Aaaah, I've had it!

I bought my Alero used a year ago and it broke down 2 mos. later. I would lose power when trying to accelerate and the SES and trac off light came on. I just now got it fixed a couple weeks ago and already it's messed up again! It's a 2001 GL 4 cyl. What they fixed was the head and an exhaust valve.. easy $1000.. I tried to drive out of town yesterday and it broke down again. This time I am having really high Rpm's, like it doesn't want to shift to the next gear. I press the gas pedal but it's not going anywhere really. At first, when I was going 70 and it messed up, it was like it lost all power and I had to pull over to the side of the road and the engine and trac off light cleared. So I tried it again and the same thing happened. I had to turn around and come back home, driving no more than 60 m.p.h. If I had to stop, I had a really hard time accelerating. Forget trying to go uphill. Could this be the same thing wrong? Or something else?

Have the cat converter checked out. They had problems with 01/02 models. Your symptons are the same as what happened with my daughters. We had to replace 2 converters. We are trading it for another vehicle next week.

How did you know it was the catalitic converter? We own a 2001 4 clndr. alero and had a coil cover replaced in January 2006 because it was misfiring. Then the other day, my husband was driving home from work and the SES light came on. He was having difficulty accelerating. The dealership stated that the coil was bad and replaced that as well as cleaned the fuel injectors. We picked it up Saturday and then the light came on again Monday on my husband's way home from work. I got a call this afternoon that the catalytic converter was bad. The repair Saturday was $460 and now they want $770 more to replace this. The car has 90,000 miles. It has been a great car and we bought it new. Is there a less expensive way of getting these repairs taken care of? I am concerned the dealership may just be taking us for a ride.:banghead:

fix the car up till it just about runs and then trade it in at a dealership and buy a used corolla, civic, accord or camry


the car was built from pure crap
it was oldsmobile cutting corners at every chance they could get

seriously stop wasting money on trying to fix it and drop it

take care

don't take it to the dealer. Take it to an independent shop.

I replaced the cat converter on my Cutlass and it only cost me $150 at the exhaust shop.

You don't have to use FACTORY REPLACMENT parts for everything. The exhaust cost you so much because they used bolt in parts. A shop can weld in a universal that only cost $80 and then 1 hour labor.

As for the lack of power, I would pull the top cover to the engine and check the plugs. See what your plugs look like. The 4 banger in my 1999 Grand Am was doing some weird things, and it turns out the spark plug gap was WAY off.