What does the blinking check engine light in my 2000 Honda Civic EX mean?

[Cait]

The check engine light has been on constantly since I bought the car, and I have been told by more than one person that it's just due to a catalytic converter sensor so I left it alone. Recently, I've started getting low on oil, probably because my miles are so high (178K) and I'm burning it, so I put oil in about once a week. Just this morning, after driving about 10 minutes, the check engine light started to blink and did so almost constantly during my remaining 15 minutes of driving. It felt like it just didn't want to go any faster. Once I got to my destination and the car was parked but still on, it felt like it was humming, or jerking or something. Once the car was off, something didn't smell right but I couldn't figure out the smell. No smoke was coming out of the back or front.
I'm worried about even driving to an Auto Zone or something similar without knowing the problem. Can anyone help??

 

[michael]

The blinking check engine light means you have a serious misfire. Low speeds are not a big problem when the light blinks, but freeway driving can melt the catalyst in the converter in as little as 12 seconds when ignition is causing the misfire. Your 11 year old converter was probably okay before the blinking, but it is questionable now.

You need to know what cylinder is causing the misfire indication, and Auto Zone can do that for you. There will be a code of P030x, where x is between 1 and 4 and is the cylinder number at fault. Replacing the spark plugs is a good place to begin (actually, you don't need to know which cylinder is involved to do that). If the plugs don't make the light stop flashing and make the car run normally, you will get into the injectors. That is more complicated.