All - While driving my 98 neon I have experienced, on occasion, a total loss of electrical power; all of the gauges die and there appears to be no spark to the plugs. The problem remains for only a few seconds as the power soon returns. The most recent time this happened the car refused to start after sitting two hours in a parking lot. I was thinking fuel pump or pump relay pr possibly ignition system. Since I did not have my tool box in the trunk I was unable to confirm/deny any of these issues. However when I returned five hours later with my truck and trailer the car started right up. Took it to the mechanic had he was unable to replicate the issue. Any thoughts on potential sources of the problem?

Thanks in advance.

 

Check all the wiring and connectors to all the sensors - especially the cam sensor, crank sensor, vss, and O2 sensors. The older the wiring gets, the more likely this is the problem.

If any of these wires are chaffed, cracked, or has bare spots -or- if the connectors are broken, cracked, filthy, loose, then it can cause the problems you report.

A short can cause the Fuel Relay and/or Auto shutdown relay to shut down and act exactly as you state.

If you don't find anything there, then begin looking at your grounding straps and grounding points. Rust and time can cause them to lose connection and create the same effect.

 

Thanks for the response. I will dig into the sensor connections this weekend. I had totally forgotten about the automatic shutdown relay and needed to look it up in the manual. The mechanic had cleaned the grounding points but was unable to replicate the issue.


Again, thanks.