2004 Aveo Misfiring, slipping, not shifting.....help!

[JohnnyAveo]

As the title says my Aveo with 160K +/- miles is acting up. It feels like its misfiring and/or slipping the tranny. It also feeling like its not shifting into 3rd and/or OD. Its an automatic btw. I have owned this car since it was new so I know all its history. I have never once changed the spark plugs. So assuming this might just be a simple need to change the plugs, I garaged it the other day and took out one of the plugs. The plug and the well where drenched in oil. Doing a little research it became obvious that I need a new valve cover gasket in addition to new plugs and wires. I have bought all three of these but have yet to install them. What is confusing me it feeling like the tranny is slipping and not shifting into 3rd or OD. I'm assuming maybe with a bad cylinder (or 2) not firing maybe its not producing enough pressure for the tranny to shift? I don't know. Anyway I thought I would post here describing my issue to see if any of you Aveo gurus might be able to wrap your brain around this better then I. Here is a short video I just took tonight of the car. Thanks in advance for any thought, suggestions or ideas as what to do next.

https://youtu.be/cL3tQAkfzzQ

[Daox]

Definitely start with the plug change and valve cover gasket. If that doesn't do it let us know.

[JohnnyAveo]

Well I have good news. I changed out the plugs and installed the new valve cover gasket and plug wires today. These repairs solved the misfire issues as well as the shifting issues. However the check engine light was still on. I did notice the engine oil level was low so I got a couple quarts and that solved the check engine light. I didn't realize how low it got, the oil was changed not long ago. I guess the bad valve cover gasket can be the cause of that too. The rockers have been clicking the last few weeks and now with proper oil levels that issue went away too.

The bad news is I accidentally snapped off one of the valve cover bolts! I really didn't put a lot of tension on it either. I tightened down the bolts evenly and this was the last bold and the last turn.... so I wasn't about to take the cover back off seeing as I don't have another to replace it anyway. I had some silicone and just put some on the underside of the flange head bolt and shoved it in the hole. Thankfully the bolt is one of the 2 inner bolts so it wont effect much either way. I will start to source a new bolt and replace the broke one when I find a replacement. Hopefully there is some meat sticking up out of the head for me to clamp on to. Might also be time to buy a torque wrench.

[xintersecty]

Buy a torque wrench. So far I have two expensive repairs for not using one. Harbor freight has a some decent cheap ones that are not bad. I also got one at autozone that was reasonable priced. I seriously never put anything back together without using it.

[JohnnyAveo]

Buy a torque wrench. So far I have two expensive repairs for not using one. Harbor freight has a some decent cheap ones that are not bad. I also got one at autozone that was reasonable priced. I seriously never put anything back together without using it.

I was at the hardware store today and almost purchased one. I'm heading into Harbor Freight tomorrow for an unrelated purchase. I will check out what they have.