I'm working on a buddys car its a 2003 neon se. He said the car randomly died while driving it and it wouldn't start back up so he had it towed to my house and I checked over it. It was getting no fuel pressure what-so-ever to the fuel rail so i Just figured it needed a new fuel pump and also noticed 3 of his spark plug tubes were filled up with oil and he had 3 different kinds of plugs so I went ahead and replaced the fuel pump, regulator, spark plugs, tube seals and gasket set. everything seemed good to go but it still just cranks but will not start. It does get fuel pressure to the rail now but it's not getting spark and I had this problem with my 02 neon a while back and it was the crank sensor so he went down and purchased both crank and cam sensors just in case. I just got done replacing those two and the car still will not start. any ideas what could cause this issue?

 

Did you change the plug wires as well? If the tubes were filled with oil it's safe to assume that the wires went bad. Check the coil pack and the connector for that. Did you check the timing belt? If it died while it was running, and cranks but won't start, the timing belt might have broke. Might as well change the oil while you're at it.

 

This is very possible if the car is around, or [well] above, 100,000 miles.

 

i did suspect the coil and wires at first so i tested them and they checked out fine. to make sure i put his coil and his wires on my 02 and mine fired up just fine. the coil connector checks out good as well. i cranked the engine with thevalve cover off and the cam is turning but I might need to check the timing its the only thing else I could think of right now.

 

Cam and Crank Sensors.... PCM......ASD

The list goes on.

 

well as it turns out the new crank sensor I got turned out to be bad so i did replace it and I did manage to get it to start, but it runs horribly now. its an auto and it has little to no power. I took it around the block and seems to be extremely sluggish. it had one heck of a time just getting back up on the driveway. Think the timing could be off?

 

I would say so. I'm not that experienced with cars, but I've heard a lot of places that if the timing is off by maybe half a tooth, then it will run very roughly.

 

It can jump teeth. Have you checked voltage to the sensors?

 

I would probably make sure that nothing went wrong when you installed the fuel pump and spark plugs.

Does it idle rough or is it just a lack of power?

 

checked the sensors, fuel rail has a solid 49 psi at idle. it runs rough and it lacks power. the whole car shakes which is why i think the timing is off. i've worked on big block chevys most of my life and if your even half a tooth off on the timing they shake like crazy which is what this thing is doing.