My 89 Chevy S10 pickup has the "check gauge" light that keeps coming on every 3-5 min.?

Question

All my gauges read normal, so I don't know what's up with this. It had flashed on for five days ,then stopped for 4 days and is doing it again. I had it at the mechanic last week for inspection, but since it stopped flashing, I didn't know if he could check it out.

Its a 4.3L and has no problems, it runs great and is an automatic.

Answer 1

It's not the fuel pump, filter, spark plugs, O2 sensor or anything related to the emmisions system, as these would turn on the "service engine soon" light. "check gauges" light can only be activated by these things; Low oil pressure (below 12 lbs or so), high coolant temp (over 260), low or high battery voltage (under 8 or over 18 or something to that effect) or possibly even low fuel.

However you say all gauges indicate fine, so moving on.

If I recall correctly, since I used to own one, some of the sensors on that series truck are redundant, for example, the oil pressure has 2 sensors. one is a simple switch that turns the check gauges light on, and the other sensor feeds the gauge itself, and they may even be on opposite sides of the engine block. My current truck has that setup.

It's probably a bad sensor, on which circuit I can't say. either a gauge sensor is stuck in normal range, or an idiot light sensor is bad, most likely the idiot light sensor. common sensors to go bad are the oil pressure light, and coolant temp.

Try checking the codes too, sometimes it stores one, although not many. You don't need anything more than a paperclip to do this on 1982-1995 gm cars. find the diagnostics connector under the drivers side dash and with the ignition on, but engine stopped, stick a bent paperclip into the TOP RIGHT TWO TERMINALS to bridge them. The "service engine soon" light will flash a code 12 ( blink once, pause, blink twice). It will flash a code 12 three times and then flash each additional stored code 3 times, before flashing code 12 again. (for example a code 23 is blink twice, pause, blink three times) write down the code it stores and look it up here: http://www.troublecodes.net/GM/

If no code is stored, It's probably a bad sensor, if a code is stored, it will tell you the sensor that's bad.
in short either way, It's probably a sensor.

Hope this helps. -John

Answer 2

89 Chevy S10

Answer 3

Sounds like starting of labor to me. Id call and ask if you should come in. 5 mins apart is when you usually go in but some are 5 and some are 3 sooo definitely call. Also yes the increased discharge is a sign, along with softer stools you may or may not have had or noticed, and even being more gassy is a sign..

Answer 4

Try disconnecting and reconnecting the positive battery cable on the battery. This resets the computer.If the "check guages" light is gone,it was a glitch somewhere. If not,get a code reader hooked up to it to find out the culprit.

Answer 5

first of all it depends on the engine size. common things for a 4.3l engine are EGR valve, Oxygen sensor. both of these will cause poor gas mileage. keep in mind there maybe other problems with the vehicle. how does it shift? how many miles? what about fuel filter or pump? I hope I helped in some way.

Answer 6

the cheapest way to check is to take the car to auto zone or advanced auto they have a ahnd held comp. they will check it for free and it will spit out a code and they'll tell u what is is.