First I will say that my car has had the check engine light on for a while because the O2 sensor has failed. (not sure if that matters)

On the way home last night I started to feel significant amounts of shaking. I was going to slow down and pull off when the check engine light started flashing. I cut the engine and got it off the road. After walking home (of course it's the one time I didn't have my cell phone with me) my brother and I drove back to check it out.
We looked under the car and at engine to see if perhaps the carburetor was obviously damaged or if the down-pipe had come disconnected or something. I turned it back on and there was no shaking and the check engine light wasn't flashing (but was still on). So I decided to drive it home keeping the RPM's under 2k. Right as i got back to my garage it started shaking again and the check engine light came back on. I popped the hood quickly and the engine didn't appear to be shaking abnormally and when I turned it off I noticed most the shaking was from the floor boards. I'm not going to drive it, and I have an appointment for the O2 sensor tomorrow that I guess I'll get it towed to. Any ideas anyone?

 

get it checked for fault codes before you do any thing it might not be the o2 sensor

 

Get it checked for codes. Autozone does it for free. Depending on how long you've been driving with a bad O2 sensor, your cataytic converter may be toast.

btw- your car doesn't have a carburetor.

 

HAHA, i meant to say cat converter.
Ok, well I took it in a couple weeks ago and got an air tube running to the intake manifold replaced, but that didn't solve the check engine light. They said the o2 sensor was gone and i'd have to have the O2 sensor replaced; that's what i'm getting done tomorrow. If the Catalytic Converter needs to be replaced how much will that run me?

 

the reason we say get it checked for codes is to eliminate guessing therefore saving time and your money,


post the codes here

 

Well i had the tow truck stop by and bring it to my mechanic. Hopefully its just heavy miss-firing because the O2 sensor went really bad. I can't wait to get a civic. (sorry about the civic comment, i just have about 1000 dollars to my name and its probably all about to go into fixing this. poor college student = civic)
Thanks guys.

 

how do you know its the o2 sensor without codes, don't you think its a good idea to post them here if you have any?? civic isn't that bad for a school kid

 

Well I don't have a Vag-Com so I don't have any codes... I KNOW the O2 Sensor is bad and i was going to get that fixed tomorrow anyway. If it went completely dead I believe (from my basic under standing of it) that it could cause some miss-firing which would explain the shaking i felt. Or it could be the catalytic converter. Or who knows maybe my down pipe came loose... i have no idea! I guess we'll wait and see.

 

all the best but I recommend a cheap code reader

 

How much/where could i get one/is it universal or just audi/german?

I think thats my best multi question ever.