Driving Hints - Vauxhall VECTRA Owner's Manual

Driving hints

The first 600 miles (1000 km)
Drive your vehicle at v arious speeds. Do
not use full throttle. Never allow the eng ine
to labour at low revs.
Make good use of all gea rs. Depress the
accelerator pedal a maximum of around
three quarters of the ava ila ble ped al travel
in all gears.
Do not drive faster than three quarters of
max imum speed.
Do not brake unnecessarily hard for the
first 125 miles (200 km ).
194
Never coast with engine not running
Many units w ill not function in this situation
(e.g. brake servo unit, electro-hydraulic
power steering). Driving in this ma nner is a
danger to y ourself a nd others.
Brake servo unit
If the engine is not running, the effect of the
brake servo stops after the brake ped al has
been dep ressed once or tw ic e. This does
not reduce the braking effect, but
significantly more brake pedal pressure is
required to operate the brak e.
Electro-hydraulic powe r ass isted
ste ering
If the power-assisted steering fails when
being towed with the engine switched off,
the vehicle can still be steered, but
considera bly more forc e is req uired.
Driving in mountainous te rrain or
with a caravan/traile r
The cooling fan is electrically operated. Its
cooling p ow er is therefore independent of
the engine speed.
Since a considerable amount of heat is
genera ted at high engine speeds and less
at slower speeds, do not shift d ow n when
climbing hills whilst the v ehicle is still coping
with the gradient in the higher g ear.
Diesel engine: On rising gradients of 10 %
or more, do not drive faster than
20 mph (30 km/h) in 1st gear or 30 mp h
(50 km/h) in 2nd gear; with automatic
transmission 3, d o not exceed 25 m ph
(40 km/h) in position 1.
Driving with a roof load
Do not exceed the perm issible roof load –
see pages 224, 287. For reasons of safety,
distribute the loa d ev enly a nd secure it
properly with reta ining straps so that it
cannot slip . Set the ty re p ressure to the
va lue sp ecified for a full load. Do not drive
faster than 75 m ph (120 km/h). Check and
retig hten the straps frequently.
Switching off the e ngine
When y ou switch off, fans in the eng ine
compa rtm ent may continue running for a
time to cool the engine.
If the engine temperature is very high, e.g.
after driving in mountainous terrain: allow
the engine to id le for approx im ately two
minutes in order to prevent heat
acc um ulation.
Vehicles with engine Z 20 N ET
After running at high eng ine speeds or high
eng ine loads, op erate the engine briefly at
a low load or run in neutral for approx.
30 seconds before switching off in ord er to
protec t the turbocharger.
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Sales des ig nation – see p ag e 282.
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