'97 hyundai running ragged; check engine light just came on ...

i've got a '97 accent (plain vanilla model -- no letters a la "gt" or whatever) that's been running very rough recently, bucking just like other cars of mine used to do when a distributor cap was cracked or something. then this evening, for the first time, when i started the car the "check engine" light came on. my previous car was an '88 dodge colt on which i put something like 130,000 miles, so this is my first auto with a computer, fuel injectors, etc, & hence i'm even more at a loss than usual as to what might be the problem.

i bought it used in 9/00 with about 14,000 miles on it & just passed 51,000, & while i've been lazy about changing the oil lately (it's been about 7,500 miles), surely the car isn't that sensitive.

any ideas, anyone? the problem sounds sort of comparable to another thread about a guy who paid goodyear to change both o2 sensors but was uncertain about whether all the work was needed.

 

OK lets start with getting the codes. Auto Zone will do it free and
if you want buy one of theses
http://www.davisnet.com/drive/products/drive_product.asp?pnum=8220

There are other BUT I saw this at the NY car show and it looks good.

If you would like to buy some parts start small like gas and air
filters then move onto wires - plugs then onto to O2 sensors.

Good look finding the problem.

 

Maybe this is the same thing. 1998 Elantra
Turned out to be a bad spark plug wire.
I had all replaced. Now it works pretty darn good.
I have 100,000 km on it.

First it ran rough all of a sudden. Lack of power.
Check engine would flash on and off on the highway.
When in town, the CEL would stay on constantly.

whatever) that's been running very rough recently, bucking just like other
cars of mine used to do when a distributor cap was cracked or something.
then this evening, for the first time, when i started the car the "check
engine" light came on. my previous car was an '88 dodge colt on which i put
something like 130,000 miles, so this is my first auto with a computer, fuel
injectors, etc, & hence i'm even more at a loss than usual as to what might
be the problem.

51,000, & while i've been lazy about changing the oil lately (it's been
about 7,500 miles), surely the car isn't that sensitive.

about a guy who paid goodyear to change both o2 sensors but was uncertain
about whether all the work was needed.

 

i should've thought of the sparkplug wire possibility immediately (3-plus years of trouble-free driving -- by far a personal record -- must've left me even more senile than usual), but in any event the fact that i didn't get any spark when i disconnected the 4th wire from the distributor led the guy at autozone to diagnose a bad ignition coil ... i've got one on order even as i type. we'll see. *sigh*

come to think of it, in the god knows how many hundreds of thousands of miles i've driven over the last 25 years or so, i've never experienced a bad coil. hmmm ...