I apologize in advance if there is already a thread that I have overlooked that deals with this issue and if so could someone please link me to it.

I've had my car for two months now and I've driven roughly 1200 miles or so. I changed the oil around 800 miles ago. She has 120000 miles on her and she's a 2004.

The other night I started up my car and the check engine light came on. concerned, I cut the car off and used a friend's car. later that night when I returned I started her again and I felt a rough idle others have described for the minute or so. I cut off the engine figuring that I need to do a tune up for the plugs wires and coils.

Two days later I planned to drive to autozone to have the CEL code read and my car won't turn over and the CEL and Battery light are on. Is this to be expected from failing spark plugs (and or wires and coils) and should I just go ahead and order new ones or am I facing a more dire problem.

 

sounds like you have a flooded engine

 

Also the power steering icon came on a few minutes ago when I checked the dash and the steering column seems locked, is this normal with a flooded engine? I'm going to remove the fuel pump fuse crank the car for 10 seconds put it back and try it again to clear the engine. should that solve the non-starting problem?

 

depends, depends on how bad its flooded. sometimes you need to pull the bottom plugs to shoot some of the fuel out. If you havnt already, read up on the deflooding process

 

Thanks for the advice, I did the deflooding process and went to an autozone, turns out it was just the gas cap and the rough idle the second time I cranked up that night was probably because the motor was partially flooded from the first time when I shut it off after seeing the CEL. I guess I created the problem from panicking.