Hey all, I have a 2005 SXT 5 speed and lately I'm having a few problems with it. First off, it takes spells (mainly when the weather is hot) where it won't start without shooting the gas to it. Then after that happens theres a 50% chance it will quit if it drops below 1000 rpm's. I've already put a cam position sensor in it, changed plugs, oil change, air filter, etc. So short of changing the non servicable fuel filter I'm stumped.

Problem 2. The car seems like it's lost a noticable bit of power. Now I have to downshift on hills I used to be able to eat in 5th now it's 4th and if there's another person in the car it's 3rd. This has been going on longer than the 1st problem so I'm not sure its directly related.

Problem 3. This has been going on since I bought the car in December. When I hit a bump in the road I get a fairly loud pop from the passenger side. My first thought was the ball joint so I had it replaced and it went away for all of 2 miles, I had to put rear wheel bearings on it so the issue with the popping was put on the back burner for awhile since it didn't seem to be affecting how the car handled, now it does seem like its affecting handling so it's time to fix that too.

Any and all help to any of the 3 problems is appreciated.

 

Forgot to add in association with problem 3, since replacing the ball joint I've started getting a vibration in the steering wheel

 

What do you mean shooting gas to it? Have you tried hooking up a fuel pressure gauge before you spend money on a fuel pump?

Usually when there is a clunk noise with a Neon the first things I would check would be The rear control arm bushings, outer tie-rods, and sway bar links.

Usually a vibration in the steering wheel indicates a bent rim, unbalanced tire, or a slipped belt. Probably unrelated to replacing the ball joint.

 

Shooting the gas to it for me is having to hold the fuel pedal about 1/4 of the way down while cranking it. No I haven't tried a pressure gauge, I don't have one but I suppose I can rent one, how much pressure should I be expecting?

I'll check into all that stuff, a friend of mine mentioned something about the lower control arm bushings wearing out and allowing the control arm to clunk against something or another under there.

Any chance the vibration would be related to bad LCA bushings if they would be the clunking problem? I know the tires are good and the rims aren't bent, the balance is also good.

 

1st problem: sounds like your car will not Idle, right? could be idle air control motor, or a clog Cat Converter/exhaust. Did you try removing the Throttle body, Idle air control motor, and clean it?
Sometimes(rarely) the problem is one of the sensor is giving bad reading and Flood the engine with fuel, hence it dies out at idle because there is not enough air. you really have to hook up a scanner and look if any sensor's reading is off the chart. It is not going to be fuel related. If you get no fuel, you car will not start no matter how you play with the gas pedal. This is not a Carburator car from the 70s.

2nd: maybe related to clog exhaust? kinda hard to tell unless you stick a back pressure gauge in it. or maybe your clutch is on it's way out. Hard to say without driving the car in person.

3nd: suspension wise, you really just have to go under the car and see what's broken. Ball joint, bushing, sway bar, tie rod end, Check them all!! Because they all Clunks the same way. if you do not know how to tell good from bad, a lot of shops or dealership give free inspection on these things upon an oil change. Just ask them to take a look while they have it on the air.
vibration on steering wheel, How fast do you have to drive? and do you have aftermarket wheels?

with so much stuff going wrong at once, Trial and Error method can get VERY expensive. Be better off just drop the car off for a day or 2, pay the dealership a hundred bucks to tell you everything is wrong with it at once.

 

I have factory wheels and the vibration is from roughly 40mph on up.

The car will idle fine, just every now and then when its hot outside i gotta give it a bit of fuel to get her started then it usually idles fine but occassionally when i gotta give it fuel it won't idle, I'd say this condition happens 15-25% of the time when it doesn't want to start and never happens when the car starts on its own.

 

sounds to me like your engine is getting flooded with fuel. The Neon engine is fairly easy to get flooded for running too rich. Sometimes it is cause by O2 sensor. you definitely want to hook up a scanner and see what's going on with all the sensor, and read the Fuel Trim data.
or the simpler route, when it doesn't want to start, pull the spark plug out, see if it is soak with gasoline.

regading vibration, try tire rotation. I don't think a balljoint replacement will have anything to do with it. Unless you hammered the wrong spot and bent something.

 

Tires have already been rotated since it started and no luck. How would I go about hooking it up to a scanner and would that show the problem even when the car is running fine?

 

You probably need to have the tires balanced. And unfortunately it's not as easy as hooking the scanner up, you need to know how to interpret the incoming data.

 

I live in a very small town in WV and short of going to a dealer I don't know where to find someone with a scanner. I'd say going to the dealer would be pricey and as a security guard I dont make a lot of money so is there anything else I can do at home? I'm a pretty good mechanic but all my experience is on fords and chevy's, this is my first dodge so I have no idea what to look for as far as common problems