service engine light

meme_s · #1 09-17-2005, 07:29 PM

i turned my car on today and it was running for about 30min or so and all out the blue my service engine light came on so now when i drive over 30 miles per hour the light is flashing but under 30 it just stay on. when i proceed to stop it feels like the engin is shaking and when i press on the gas its like really ruff start to take off can anyone help me

maxwedge · #2 09-17-2005, 08:16 PM

The check engine flashes when the pcm detects an engine miss have it scanned to pinpoint the cylinder or get it to a shop, could be a wire, plug, coil, injector. In the future might want to post year ,make, model, and engine.

meme_s · #3 09-18-2005, 06:42 AM

my car is a 2000 alero 6 cylinder with 75thousand miles

GTP Dad · #4 09-18-2005, 10:30 AM

Take the car to autozone and have it scanned. It will tell you which cylinder is misfiring. Once you find out then you can concentrate on eliminating the misfire. If you have not done so you may want to start with plugs and wires. I know that the manufacturers say that you don't need to change plugs for 100K but the wires can go bad which in turn causes the coils to go bad. Changing plugs at the same time is a wise thing to do since it will insure everything is fresh and you are getting good spark. Helps with fuel mileage too!

allmightyone · #5 11-28-2005, 12:25 AM

This sounds like my problem....

This has not been a good Thanksgiving weekend for me. I woke up Thursday morning to drive home from a friend's place, and found that my car was not running properly. It would start, but would not accelerate at any reasonable speed. Imangine taking five minutes to get up to 30mph on the road...just not great. I thought that maybe at the time I just had not warmed up the car (which I should never have to do living in Florida) beacuse it was a little "chilly" that day, maybe it just needed gas which I stopped for first thing. After going through my day (work, then to mom's, then out for drinks) the car ran fine and the "Servive Engine Soon" and "Low Trac" lights all turned off. Parked my car Thursday night and did not drive again till Friday night...when the problem came back. The lights back on and car refusing to accelerate and run properly. I thought then to check the oil and such and maybe that it was a "warm-up" problem that had suddenly came on. So Saturday daytime I warmed it up and looked under the hood for a bit to find it AGAIN behaving normal afer maybe 20-30 minutes. Then the fun happened late Saturday night when pulling into my place to sleep...lights back on and car back to not running! AAAAGGGGHHHHHH!!!!! Good thing I have a friend who knows a little about cars like how to check all fluids and such, so she got under my hood today and checked it out. Thought maybe the transmission fluid was low, which would maybe explain why it didn't accelerate. After leaving her place though the car did not get better...and found me driving back to mom's then to work today feeling like a little old grandmother with angry drivers behind me screaming. I have looked everywhere I can think of in the car, and also online for help. Unfortunately there are not even sites that will map out the engine for you of the Alero or that answer any questions. What do I do though??? My car is not able to go any sort of speed, and I have bacically been throwing away money just to go from one place to another due to how fast the gas is going from trying to rev the engine. RPM's will increase...but car moves slowly!

BNaylor · #6 11-28-2005, 01:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by allmightyone

This sounds like my problem....

This has not been a good Thanksgiving weekend for me. I woke up Thursday morning to drive home from a friend's place, and found that my car was not running properly. It would start, but would not accelerate at any reasonable speed. Imangine taking five minutes to get up to 30mph on the road...just not great. I thought that maybe at the time I just had not warmed up the car (which I should never have to do living in Florida) beacuse it was a little "chilly" that day, maybe it just needed gas which I stopped for first thing. After going through my day (work, then to mom's, then out for drinks) the car ran fine and the "Servive Engine Soon" and "Low Trac" lights all turned off. Parked my car Thursday night and did not drive again till Friday night...when the problem came back. The lights back on and car refusing to accelerate and run properly. I thought then to check the oil and such and maybe that it was a "warm-up" problem that had suddenly came on. So Saturday daytime I warmed it up and looked under the hood for a bit to find it AGAIN behaving normal afer maybe 20-30 minutes. Then the fun happened late Saturday night when pulling into my place to sleep...lights back on and car back to not running! AAAAGGGGHHHHHH!!!!! Good thing I have a friend who knows a little about cars like how to check all fluids and such, so she got under my hood today and checked it out. Thought maybe the transmission fluid was low, which would maybe explain why it didn't accelerate. After leaving her place though the car did not get better...and found me driving back to mom's then to work today feeling like a little old grandmother with angry drivers behind me screaming. I have looked everywhere I can think of in the car, and also online for help. Unfortunately there are not even sites that will map out the engine for you of the Alero or that answer any questions. What do I do though??? My car is not able to go any sort of speed, and I have bacically been throwing away money just to go from one place to another due to how fast the gas is going from trying to rev the engine. RPM's will increase...but car moves slowly!

Which engine do you have and how many miles?

If the SES light is on get it scanned for DTC error codes.

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