My girlfriend's car, a 99olds alero, essentially broke down on the side of the road yesterday. I wasn't with her, and haven't seen the shaking, but she said the whole car started shaking really badly when she pressed the gas. It wouldn't go over 40 or so, thenit started shaking without the gas even being pressed. It was towed to a transmission shop and they say it's not the transmission, it's something with the engine, but they don't have the equipment to be sure. I know there's a lot of mechanics and engineers that read the forums, so help me out guys. Whats it sound like?

 

It sounds like a dead miss in one or more cylinders.Either igntion or injector related would be my guess.A blown head gasket can allow coolant into the combustion chamber and kill the fire in that cylinder.It could be something more severe such as a broken piston that has mashed the gap shut on a sparkplug but this isn't likely.
Take the car somewhere that can pull any codes and go from there.

 

Thanks for the reply Chopper, what would you say is the propability that it's something major? Is it pretty safe to say that it's gonna be expensive? Would those things be a cause torequire a new engine? Thanks again.

 

Hmmm, your car probably needed oil. When was the last time she check the oil level? No oil in the car well make your car only run about 40 to 50 mph, then cut off on you when you drive it to long.

 

Harmonic balancers tend to go out alot in GM cars, check that too.

Ryan

 

She just got an oil change in the last week or 2, so if it's a problem w/ oil it's gonna fall on the oil change place she took it too. I'll keep the harmonic balancer in mind though. Thanks guys.