I bought a new SXT in Sept. Up until now the car has been wonderful, but yesterday it started knocking something fierce, as I was leaving the gas station parking lot. The check engine light came on flashing, so I drove to Dodge immediately. They ran a check and found nothing on the computer - no codes. But the tech told me there is a possible recall coming out on the spark plugs and wires for 2004, and that I should have them replaced under warranty. So I made the appt. and he told me I was fine to drive it, the engine would knock periodically until the appt. tomorrow.

So last night, after they'd closed for the night, of course, all of the lights on my instrument panel/dash, CD player and headlights went out for about 5 seconds, the engine knocked hard a couple times and then things restored themselves. The check engine light went solid at that point.

So far they've found nothing and think it may have been a glitch. I know better. My neighbor's Ford F150 had a corroded computer panel last year, and what he experienced seems pretty similar.

Has anyone had a similar issue with the Neon?

 

Nope, I have an 04 and mine has never done that.

 

Their diagnosis was that when the sparks misfired, they caused the alternator to briefly malfunction. They did say that for now it isn't a recall officially yet, but dealers have been notified to replace the spark plugs and wires in 2004 Neons and Caravans. Some are faulty, ours happened to fall into that "some."

 

I did replace my plug wires, but I still have my stock spark plugs in there. The only symptom mine has sometimes is it bogs really bad sometimes when I start out in first gear. Such as if I'm in first and I come almost to a stop and then I step on the gas to get moving again it almost always bogs really bad there. It sometimes would hesitate.....but I haven't really noticed it doing it since I changed my wires. My bog problem could be related to how my air intake is set up.

 

I would srick with the dealer, just keep harassing them.