UK Neon 2003 electrical problem
Thread Starter
Joined: Mar 2006
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UK Neon 2003 electrical problem
Hi All
I have a 2003 Neon that I acquired second hand 5 months ago, it has just gone over 3 years old by a month and a half. Typically just as the warranty runs out. The problem I have is that on Saturday the car 'cut out', what I mean is a total electrical failure while driving so that all the dashboard lights, radio, engine go off & then 2 seconds later it comes back on again & the engine restarts as if it is a rolling start. I thought nothing of it until it did it again the next day, but this time the power failed for about 5 seconds & after it all came back on I noticed the CD player was asking for it's code to be input as if the battery had been disconnected.
Anyway it has done this on varying scales of seriousness until today, when it happened 30 times in an hour and I just about made it home. The battery is now dead & it won't start at all. There was enough juice to check the fault code with the ignition switch thing, it displayed P1684 & the engine light flashed 10 times without a pause. I have found that the P1684 code means that the battery has been disconnected within the last 50 starts. So that didn't help much, but I cannot find what the 10 flashes of the engine light mean.
I have tried searching the forum, but nothing like this came up with the search parameters I ran, any help would be appreciated. The only thing I will say is that this is a UK spec Neon under the Chrysler badge, so it is a Right hooker, when pointing me to fuse boxes & things they might be on the opposite side
)
I have checked that the battery terminals are tight & clean, the engine is spotless tbh. I did notice recently that my boot light has not been working intermittently, I have only thought of this while writing this thread, so there may be a short circuit draining the battery, I will check in the morning, until then, any other pointers would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance for your help
More details, it is a Neon LX 2.0l Manufacturerd Dec 02 -Jan 03 I beleive.
I have a 2003 Neon that I acquired second hand 5 months ago, it has just gone over 3 years old by a month and a half. Typically just as the warranty runs out. The problem I have is that on Saturday the car 'cut out', what I mean is a total electrical failure while driving so that all the dashboard lights, radio, engine go off & then 2 seconds later it comes back on again & the engine restarts as if it is a rolling start. I thought nothing of it until it did it again the next day, but this time the power failed for about 5 seconds & after it all came back on I noticed the CD player was asking for it's code to be input as if the battery had been disconnected.
Anyway it has done this on varying scales of seriousness until today, when it happened 30 times in an hour and I just about made it home. The battery is now dead & it won't start at all. There was enough juice to check the fault code with the ignition switch thing, it displayed P1684 & the engine light flashed 10 times without a pause. I have found that the P1684 code means that the battery has been disconnected within the last 50 starts. So that didn't help much, but I cannot find what the 10 flashes of the engine light mean.
I have tried searching the forum, but nothing like this came up with the search parameters I ran, any help would be appreciated. The only thing I will say is that this is a UK spec Neon under the Chrysler badge, so it is a Right hooker, when pointing me to fuse boxes & things they might be on the opposite side
)I have checked that the battery terminals are tight & clean, the engine is spotless tbh. I did notice recently that my boot light has not been working intermittently, I have only thought of this while writing this thread, so there may be a short circuit draining the battery, I will check in the morning, until then, any other pointers would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance for your help
More details, it is a Neon LX 2.0l Manufacturerd Dec 02 -Jan 03 I beleive.
Grand Champion
Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 6,258
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From: Charleston, SC
RE: UK Neon 2003 electrical problem
Well the only times I've ever heard of total electrical failure has been in Fords, and one time was in an Expedition when the alkternator went bad...the second time was in a Taurus when the terminals and connetors in his battery were defective somehow and they would just cut power to the ar and his car would totally shut off...(it happened to him on the highway once when i was in the car and it was scary as hell!!)
So i dont know if that helps any, what you really need is for someone who actally knows what they're talking about to post an idea on the problem...lol.
So i dont know if that helps any, what you really need is for someone who actally knows what they're talking about to post an idea on the problem...lol.
Record Breaker
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 2,062
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From: Kansas City Metro: Shawnee, Kansas
RE: UK Neon 2003 electrical problem
Alternator is going out on you. When your driving do gauges jump randomly and does **** fliker on and off?
