1993 Chevrolet Lumina Owner's Manual - Page 154

Your Driving and the Road Driving on Snow or Ice Most of the time, those places where your tires meetthe road probably have good traction. However, if there is snow or ice between your tires and road, you the can have a very slippery situation. You'll have a lot less traction or "grip" and you will needto be very careful. What's the worst time for this? "Wet ice." Very cold snow or ice can be slick and hard to drive on. But wet ice can be even more trouble because may offer it the least tractionof all. You can get "wet ice" when about freezing it's (32°F' 0 "C) and freezing rain begins to fall. Tryto avoid driving on wet ice until salt and sand crews get there. can Whatever the condition-smooth ice, packed, blowing or loose snow-drive with caution. Accelerate gently. not Try to break the fragile traction. If you accelerate too fast, the drive wheels will spin and polish the surface under the tires even more. Unless you havethe anti-lock braking system, you'll want brake very gently, to too. (If you do have anti-lock, seethe Index under Anti-Lock BrakeSystem. This system improves your vehicle's ability to make a hard stop a slippery on road.) Whether you have the anti-lock braking system ornot, you'll want to begin stopping soonerthan you would on dry pavement. Without anti-lock brakes,if you feel your vehicle begin slide, let to up on the brakes a little.Push the brake pedal down steadily get the most to traction you can. Remember, unless you have anti-lock, if you brake so hard that your wheelsstop rolling, you'lljust slide. Brakeso your wheels always keep rolling and you can still steer. Whatever your braking system, allow greater following distanceon any slippery road. Watch for slippery spots. The road might be fine until you hit a spot that's covered with ice. On an otherwise clear road, ice patches may appear in shaded areas where sun the can't reach:around clumps of trees, behind buildings, or under bridges. Sometimes the surface of a curve or an overpass may remain icy when the surrounding roadsare clear. If you see a patch of ice aheadof you, brake before you areon it.Try not to brake while you're actually theice, and on avoid sudden steering maneuvers.