1990 Sunbird "Check Gauges" Light is flashing

[Tom4Ken]

Hello, all!

Last night my son was driving his Sunbird (94K miles) when is suddenly began to run roungh and lose power. He managed to get it off the road, but the rough running continued, and finally progressed to where the car could not be driven - that is, hard starting, wouldn't idle, "boom" as it shiut down, etc. We waited a while and tried restarts, but it continued the same. The exhaust smells of raw gas.

Best symptom I have is the "check gauges" (NOT the "check engine") light flashes when the key is turned on.

Ken's afraid he's blown a head gasket (he is not a hot rod driver, he's 28, a professional truck driver and very sensible). I'm thinking (hoping)with the light that it's something easier, like an ignition module or a computer.

Any help is greatly appreciated. I was reading the manual while waiting for the hook and it says nothing about a flahing "check gauges" light. One other place on the 'net suggested it was because a miss was detected.

Thanks to anyone who can help!

Tom

[hottnsexychica3]

ok sorry to tell you this but it is a blow head gasket...i have a 93 sunbird and it did the same thing had no power and run really rough..its going to cost you $20.10 for a new head gasket and if you do it your self you wont have to pay someone that is what i did

[DARK AGE 53]

It could be several things and without scaning it everyone is just guessing, that being said here's my 2 cents worth. If it were a head gasket you should have seen a lot of white smoke coming out the tail pipe, there also would have been a sweet smell coming from the tail pipe. So what's my guess, bad o2 sensor/s, good luck.

Al