If so then your alternator is going bad.
If so then your alternator is going bad.
Thread Starter
Joined: Mar 2006
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From:
RE: UK Neon 2003 electrical problem
ORIGINAL: highline95jl
Alternator is going out on you. When your driving do gauges jump randomly and does **** fliker on and off?
If so then your alternator is going bad.
Alternator is going out on you. When your driving do gauges jump randomly and does **** fliker on and off?
If so then your alternator is going bad.
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 2
Likes: 0
RE: UK Neon 2003 electrical problem
ORIGINAL: UKneonowner
Hi All
I have a 2003 Neon that I acquired second hand 5 months ago, it has just gone over 3 years old by a month and a half. Typically just as the warranty runs out. The problem I have is that on Saturday the car 'cut out', what I mean is a total electrical failure while driving so that all the dashboard lights, radio, engine go off & then 2 seconds later it comes back on again & the engine restarts as if it is a rolling start. I thought nothing of it until it did it again the next day, but this time the power failed for about 5 seconds & after it all came back on I noticed the CD player was asking for it's code to be input as if the battery had been disconnected.
Anyway it has done this on varying scales of seriousness until today, when it happened 30 times in an hour and I just about made it home. The battery is now dead & it won't start at all. There was enough juice to check the fault code with the ignition switch thing, it displayed P1684 & the engine light flashed 10 times without a pause. I have found that the P1684 code means that the battery has been disconnected within the last 50 starts. So that didn't help much, but I cannot find what the 10 flashes of the engine light mean.
I have tried searching the forum, but nothing like this came up with the search parameters I ran, any help would be appreciated. The only thing I will say is that this is a UK spec Neon under the Chrysler badge, so it is a Right hooker, when pointing me to fuse boxes & things they might be on the opposite side)
I have checked that the battery terminals are tight & clean, the engine is spotless tbh. I did notice recently that my boot light has not been working intermittently, I have only thought of this while writing this thread, so there may be a short circuit draining the battery, I will check in the morning, until then, any other pointers would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance for your help
More details, it is a Neon LX 2.0l Manufacturerd Dec 02 -Jan 03 I beleive.
Hi All
I have a 2003 Neon that I acquired second hand 5 months ago, it has just gone over 3 years old by a month and a half. Typically just as the warranty runs out. The problem I have is that on Saturday the car 'cut out', what I mean is a total electrical failure while driving so that all the dashboard lights, radio, engine go off & then 2 seconds later it comes back on again & the engine restarts as if it is a rolling start. I thought nothing of it until it did it again the next day, but this time the power failed for about 5 seconds & after it all came back on I noticed the CD player was asking for it's code to be input as if the battery had been disconnected.
Anyway it has done this on varying scales of seriousness until today, when it happened 30 times in an hour and I just about made it home. The battery is now dead & it won't start at all. There was enough juice to check the fault code with the ignition switch thing, it displayed P1684 & the engine light flashed 10 times without a pause. I have found that the P1684 code means that the battery has been disconnected within the last 50 starts. So that didn't help much, but I cannot find what the 10 flashes of the engine light mean.
I have tried searching the forum, but nothing like this came up with the search parameters I ran, any help would be appreciated. The only thing I will say is that this is a UK spec Neon under the Chrysler badge, so it is a Right hooker, when pointing me to fuse boxes & things they might be on the opposite side
)I have checked that the battery terminals are tight & clean, the engine is spotless tbh. I did notice recently that my boot light has not been working intermittently, I have only thought of this while writing this thread, so there may be a short circuit draining the battery, I will check in the morning, until then, any other pointers would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance for your help
More details, it is a Neon LX 2.0l Manufacturerd Dec 02 -Jan 03 I beleive.
