Hello all, I registered because I am looking for advice for a problem I have. I drive a 2005 dodge neon with 65k miles on it. Lately, the car seems to have a hard time starting. It tries to start and then stalls immediately after it started. I sit in the driveway with my foot on the gas to about 1 thousand rpm's. Sometimes I do this until the engine temp gets warm, yet it will still stall out. I figured maybe the battery was going, but the battery is testing fine. I have been starting it by putting it in first gear before I start the car and once I get it to start I just drive it. After I drive it to the end of my street, it stalls again. Once I get it going on the road for a few minutes and then come to a stop light, it idles fine and runs like normal. So the problem in a nutshell is my car won't start when it's cold unless I give it gas, and then it won't run without stalling again unless I drive down the street a couple blocks. Any advice to what the problem could be? ANY HELP is appreciated, and if you need more specifics just let me know.

 

on a side note, if I drive the car for a while then come home and park it for ten minutes, it starts right up again without gas. It seems like the first starts after sitting for a while are the ones that it struggles with.

 

anyone????

 

Did you try cleaning the throttle body

 

Scan the car with an actuall scanner see if there is and history codes...read the TPS sensor, crank sensor, cam sensor and IAC sensor...what are the readings....also why do you have to bump start ur car ?is there an electrical problem :s....pm me

 

I have not tried cleaning the throttle body. I wasn't sure where to even start since it's not a consistent problem, although it is happening more frequently. Today I drove it about 6 miles home and it was the first time that it would stall out at every light once I dropped it into neutral. Starts right back up and continues to run fine as long as I give it gas. I will take it to autozone and see if they can plug it in for me this evening and I will let you know as soon as I figure out what they say (if anything) since my check engine light has not come on yet. Not sure if that really matters or not, I'm just assuming that anything electrical that is failing would throw a check engine light at some point. Thanks for your reply, I'm glad someone out there has some sort of idea of where I should start to look.

 

and as far as bump starting, i'm not sure if that means getting the car moving in gear and just dropping the clutch to start it or what... it starts fine, I turn the key and it cranks. Lately I just have to give it some gas to keep it running once it cranks over. Sorry if I explained this in a confusing way. Like I said, sometimes once I give it gas for a second or two it will resume idle just fine. Other times, I have to start it and go before it stalls and once I get moving a bit, it seems to idle fine after I stop again. But today it did not do this, it actually stalled at about 4 different lights well after the engine temp was warmed up and everything.

 

Clean throttle body and IAC sensor