2003 Pontiac Montana Owner's Manual - Page 394

Secondary Latch System Your vehicle may have an underbody mounted tire hoist assembly equipped with a secondary latch system. It's designed to stop a tire from suddenly falling off your vehicle if the cable holding the spare tire is damaged. For the secondary latch to work, the tire must be stowed with the valve stem pointing down. Front-wheel-drivevehicles use the underbody tire hoist assembly to store either the compact spare or a flat road tire. See "Storing a Flat or Spare Tire and Tools" in the Index for instructions on storing the spare or flat tire correctly. If your vehicle is equipped with all-wheel-drive, the underbody tire hoist assembly stores only the compact spare tire. See "Storing the Spare Tire and Tools" later in this section for instructions. To store a flat full-size tire correctly, see "Storing the Flat Tire on an All-Wheel-Drive Vehicle" later in this section. Before beginning this procedure read 8 1 1 ihe instructions. Failure to read and follow the instructions could damage the hoist assembly and you and others could get hurt. Read and follow the instructions listed below. 5-73