So, I am back to post about my 97 Neon...

So here is the situation in a nutshell.

* My Check Engine light has been on... a while...
* My Radiator does not turn on, but the temperature gauge definitely works (and I have had to crank my heat to drop engine temp several times in stop-and-go traffic.
* For a while, at idle my car would randomly die, often every few minutes. Sometimes you could feel it try. Between those events it'd run fine. That changed (see below)
* My car (automatic) would randomly shift hard, like it was shifting at the wrong speed
* As of last week, my car started jerking really badly on the freeway when it was going 60.
* My exhaust smells funny...

If I remove the negative from my battery for an hour, my car runs great for about 50 minutes, at which point the computer takes over and things go back to how they were.

My guess is that my radiator switch is dead, and at least one of my oxygen sensors is dead... But I thought I'd put this up for some scrutiny here first. No OBD-II reader, sadly, so I have to wing the diagnosis of this problem

 

try the key method to read the codes,
yeah check engine is prolly 02 sensor,
check your fan relay and wiring,
im guessing your kick down cable is coroded or sticky causeing it to shift eraticly,
maybe a bad timing belt or fuel pump check your fuel pressure at the rail
get a tree air freshner