we have a 98 SOHC 2.0 Neon, and it died on the highway the other day. It died quickly and while decelerating, if you pushed the accelerator pedal, it was like hitting the brake. The car wouldn't start at all after this happened. If you crank on it, you can tell the engine is firing and theres fuel there, but its just not even trying to start up. The motor just shakes a bunch like fuel is firing at the wrong time. Could this be a Timing Belt, if not, what else could it be. Car has 90K Miles.

 

sounds like it could be, but it could be other things too......timing belts usually go out around 100,000 miles...so your just about there..

if it is the timing belt then you might have a world of trouble....

you can check by removing the little hole plug in the top passenger side of the timing cover.....since youve been cranking the engine alredy, you can have sumone crank it over while you watch the the cam gear and belt through the little hole....
2 ways to check if its the belt........(1)check if you can see any slack in the belt, there shouldnt be any at all....(2) while cranking the engine over, see if the cam and belt move...if not then the belt is either broken, or the tensioner is fried......

 

Is your CEL on?

 

The CEL came on approx. 100 miles previous to this. I had the codes ran at Autozone, i dont have a code scanner, and it had 6 codes come up. 5 of the codes were individual cylinder misfires & multiple cylinder misfire. I changed the spark plugs and wires. The 6th code said insufficient EGR flow. I didn't resolve that issue yet.

 

You don't need a scanner...look at THIS thread to pull your codes. What plugs did you put in there?

 

I didn't do the scan, the guy at the allmighty autozone did. All i saw was him plug it in somewhere under the dash. I'll read the thread you included. I really appreciate your help by the way.

 

I know you didn't do it, but you can pull the codes you have now and see whats wrong with it.

The thing he plugged the scanner into was the OBDII port.

 

I'll check what all codes are showing tomorrow as that my car is at my friends shop 23miles from me. Im at work now so i can't do it at the moment. I'll get everything done tomorrow and get em posted as soon as possible.

 

Alright, i trailered the car home and check the codes as said to do. The following codes were shown if i followed the procedure correctly.

12 Direct battery input to PCM was disconnected within the last 50 key-on cycles
32 EGR system failure
55 End of error messages (If you get this only, no errors were found)

i will check through the top of the timing cover soon as im done here and see what i can find there.

 

i went outside and pulled the timing cover plug. good news, the timing belt is still on and in working order. Second, its now been 4 days since it died the way it did. I went ahead and cranked it over, it started right up. Smoothly actually, and it ran for about 2-4 seconds and died off. It wouldn't start back up after that.

Is it possible it is related to the EGR Valve malfunction code set. Also, i was told by a friend of mine thats service manager at buick dealership, that it could have been the Catylatic Converter shooting crap.