'96 - ABS, Brake, *AND* Oil Lights?

hey guys. New here, but only because you're my last resort. :D

Have a '96 Cavalier, with 'bout 125k miles on it. Got it used pretty cheaply, needed some work done. (PCV Valve, Coolant Tank, TPS, New O2 sensor, valve cover gasket, to name the main items.)

The last thing I did to it was put in a new valve cover gasket. (The old one was leaking oil, and had been, for a LONG while before I got it.)

Occasionally, upon start-up, three lights will come on and stay on: The ABS, the BRAKE, and the OIL light. The car runs fine with these lights on. In other words, you can't tell anything's wrong. (I say this without having tested if ABS actually works or not. I would assume not, with the light on.)

When this first started happening, the Girl friend reported that she would turn the car off and have to wait a while. When asked why, she said, "Because it wouldn't start right away." Since the issue dosen't happen all the time, I never got to see it in action.

Finally, it happened one day while I was home. yeah, everything seemed fine, save for the dash lights. Turned it off and tried to start it again, and sure enough - it didn't feel like starting. It started eventually, and the lights went out.

I found the other thread on here about just the ABS and BRAKE lights, but not about all three. I DO have a scantool, and I'll plug it in tonight and see if anything comes up, but my hopes aren't raised for that.

Thoughts anyone?

Cheers,
Mike.

[Note: Apologies to the mods - forgot to get into the Problems forum.] As an update, while the issue WASN'T happening, I did plug my scan reader up, and it reported nothing. (Not a big surprise, was hoping it'd 'remember' any codes it threw, tho..) Cheers, Mike.

from my experience, the reason the BRAKE light is on has to do with the ABS light, get that abs light to shut off and the BRAKE light will shut off too. ive also learned (a few different times) that the ABS will not function (and the light will turn on) if the abs system is not getting enough power from the battery, which could be caused by a weak battery or failing alternator, or poor battery connections (good connections are critical)

this may be a long shot here, but in one of my most recent threads, i mentioned a problem i was having with my BRAKE, abs, low coolant, oil, and battery lights all coming on for no reason at all, turns out the reason was the ground connection on the battery was poor. about 10 inches from the negative terminal on the battery the battery cable goes through a metal piece thats bolted down to the battery tray, that connection was bad, which was my problem

from my experience, the reason the BRAKE light is on has to do with the ABS light, get that abs light to shut off and the BRAKE light will shut off too. ive also learned (a few different times) that the ABS will not function (and the light will turn on) if the abs system is not getting enough power from the battery, which could be caused by a weak battery or failing alternator, or poor battery connections (good connections are critical)

this may be a long shot here, but in one of my most recent threads, i mentioned a problem i was having with my BRAKE, abs, low coolant, oil, and battery lights all coming on for no reason at all, turns out the reason was the ground connection on the battery was poor. about 10 inches from the negative terminal on the battery the battery cable goes through a metal piece thats bolted down to the battery tray, that connection was bad, which was my problem

Hmm.. you may have hit on something there - When I just started it last time, I noticed that the voltage seemed low - on idle I was getting voltage fluctuations. Never had that before and put "getting the alternator and battery checked" on my to-do list. Maybe I'll bump that up and have it done today.

As far as the original issues - it hasn't happened in the last week or so, so I'm stuck diagnosing the issue until it does happen again.

Thanks!
Mike.

It will probably be a problem with a connection, not the battery or alternator since it's intermittent. Pretty easy to do yourself and doesn't cost anything.