unknown warning light

lumina, 97, 3.1L

there is a light on my dash that stays on when the engine is running. i havent driven it because i do not know what the light means and decided to play it safe. the light is red and looks like some kind of resevoir. inside the resevoir there is a small amount of liquid at the bottom and an arrow pointing down. ive looked in the owners manual and did not find it. any help would be great. thanks.

to me it sounds like it would be the "engine coolant temperature light." The description you gave seems to match this warning lamp. It's got a small amount of liquid at the bottom with a vertical line going into it. There are three small lines branching off from this vertical line. I am currently having trouble uploading photos to AF or I would put one with the post. I'm assuming that you have the standard cluster in your vehicle (it doesn't have a tach). This warning light (on the standard cluster) is in the group with the fuel guage; just to the right, and down from "full." That appears to be the only MIL that it could be. There are only a handful of MIL's in the cluster. hope that helps.

You're correct gw84, it's a low coolant warning light, so check you coolant level in the radiator when the engine is cool. Checking the overflow bottle isn't very accurate.