Hi, yesterday I bought a 1998 Neon Sport, seemingly, it was an excellent little car, ran awesome.(have all the paper work for mechanical work done on it - unfortunately, I didn't THOROUGHLY check it out - my bad)

I Drove it approx. 100 km parked it overnight, drove it again once today, parked it for a couple of hours and when I went to drive it again, it just wouldn't start.
There's no spark at all, the interior lights won't even switch on...at first I thought I left the head lights on and killed the battery, but the headlight switch was off.
I'm wondering if perhaps the foglights were turned on when I turned on the headlights & rear defogger (I may have hit the switch when I turned on the rear defog) & would they stay on even though they don't turn on unless the headlights are on?
My boyfriend tried to jumpstart it, but, he couldn't get at the negative post on his battery (that's a whole 'nother thread) and thought it would work if the negative were just grounded instead.
Should I just try to jumpstart it manually? Sage advice please

 

Try these steps IN ORDER!!! Try to avoid spending money untill you have to.

1)Check your battery connections, if they look coroded get some break cleaner and a wire brush and clean those suckers good, that alone could cause the car to not start.

2)Try to roll start it, if it roll starts than the starter is shot and its time for a new one. If not than you can rule the starter out.

3)How old is your coil pack, plugs, and wires? If these are bad this could definantly prevent the car from starting just as easily as a bad starter.

4)How good is you battery? When buying a car that old usually its good to check that stuff out so you dont run into a situation like this.

5)How good is your alternator, if the alternator is bad the car wont run period.

Hope this helps some, I would seriously check those connections first, that alone will keep a car dead in the water, if that doesnt work try to roll start it and get it home atleast, its hard to work on a car when its stuck in a parking lot. [sm=trust_me.gif]

 

it's pretty clean under the hood, posts are fine, no caked on crap - that's one of the first things I checked. there's been over $3000 work done on this car, all warrantied work, I have the paper work on it, but, there doesn't seem to be anything in regards to electrical stuff....I'm hoping like hell that the fog lights did stay on.
I love this car (I'm a mopar chick 'til the end), but I sure miss the simplicity of my old plymouth sundance and dodge demon.

 

Well try to roll start it and if that starts it than its your starter gone to ****. If its your battery maby take it out, charge it, and then put it back in. Id help you more but as in everything in life the best advice can only be givin if the problem is infront of you and I have school tommrow, best of luck.

 

no worries, thanks for the advice.
This is a pretty cool forum, me thinks I'll be hangin out here often

 

The factory fogs and rear defroster shouldn't stay on when the car is off.

I'd say go ahead and pull the battery and take it to a parts store where they can test it for free. Batteries only last so long. I've even had a bad battery brand new - wouldn't hold a charge for more than a day or so...

The Neon likes to have the posts and connectors extremely clean and wicked tight. Many people (myself included) have replaced the starter when all that was needed was an extra quarter turn on the connector...

Take a look in the engine bay for loose, disconnected, or frayed ground wires. I've had that happen as well...

Best of luck!

 

Hooray, got it started this morning, turned out the battery is dead *whew* was worried that I'd be spending money on an alternator or starter or some nightmarish electrical problems.

Anyway, I have another question, my neon is supposed to be a Neon Sport, but when I checked the VIN on the registration papers, the VIN says it's a High Line...I checked the chilton manual and it lists the sport and high line as two different codes, what, if any, is the difference between a sport and a high line? I'm just curious.

 

Sport just has alloy wheels really, more power window, lock, and sunroof options, essintially they are still the same car.

 

actually the sport is a 2 door, while the highline is a 4 door! and the sport always came with the DOHC, while the highline was also made with an SOHC version

 

Ummm, no...

Sports (and Expresso's) were available as coupes or sedans (so were Highlines).

For all 1997-up Sports, it was an option package for Highline cars, not an individual model like it had been for the first 2 years of production - technically, they're Highlines... The R/T's earned the "Sport" VIN code when they became available for the 1998 model year. Oddly, the ACR's in '98 are also based on the Highline chassis, since the Base/Lowline model was discontinued for that year...

For the 1998/1999 model years, only the DOHC engine was available in the Sport/Expresso, where '98 Highlines could have either the SOHC or DOHC engine.

You could have either the ATX or MTX tranny. If you had the 5-speed, it was the "Performance B" with the 3.94 final drive and the taller 0.72 5th gear, where the Highline got the 3.55 final drive 5-speed (or ATX...).

Sports/Expressos got the "confetti" style seats. They also got a tach standard (optional on the Highlines), standard fog lights (not an option for regular Highlines), painted bumpers (molded colored plastic for Highlines) and almost always had the 14" bubble alloy wheels (silver for most, white for white cars), where the Highline could only get steelies with hubcaps.

Same supersoft (relatively speaking...) suspension package with only the small front bar. Same brake options (disc/drum without ABS or disc/disc with ABS).