miss in engine/engine lite on

I am new to this forum. Hello all! 1998 Chev Cavalier has a miss in the motor, with engine light on.Engine is 2.2 litre 4 cyl.and goes well when kicked down.Also key cylinder in steering column is jammed , have to fidget with it to get it to work.
A mechanic friend has told me that I may have to get the body computer reprogrammed by GM, and that the key cylinder is hard to find in a wrecking yard . The key does not communicate with the engine computer in order to start the car.
I have never heard of this "body" computer,,Is any of this true?
Please help If you can!

Thanks , Peter

He is full of it. The ECM takes care of most to all the car. including engine. Sounds like you have a bad set of plugs and wires. Get AC Delco wires and AcDelco platinum Plugs. Your ignition is going bad in the column. Just order a new iginition

He is full of it. The ECM takes care of most to all the car. including engine. Sounds like you have a bad set of plugs and wires. Get AC Delco wires and AcDelco platinum Plugs. Your ignition is going bad in the column. Just order a new iginition

Doesn't one of the recalls for our cavs (mine's also a '98) have something to do with the ignition? I haven't taken it in yet, but I remember it said something about the possibility of the ignition malfunctioning and could cause sparks/fire in the steering column.

Anyone know for sure?

Doesn't one of the recalls for our cavs (mine's also a '98) have something to do with the ignition? I haven't taken it in yet, but I remember it said something about the possibility of the ignition malfunctioning and could cause sparks/fire in the steering column.

Anyone know for sure?

yes you are right i asked the man at a chevrolet service shop to see if there are any recalls on my car cuz i just got the car so i wanna to be safe. they say yes, the ignition circuit thermal. they install new relay and wires, which i believe the wires leads to the starter. hope you will be able to have it replaced soon

your car does have a BM or body control module in addition to eh PCM poertrain control module, the BCM is with the instrument cluster and controls most things not to do with the powertrain. you can find an igntion barrel but the problem is that they wont likely have a key to match. you could however jump the ingition barrel to see if the problem persists but you may have a bad ground seomwhere on the car. it could be fuel or elcetrical. warm your car up to normal operating temp and then get someone to rev the motor fairly sharply so that is sputters if you see blakck smoke from the exhaust then it's electrical. it could be plugs, leads, ground, alternator. If you get it scanned then the code will tell you what is wrong. unless you have the code and then I'll be able to tell you what it means. you have been a little vague on when the motor stumbles. It could be a loose connection on the ign barrel though. have you bought the car recently? has is ever been broken into at all?

with regards to recalls, write down your vin number and go into any GM dealership. they will be able to tell you whether there are any outstanding recalls on your vehicle. they should do this for free as technically they are obliged to. It could be the item that these had a recall on so get down to a dealer soon to check it out. but if you can give a full description of what happends when driving and the different conditions that cause an effect let us know