My friend had a 96 Neon, that has been sitting since he bought it 2 years ago. The previous owner sold it after it would not crank.
We have been trying to get it running for awhile now, and we're getting stumped. To get the car started, you've got to squirt some gas in the throttle body, and it will run for a minute then die. If you keep adding fuel,it runs good, even at higher rpms. But it idles rough and then dies, which leads us to believe it's a fuel problem of some sort.
So here's what we've done to try to get it running so far:
Changed fuel pump and filter. It's getting 50 psi at the fuel rail. (so was the old fuel pump. $188.00 for nothing!)
Cleaned the Idle Air Control motor. When we get it cranked, my friend says he can hear it trying to change the rpm, so he thinks that it is working.
Vacuum gage on the throttle body, get us about 20 inches of vacuum I think.
What should I check next?
I will pull the codes this afternoon, and get back to you.
Thanks,
Michael

 

hows the fuel thats in the tank though?

 

X2!

 

There wasn't too much in it, and it did smell pretty bad. My friend didn't want to drop and drain the tank, so we put in 5 fresh gallons.
The fuel that we are spraying into the TB, is comming from the bleed of valve on our fuel pressure gauge. We just give it a squirt or 2, into the TB. So it is the same gas from the fuel rail, going into the TB.
Good thinking though. Thanks for the feedback.
So now what's next?

 

Tell your friend to quit being lazy, drop the tank and clean it out. There is no telling what was in there and you could have clogged the new filter you all just installed.

 

The fuel rail is maintaining 50 psi, so I don't think the filter is clogged.

 

Ah, I forgot you posted that. Might still be water or the octane of the gas is off now.
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/060825.html

 

or bad injectors, what else could it be?

 

MAP sensor could be shot, Does it have a check engine light? try unhooking one injector at a time and see if it will run on 3 cylinders. If one injector shorts out it will take them all down and it'll barely run.Then check them all with an ohm meter to makesure theyre all close to the same.Its got to be something electronic with fuel delivery, my car ran on 3 year old gas, crappy but it ran.
If you got a full tank of really dark varnish smelling gas it probly wont run. We just worked with an escort that reeked like varnish, it ran, just a little rough. If you had the fuel pump out then put 5 gal of new gas in, then it should run on whats there without much problem. Go for map sensor, TPS, or injectors to start. and check for codes in the PCM by turning the key on-off-on-off-on, and watch for the check engine light to flash the codes.

 

Here are the codes that my Auto Enginuity pulled.
C325e- ?????
P0113- IntakeAir Temperature Circuit High Input
P1212-?????
U3a12- ?????

Then I pulled the codes using the key and got this.
23- Intake Air Temperature Sensor May Be Bad
Thanks for the help, keep it coming!