I recently purchased (Friday) a used 2005 Neon SXT with the 2.0 Ltr motor. It only has 9600 miles on it and I am noticing a slight hesitation during acceleration. It only occurs when you are pressing the accelerator slightly, but not always. It seems to occur most when my foot is barely touching the accelerator. Fo instance, when you are in stop and go traffic and your trying to keep a constant slow speed from the car in front of you.

I hope this makes sense.

Thanks in advance.

 

I thought I had a similar problem.
But, the cable to the throttle housing was the issue. Its ever so slightly slack when the peddle is all the way up.
I found most automatics are alightly hesitent anyway.

Other minor fixes I carried out....
Replaced the "Platinum" plugs with copper. Fitted a high flow air filter, and try to use only top grade gas.

 

I'm assuming that by top grade fuel you mean high octane. In a stock engine, high octane fuel will do nothing more than take a bigger bite out of your wallet. Octane is essentially a rating of the fuel's RESISTANCE to ignition. High octane is required in turboed or high compression engines to avoid detonation (fuel exploding under compression rather than from the spark). In fact, the only performance change will be a power LOSS, although it will be so extremely small you will never notice it. In other words, use regular gas, you're just wasting money on the premium gas.

The reason automatics tend to be sluggish is because of the torque converter. The torque converter is a liquid coupling between the engine and transmission, that is designed to allow slip. At low RPM's there will not be enough resistance to move the car forwards, essentially kind of like driving with your clutch half in on a standard. By the way, this loss of power is also one of the reasons that automatics usually get lower MPG ratings. That and the fact that automatics usually have fewer gears and different ratios than manual transmissions.

By the way, slight hesitation from an automatic in stop and go traffice sure beats pushing the clutch in an out hundreds of times in an hour. Wouldn't trade my standard for the world though.

 

I wouldnt trade my manual for an auto any day either, but back to topic...i also suggest not using premium in a SXT or SE Neon b/c it isnt necessary unless you have engine mods done to it. Pretty much just look at what Timplett sayed, and as for the hessitation, there are a few things that could cause it...one of which could be your TB, or its simply the normal hessitation of an auto tranny.

 

I guess my being new led me to not mentioning the fact that the car is a 5-speed....Also, with the car only having 9600 miles on it, isn't it still covered under the manufactures warranty? And wouldn't they fix it?

 

Well i'm really glad to hear its a 5 speed! And yes, everything should still be covered under the warranty, but DCx is notorious for trying to not honor the warranty on their cars...but with enough persuasion and effort you should be able to get anything fixed that is under the warranty.

 

To be fair, pretty much everyone tries to avoid honouring their warrenties. Plus, that usually depends more on the local dealership than on the company as a whole.

 

Another thing you may want to consider for the hessiation problem is that it has nothing to do with your engine, but instead its a software issue inside the PCM intself. Many 03+ Neons (and 2nd gens in general) have this hessitation issues, and DCx has issued PCM reflashes for some of the years. I know my R/T does it, and other people who have 03 R/Ts built around the same time as me have the same problem, and DCx has a reflash for my PCM, i just havent gotten my reflash yet. Just something to consider...

And yeah your right timplet, it does sometimes depend on the dealership your at...some of them care about their customers, and some only care about making that extra buck...

 

i LOVE [sm=burnout.gif][sm=coolness.gif][sm=loveeyes.gif] my 5 speed, only thing about it that i would trade is the clutch, it sucks, i need a better one

 

Where do I find info on the flash??....And how do I approach the dealer to have it done??. And is this a warranty issue or a (That'll be $100.00) issue??