My daughter has a 2000 neon with 65,000 mile, sohc automatic trans. car suddenly died yesterday and after looking at it, I was able to get it to start, but extremely rough idle and need to stand on the gas pedal to maintain even 1000 rpm. I have spark, gas and air, so im leaning towards timing, crank sensor or cam sensor.
anyone have these symptoms before and where should i start my search? this is the first dodge i have ever looked at and could use some advice.
thanks in advance.

 

Sounds like the Idle Air Control motor is dead and throttle body needs to be cleaned if you can get it to run with Gas Pedal, but dies if you let go.

 

the engine struggles to start, and then should accelerate even with a bad IAC. have to floor it just to keep it anywhere near idle. pulled the following codes-P0171, P0132, P0133, P0134.

 

O, ok.
Those are all O2 sensor code and stuff. Maybe u have a plug up exhaust/Cat convertor, if you have to Floor it to keep it at idle. Check Vacuum while running. Or if you can find a Exhaust pressure gauge, it would help.

 

If you think you have a bad/plugged up cat, just look at the cat when it's dark out after you've been driving the car. If it's glowing red, it's plugged up.

 

cant look at the cat to see if it glows because it wont start. replaced the upstream O2 sensor and fresh plugs. it starts to fire up, but then stalls. unplugged the cam sensor to see if it would start, and that made it worse. i have read the crank sensor is problematic, but not sure where to turn next. any suggestions??

 

P0171 is there because of P0132/P0133 most likely. P0132/P0133/P0134 doesn't 100% mean a bad sensor, but much more likely bad wiring. Replacing any sensor if the sensor wiring is bad will result in the same problem, obviously. The problem is most likely going to need a bit more intermediate/advanced troubleshooting like steak59 suggests.

 

wondering if i should check fuel pressure on the rail. i get a small squirt of gas when the schrader valve is depressed. will try a shot of ether to see if it will fire up as well

 

Do you have only a Simple Code reader or the more expensive OBD2 scanner?
If you suspect the Crank sensor, you can monitor the Engine RPM to be sure.
also look at TPS signal, % open and voltage.
Since it starts now, do you still have to Floor it to keep it running? or it will idle with slight throttle?

 

Unable to get it to start at all. Seems like its close, but just not catching. Have a scanner and can check other sensors if needed. Will check fuel pressure on rail today.