2001 Sunfire having a few sudden problems

[illtron]

My car is a 2001 Sunfire sedan, 2.2L, automatic. I'll try to explain the problem in as much detail as possible, but I have to start off by saying that I don't know jack about anything under the hood.

Yesterday morning, when I started my car up in the morning before work, it was being shaky and then stalled before I could even get out of my parking lot. Since it was being funny, I decided to take it on a back road for a few miles before getting on the highway to go to work. After a mile or two, it was fine until I got to work, and then was fine again when I left for a while at lunch time. On the way home, the engine was shaking again and I noticed that the check engine and TRAC OFF lights were on. They sort of came and went. Sometimes the check engine light would flash, sometimes it would stay on, sometimes it would be off. The traction light was on and off at times.

I'll add that the day before, the weather was fine, but it was very humid with on and off rain all day yesterday. I was hoping that it was related to the humidity (it's been very humid for a while now, but it's always wet in the mornings).

The car acted basically the same this morning. I don't really notice that it's losing much power when I drive, but it's very obviously driving a lot rougher. I noticed today that there was a clicking noise coming from under the hood. I took a look and I could see small arcs of electricity at what I think is the distributor where the wires connect.

I *might* also be getting bad gas mileage. I filled up yesterday at lunchtime, and I'm only about 50 miles into the tank, and I did notice that the needle is starting to move. It's still hard to say at this point.

I'd say the car is idling at 750 rpm, but it jumps and drops when the engine shakes, but doesn't really go above 1,000 while idling.

Until yesterday, the car was fine. I was actually planning to schedule a tune up for this weekend, but it looks like it might end up needing more.

Can anybody give me an idea as to what the problem might be, and what it might cost to fix?