Front end shakes?
Answers:
Sounds like your front wheels need to be balanced.
Piece of sh*t car - Adam Sandler song.
1st, you may need an alignment. Go in an have your brakes checked and you may need to bleed the brake system, or have it bled.
2nd, the smell? Brakes usually dont smell, it may be your clutch or there may be some fluid leaking on something hot.
3rd, your check engine light is responding to something electrical in nauture. It may be anything from you air intake temp to the mass air flow meter. That would explain the car stalling upon downshift. There is an error or problem with the air flow. Does your exhaust smell like gas? If so, you are running rich which means you have to much fuel being delivered, which is caused by faulty air intake components.
You bought a lemon.
We ought to get together my back end shakes
Get your tires rotated and balanced - chances are they were not balanced good when the new tires were put on. It should only cost about $30. If you brakes get real hot then they prob. didn't put them on right and the pad is always touching your rotor. The check engine light could be anything.
i'm not an expert, but it does like it could be your wheel bearings,
my old car (Renault Clio) had the shakes constantly. it was one of the wheel bearings. my fiance had a Renault Laguna and it did the same. only this time it was much worse, and the car ended up non-driveable. we did cane it back from the south of france though.
Front tire balance usually cause shake, alignment causes tire ware and drift or pulling. some vehicles have excessive amounts of uncorrective play in front design and the use what is called a steering damper ( a cross ways shock) to eliminate the slop. This is most likely te culprit. It usually acts up at around 40mph ( triggered by hitting a small bump) and above, it causes the steering wheel to shake.( I've had them shake my watch off). The check engine light would be unrelated. Brake smell can be caused by sticking calipers or a master cylinder push rod keeping the brakes lightly applied.
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