My wife tried to kill my Neon. Last night she starated it up and a loud screaching sound came from under the hood. She tried to turn the key off and the car still tried to keep running. My buddy was near by and helped her out. He said that it sounded like the starter was staying engaged. He had her try to turn it on and off a couple of times and it finally stopped. She got it home and when I tried to recreate the situation it wouldn't do it. Then all of a sudden while the car is running it starts doing it. I pulled the ignition fuse and it still kept on with the screaching. I tried to turn the car off and it kept trying to run. The I tried to turn it on and off and it eventually turned off. Could this be a bad starter relay? Or is it maybe in the PCM?

 

it could be pcm but i would just go with a fried starter, its kinda common.

 

OK, now I checked the starter fuse under the hood and found that it was popped. I replacedthe fuseand then used another relay that had the same numbers as the one for the starter. I popped the instantly,it didn't even have a chance to turn over once. Would you guys agree that it is the starter? I know that is going to be a pain to replace it and I want to check all the easy stuff first. Tell me what you guys think.

 

My '87 Shelby Z use to start all by itself and try and keep running when shut off, it was the starter relay in that case.

 

Would it be worth it to check my starter relay? If so where can I find it? Is it under the hood with the other relays or is it in some other crazy spot?

 

The relay and the starter itself are all in one unit....at least on the 95's. I would say its a pretty safe bet its a bad starter.Actually I think its called the solenoid, and again its right on the starter itself, not mounted on a fender like some cars.Starters go bad on neons, mine went out twice, and right now, I gotta take a large screwdriver to start my car, cause a wire broke on it...lol

 

i would suggest that the starter is grounding itself out. hence the trying to keep going. check the wires off the starter. step 2, throw another starter in there if that comes up dry.