Did you ever get to the bottom of this problem? My wife's neon does the same thing. She's terrified of driving it after the car cutting out on her with our son in the car on the expressway. Now I am going to sell this car and get something else for her, but I want to get to the bottom of this problem first. I have heard that it can be caused by faulty ground wires. Not just the negative battery cable. My cables are all good and I have had it in the shop 2 times but they technicians could never duplicate the problem so I was stuck with it. I am going to fashion a ground wire kit that will go from the radiator mound, intake manifold, strut towers, and finally to the battery. If this is a ghost groundwire short that should take care of it, but I have no way of being sure because the problem is not nearly as frequent as yours. this occurs maybe once a week or so. Any insight would be helpful
Rookie
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 78
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From: Pensacola, Fl
RE: UK Neon 2003 electrical problem
I posted something just a few days ago asking the exact same question. I took it to the dealer and they called me back saying it was the battery cables had a short in them. I too thought it was the alternator but the alternator was fine. An $85 dollar part and an overly large amout of labor charge of $390 and it was fixed. I was mad that is cost so much b/c I could have just bought the part and changed out the wiring for the battery myself. But thats how mine situation turned out.
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Veteran
Joined: May 2006
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From:
RE: UK Neon 2003 electrical problem
I had a problem a couple of times after purchasing my neon(3rd owner). when i start my car, aometimes the starter will hang for a second or two after letting go of the key, so it sounds like im holding the key in the start position. and the times it has done that the radio will not come on or work the signals will not work and i have no tail lights or brake lights, everything else works though, so it cant be driven with out the 
radio, i mean tail lights and signals.
but it only has happened a few times, i just shut off the car and restarted it and it worked fine each time i tried restarting. but its only happened like 3 times.
radio, i mean tail lights and signals. but it only has happened a few times, i just shut off the car and restarted it and it worked fine each time i tried restarting. but its only happened like 3 times.
Thread Starter
Joined: Mar 2006
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From:
RE: UK Neon 2003 electrical problem
Hi All
Sorry I haven't been back in a while, I haven't been on line for a while what with other things going on so I have just managed to catch up with a load of messages & saw this one sitting in my in-box.
Luckily I had a warranty on the vehicle from the dealer that sold it to me, so I booked the car in to their preferred repairer (not a main dodge/chrysler dealer obviously due to the high labour charges). They said that they took the car up and down the local motorway (freeway in US talk) ). But said that they could not get the fault to occur. This was very odd to me since it happened every time I went out in the vehicle at least 3 times per journey, no matter what speed you were going.
I had the car returned to me & the damn thing has been fine ever since. I asked did they actually do anything to the vehicle at all, in reply they said that they tightened up all of the ground points & alternator connections & battery connections, but that none of them seemed that loose in the first place.
It seems therefore that the cure in this case was a bad or loose connection in the wiring. But because they did it before they took it on a test drive (using half a tank of fuel I might add) they put it down as No Fault Found. That was about 3 months ago now & like I said, the problem has not re-occurred once since they had it).
I hope this helps the rest of you, thanks for all of you that replied & sorry if I seemed ungrateful that I did not reply sooner. It is very much appreciated that a newcomer to the forum was helped so quickly.
Sorry I haven't been back in a while, I haven't been on line for a while what with other things going on so I have just managed to catch up with a load of messages & saw this one sitting in my in-box.
Luckily I had a warranty on the vehicle from the dealer that sold it to me, so I booked the car in to their preferred repairer (not a main dodge/chrysler dealer obviously due to the high labour charges). They said that they took the car up and down the local motorway (freeway in US talk
) ). But said that they could not get the fault to occur. This was very odd to me since it happened every time I went out in the vehicle at least 3 times per journey, no matter what speed you were going.I had the car returned to me & the damn thing has been fine ever since. I asked did they actually do anything to the vehicle at all, in reply they said that they tightened up all of the ground points & alternator connections & battery connections, but that none of them seemed that loose in the first place.
It seems therefore that the cure in this case was a bad or loose connection in the wiring. But because they did it before they took it on a test drive (using half a tank of fuel I might add) they put it down as No Fault Found. That was about 3 months ago now & like I said, the problem has not re-occurred once since they had it).
I hope this helps the rest of you, thanks for all of you that replied & sorry if I seemed ungrateful that I did not reply sooner. It is very much appreciated that a newcomer to the forum was helped so quickly.
