the vehicle to go and apply
the brakes normally to slow
the vehicle as desired.

You may hear or feel the system working, but this is
normal. You should adjust your driving accordingly. 
See “Low Traction Active (LOW TRAC) Light” in 
the Index.

United States

Canada

When you first start the vehicle, the PCS light should
come on briefly. If the light doesn’t come on then, have
your vehicle serviced so it will be ready to warn you if
there is a problem.

If you ever see the PCS warning light come on, it means
there is a PCS problem. If both the PCS and TRAC OFF
lights are on, neither the PCS nor the traction control
system are functioning. You can try resetting the system:
stop, turn off the engine, wait a few seconds and then
start the engine again. If both lights are still on, you
should have your vehicle serviced.

4-12

Steering

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.

Magnetic Speed Sensitive Steering

This steering system provides lighter 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 acceleration 

--

 have to do their

work where the tires meet the road. Adding the sudden
acceleration can demand too much of those places. You
can lose control. Refer to “Traction Control System” in
the Index.

What should you do if this ever happens? Ease up on the
accelerator pedal, steer the vehicle the way you want it
to go, and slow down.

If your vehicle is equipped with the Precision Control
System, the LOW TRAC light may come on to indicate
the system is engaged. See “Low Traction Active 
(LOW TRAC) Light” in the Index.

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.

4-13

If you need to reduce your speed as you approach a
curve, do it before you enter the curve, while your front
wheels are straight ahead.

Try to adjust your speed so you can “drive” through the
curve. Maintain a reasonable, steady speed. Wait to
accelerate until you are out of the curve, and then
accelerate gently into the straightaway.

Steering in Emergencies

There are times when steering can be more effective
than braking. For example, you come over a hill and
find a truck stopped in your lane, or a car suddenly pulls
out from nowhere, or a child darts out from between
parked cars and stops right in front of you. You can
avoid these problems by braking 

--

 if you can stop 

in time. But sometimes you can’t; there isn’t room.
That’s the time for evasive action 

--

 steering around 

the problem.

Your vehicle can perform very well in emergencies like
these. First apply your brakes. See “Braking in
Emergencies” earlier in this section. It is better to
remove as much speed as you can from a possible
collision. Then steer around the problem, to the left 
or right depending on the space available.

An emergency like this requires close attention and a
quick decision. If you are holding the steering wheel at
the recommended 9 and 3 o’clock positions, you can
turn it a full 180 degrees very quickly without removing
either hand. But you have to act fast, steer quickly, and
just as quickly straighten the wheel once you have
avoided the object.

The fact that such emergency situations are always
possible is a good reason to practice defensive driving at
all times and wear safety belts properly.

4-14

Off

-

Road Recovery

You may find that your right wheels have dropped off the
edge of a road onto the shoulder while you’re driving.

If the level of the shoulder is only slightly below the
pavement, recovery should be fairly easy. Ease off the
accelerator and then, if there is nothing in the way, steer so
that your vehicle straddles the edge of the pavement. You
can turn the steering wheel up to one

-

quarter turn until the

right front tire contacts the pavement edge. Then turn your
steering wheel to go straight down the roadway.

Passing

The driver of a vehicle about to pass another on a
two

-

lane highway waits for just the right moment,

accelerates, moves around the vehicle ahead, then goes
back into the right lane again. A simple maneuver?

Not necessarily! Passing another vehicle on a two

-

lane

highway is a potentially dangerous move, since the
passing vehicle occupies the same lane as oncoming
traffic for several seconds. A miscalculation, an error in
judgment, or a brief surrender to frustration or anger can
suddenly put the passing driver face to face with the
worst of all traffic accidents 

--

 the head

-

on collision.

So here are some tips for passing:
D “Drive ahead.” Look down the road, to the sides and to

crossroads for situations that might affect your passing
patterns. If you have any doubt whatsoever about
making a successful pass, wait for a better time.

D Watch for traffic signs, pavement markings and lines.

If you can see a sign up ahead that might indicate a
turn or an intersection, delay your pass. A broken
center line usually indicates it’s all right to pass
(providing the road ahead is clear). Never cross a solid
line on your side of the lane or a double solid line,
even if the road seems empty of approaching traffic.