I have a 2001 Chevy S10 4.3L. The CHECK GAUGES light stays on, and the oil pressure gauge stays at 0. The oil is full, and the engine runs and sounds fine. I drove it about 5 miles with no change. Up until now, the gauge has worked normally. Could it be the sending unit?
That would be the first thing to check. Afterall, if the engine had no oil pressure it would start making noises after 5 miles of driving if not totally sieze up.
Tester
As I remember there are two different special deep sockets to remove the sending unit, back by the distributor if I remember correctly. With a Tech II (GM factory scan tool) there is a “gague sweep” command that would help rule out a cluster problem. At the shop I would do a gague sweep before going any further in my diagnosis,let me take a quick look at TSB’s,just perhaps
EDIT: I looked for TSB’s and none found. There is a real interesting document called a “PI” (I do not know what a PI is but it is grouped with recalls and TSB’s. Perhaps it means Public Information). Well this “PI” details how GM is finding “crank no-starts” caused by loss of compression. The PI goes on to say the loss of compression is caused by the use of poor quality fuel that causes valves to sieze on their stems. More and more from GM related to the use on non “Top-Tier” fuels. They have been on this path for quite awhile.