what does it mean when the trouble light comes on "amber" in color, with an oil can & drip & a wrench below it
When i start my vehicle the trouble light comes on glowing amber, with an oil can and a crescent wrench under neath the can. Is this vehicle safe to drive?I have checked the engine oil and it is fine . Any ideas?
The light is an oil pressure light. It's good that you checked the engine oil level but I would say get it checked out just to be sure. Newer cars have an on-board diagnostic computer which has a code for every problem so it would be easy for a Pontiac dealer to let you know the problem.
It's due for an oil change... The light comes on when pressure is low or after x number of miles(on some vehicles) since the last reset.
If you get your oil changed at a quick lube shop, and get the cheap shit it doesn't last as long as it's suppose to. So 3000 may be a bit far for your car if your cheap. You get what you payed for after all. Change your oild and filter reset
(Turn key to on {but don't start}, pump gas 3 times, hold in brake until the light blinks and goes out. Start car}
Don't buy cheap oil!!! You get what you payed for. Goto walmart get Mobile 1... It's like $25 for the 5 quart jug there.
Change your oil regularly.(And do the reset procedure each time) I forget where GM's mile benchmark is... it's ridiculously high if I remember correctly. 7,500miles or along those lines
Also remember if you're not getting full synthetic you need to changes your oil every 3 months (assuming the shit hasn't sat on a shelf for five years to begin with) . It brakes down due to natural PH unbalances(sometimes refered to ash level since oil has a tendency to be basic as opposed to acidic) and free radicals on the individual molecules causing it to oxidize... These problems are minimized or eliminated in full-synthetics which are much more neutral and have few if any free radicals. IE your engine kills full-synthetics while with organic oils your engine and the oil itself destroy the oil.
Sorry for the oil basics but the fact is most people are cheap and get 19.95 cheap blend oil that doesn't meet recommendations and then they wonder why the engine get so dirty ("It says 5000 miles between oil changes") Yeah if we live in a perfect world with no stop signs, highways, or hills. Your oil change interval is 3000 miles read your manual.
For the love of god why don't people even look at their owners manual. This question should have been answered by you looking at your bloody book!!!
ok!!! people i change oil for a livin' as for holding the brake after pressing the gas, dont do that!! just turn the key on, press the gas 3 times wait for the light to blink and turn the key off!!!! i do it everyday, and usually the factory programs the light to come on after 5 thousand miles since the last reset, not 3 thousand. cheap oil will not make the light come on earlier. the computer senses when a certian amount of miles have past. again i make a livin doing this everyday!!!
Congrats m8 for doing it for a living but the fact is there is a pressure trigger for it as well on most models. If you work in a shop with a lazy bastard you'll learn this fast because he'll forget to replace a filter. And the 5000 mile varies by make and model and can even be re-programed on many models. (mine can be set any interval of 1500 miles between 1500-30000)
And as for the reset procedure some made it to where you had to press the brake afterwards, and some didn't but it doesn't do anything to the ones that don't need to press the brake to press it.
If you can't tell one of my first jobs was at a quick lube tech and moved onto restoring cars at my uncles shop.