Took daughter's 96 SOCH 5spd Neon in for PA inspection today. Showed several fault codes 17 42 43 and Service Eng Soon light is on. I know 17 is the bad fuel level sender. And one of the codes is for a misfire. We changed plugs and wires last fall. Here's the deal Using a reader and disconnecting the battery wouldn't clear the codes. Not only that but the computer will not complete reading the O2 Sensors. They don't register as bad ect. the diagnostic display came up as reading incomplete. Mechanic suggested leaving the battery disconnected over night to see if codes clear. Also what is the deal with platnium plugs? Why are they death to 2.0 Neons?
Thanx for any help.

 

Might be time to change them again.

It might clear them, but come back if the problem is still there.

Because the Neon's wasted-spark ignition system doesn't work well with platinum plugs..then tend to erode the 'backwards' firing plugs' center electrodes and tend to cause the car to run poorly.

 

Besides the codes, does the car run good otherwise? The platinums seem to Fowl out quickly and cause spark issues could be due because of there temp but im not sure if that's the issue, copper ones are really the best way to go for the neon they cost less and are more reliable some say that plantinums are ok. which basically means they are talking about the plat 2's, plat 4's are horrible now that I think about it it kinda makes sense why the plat 4's are crap, I don't really know about the plat 2's but im guessing some would say that they are ok because of the diff temp

 

Thanx for the input. Car seems to run OK for 11 year old vehicle. Today I'll be checking electrical connections as Mopar has a penchant for using junk connectors. I'm going to check into the price of converting to a blade connector for the coil pack since I might have to replace it. Going to yank the PCM out and check those plugs too. I got the feeling that since the computer isn't completeing the systems check it might be on the way out.

 

If you have disconnected the battery recently, you will need to drive for about 50-100 miles for the PCM to relearn the car and get the O2 sensors ready for testing. Your PCM could be fine.

 

The O2 sensor test was showing incomplete when I took the Neon in for inspection, the battery has been connected since the CD player install last year. I'm thinking that at the misfire code the computer shuts down diagnostics because the O2 sensors would be polluted with unburnt fuel. That make sense? Anyway further ripping apart today.

 

All codes but 12 and 42 cleared. I put Autolites in place of the platinum dual electrode plugs just to be on the safe side. Neon started right up and ran smooth. I put 10 miles on it including two blasts at 70 on the four lane. No hiccups at all. Check engine lite is off for now. I might take a run to Allentown PA Saturday to put some miles on it to see what happens.

 

my 96 5-speed SOHC did the same thing, 4 monitors would not reset after 1200 miles so i pulled the pcm out of my parts car (same year and all) 27 miles later it cleared the old o2 code from the parts car and have had no trouble for the last 14000 miles. i thought it was just a fluke pcm but your makes two from the same year, don't know maybe both of ours were built on fridays

 

Update on daughter's Neon. We ran it to Allentown and back today to attend a wedding . With the drive to the reception and the rubber chicken meal we put 170 or so on it. No CEL as of yet.

This is the first time I had this car on an extended trip and I was hating it. The ride sucked there was road noise and it wanted to go into oversteer at the slightest provication. I knew there was increased road noise because of the Yokohama Avid HR4s I had put on but this was big time bad. Turns out that we were to meet one of our boys up there, he spent the weekend in Shamokin PA at an off road racing park. They were low on fire wood and asked the missus if we would bring some up. I didn't realize how much she had but when I opened the trunk it started to fall out. I don't know how much a Neon trunk full of fire wood weighs but it was bottoming out a couple of times. But now I know why it seemed sluggish in fifth. The missus will be paying for the next round of repairs : )