Recalcitrant 2005 Dodge Neon

[Erin]

Hello! My name is Erin and I’ve recently gotten into the world of DIY auto repair.

My 2005 Dodge Neon started giving me problems over the summer with loud startups (especially the first startup of the day), sputtering, hesitating, losing power and stalling out on me. So far, I’ve replaced the Fuel Filter/Pressure Regulator; the Ignition Coil Pack, spark plugs (cylinders looked clean) and wires; Crankshaft and Camshaft Position Sensors (relevant codes came up); PCV valve; TPS; MAP Sensor; Engine Coolant Temperature sensor (P0117 came up), replaced the air filter and changed the oil.

As of this morning, the car appears to have more getup and go than it’s had in months but, i am still experiencing the loud startups, some intermittent loss of power (particularly going up hills) and stalling. The car will start back up pretty quickly after stalling. The hesitation, power loss and stalling seems to happen right around the point the car is reaching operating temp. I did get another CKS code come up recently (P0355). Since I JUST replaced the CKS, how likely is it that the sensor itself is bad? In what I thought might be totally unrelated, the clips holding on my front bumper cover all broke off so, my bumper cover was dragging for a while and after I got it re-attached, I noticed my fog lights had taken on a life of their own and started to randomly turn themselves on and off. My PCM is located right behind my port-side headlamp and I was wondering if the wires that run under my bumper cover are damaged, (pretty safe guess with the fog lights)…that might be contributing to the error code coming from the CKS? I couldn’t find any info online about to what all those wires running under my bumper cover are actually connected.

I’ve also been hearing and feeling a weird vibration that hasn’t gone away with the interventions I’ve done up to this point–one of the things on my “to do list” is replacing some motor mounts where the rubber shock absorbers around the bolts have pretty much disintegrated. Just watched Eric’s video about exhaust line noises, some of which sounded a bit familiar.

I get it that the car is 10 years old and has almost 95K miles on it but, I’d really like to try to get another 20-50K miles out of it before having to put it out to pasture…any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
Erin

Topic

[college man]

It could be that some of the wiring was hurt. Try ohming out the wires for the cks
and wiggle the wiring while doing the test. Also check for any obvious damage

[Erin]

Thanks College Man!

I’ve been thinking it might be a wiring thing…I had a bear of a time getting the original sensor out (it broke off) so i would not be at all surprised if the connector and/or wiring got a little beat up.

[college man]

[quote=”Pandorrah” post=151262]Thanks College Man!

I’ve been thinking it might be a wiring thing…I had a bear of a time getting the original sensor out (it broke off) so i would not be at all surprised if the connector and/or wiring got a little beat up.[/quote]

Keep us posted on your progress. 🙂

[Daniel]

Try hitting the throttle body with some cleaner. For the best result, I would pull the throttle body and, thoroughly clean it with cleaner and a tooth brush then reinstall it with a fresh gasket.
The motor mounts may be contributing to the loud starting.
I see a lot of of”off brand” coils cause problems.

[Erin]

Thank you so much! I pulled the throttle body a while ago and it looked pretty clean, I’m going with a “do no harm” philosophy on all of this so, worth checking again.

I disconnected my battery to clear the CEL and error codes this morning before going to work and when it coded again on my way in, I key danced it when I got into the parking lot. Still getting a P0335. But I think I may have it figured out…I have two of those obnoxious little red connector lock clips sitting in my toolbox (I call them “dammits”) I know where one of them came from but, betting the other one came off the connector to the CKS…could explain a lot.

[Brandon Driskill]

Just a note on the engine mounts. The two mounts, top and bottom that are mounted in aluminum housings are just torque struts, the main mount is located in the frame. When the main middle mount fails, the torque struts fail soon afterward as they aren’t designed to hold the weight of the engine. If you replace the mounts, replace all 3. Beware the middle mount is a challenge to replace.

[Author]

Replies