unknown warning light

[smallbrady89]

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.

[gw84]

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.

[richtazz]

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.