I have a 2000 Alero w/ 2.4 103,000 miles auto. I have been trying to fix a problem for about 3 months. It all started one night when i got stuck in my backyard in about a foot if mud. I thought i could drive it out, but when the wheels would spin and traction control would limit the rpms. after getting out the car would skip every now and then going up an incline at highway speeds in 4th gear (drive) then it would skip while idling. I could get it to run smooth if i hit the pedal and made it shift to 3rd. I drive this car daily and the problem has got worse slowly. Now its hard to crank and when it does there is a small amount of white smoke with strong gas smell while the motor spudders for about 10 secs. It will finally "clear" up and still misfire every few secs or just cut off. Gas mileage is terrible between 15-18mpg. The engine light and trac off light has only been on twice. Both times the code was for random misfire of multiple cylinders. I have put plugs, boots (wires), distributor, 2 fuel pressor regulator, seafoam, all octanes of gas, pulled injectors (looked ok a little dirty but still could be one) and I have ordered ignition control module. If anyone has any ideas what sensors or anything else it could be please let me know. Its getting hard to drive and even harder to sell. It has just started the white smoke and gas smell and i think its thats the pressure regulator, but the skipping and rough idle i have no idea. thanks in advance for any help!

Welcome to AF, could be a bad injector, a full scan looking for misfire counts will pinpoint the cylinder. Make sure the oil is not fuel contaminated also.

thanks for reply i have got a full scan done and different cylinders keep misfiring. so far at different times 1, 3 and 4 has misfired. could it be the map sensor causing this?

Possible if it leaned the engine, try cleaning it. Low fuel pressure can cause this also.

Check the fuel line for kinks under the car, also the coil pack housing could be leaking spark to ground, does it do this at all rpm? Does it do it when you just sit there and rev it, does it do it when the engine is under load, working hard at lower rpm?

i also have a 2000 2.4 alero with 103,000 miles on it. the other night my car overheated. ended up being the upper radiator hose housing(made of plastic)! since then my car is doing the exact same thing. i changed plugs and one coil pack and two boots and still the same thing. i'm gonna buy the other coil pack and try that.

changed 2 coil packs,coil housing,4 new spark plug boots,4 new spark plugs and everything runs great now except for the blown head gasket.

I just fixed my 2000 Alero this past weekend for under $1. It had been shifting semi-hard, jerking, service engine light, low trac light, dying when I went up hills and dying around turns for over 6 months. After checking the codes at Autozone, I thought I needed a new MAP sensor. When I went to install it, I noticed the vacuum hose that runs to the sensor was cracking and almost falling apart. So I decided to just replace this first and try it out.

Less than a dollar later my car runs perfect again!

I am not sure if this has anything to do with your issue but if my hose was going bad, then more than likely it is happening to everyone else too and would be worth looking at!

Maybe with all the mud and a potentially cracked hose, you sucked something in that you didn't mean to?