Driving your vehicle
945
Driving on grades
Reduce speed and shift to a lower gear
before you start down a long or steep
downgrade. If you don’t shift down, you
might have to use your brakes so much
that they would get hot and no longer
operate efficiently.
On a long uphill grade, shift down and
reduce your speed to around 70 km/h (45
mph) to reduce the possibility of engine
and transaxle overheating.
If your trailer weighs more than the max-
imum trailer weight without trailer brakes
and you have an automatic transaxle,
you should drive in D (Drive) when tow-
ing a trailer.
Operating your vehicle in D (Drive) when
towing a trailer will minimize heat build up
and extend the life of your transaxle.
CAUTION
• When towing a trailer on steep
grades (in excess of 6%) pay close
attention to the engine coolant
temperature gauge to ensure the
engine does not overheat.
If the coolant temperature red
warning light illuminates or the
coolant temperature gauge
moves towards “130”, pull over
and stop as soon as it is safe to
do so, and allow the engine to idle
until it cools down. You may pro-
ceed once the engine has cooled
sufficiently.
• You must decide driving speed
depending on trailer weight and
uphill grade to reduce the possi-
bility of engine and transaxle
overheating.
(Continued)
(Continued)
• For vehicles equipped with a dual
clutch transmission when towing
a trailer on steep grades, the
clutch in the transmission could
overheat.
When the clutch is overheated,
the safe protection mode
engages. If the safe protection
mode engages, the gear position
indicator on the cluster blinks
with a chime sound.
At this time, a warning message
will appear on the LCD display
and driving may not be smooth.
If you ignore this warning, the driv-
ing condition may become worse.
To return to normal driving condi-
tion, stop the vehicle on a flat
road and apply the foot brake for
a few minutes before driving off.
To Next Page
Loading...
