I have no idea what's wrong with my car, and I do not have the funds to take it in (Poor student! Plus the car isn't worth taking in....)

Anyways - a week ago the temp guage went. It would go to the middle, hover there, then dash down to cold and 'stick' there. This would cause the check engine light to come on. Sometimes it would flicker back to the center again, and other times it would stay down longer. However I still have heat coming out of the vents. Hot too! So my engine/coolant wasn't actually cold.

Now I don't know if this is related to the above or not...but now the damn thing barely starts. It started shaking a lot when it was in park or stopped at red lights. Like when you have air bubbles in a straw and it like 'skips' really quick. Now it's parked out back, because I'm scared to drive it. It will start up (sometimes on the first try, sometimes you have to try a little longer), but then die right away. If it does stay going, then it runs really rough and the exhuast comes out black (I can see it on the snow!) and it like sputters. You can rev the engine, but it will slow right down and if you touch the gas peddle again it will die.

I took it around the block and it died on me 5 times. It seems that when you give it gas it dies? But at the same time if it's in drive or reverse, flooring it won't give you any power. It still just crawls along at like 20kms/hour.

So I don't know what it could be, or what would be easy to check and see if that's it. As I said, the car isn't worth taking into a shop and spending 500+. It's not even worth $100! But bussing sucks...and newer vehicles are expensive too.

Blah.

 

Likeliness is high it is spark plugs, spark plug wires or ignition coil related. First step would be to inspect all those.