Dodge Neon Help (1 Viewer)

[Colin Davidson]

I am hoping that one of my fellow HTF'ers can provide some insights to a car problem I am having.

I have a 2000 Dodge Neon with auto trans. On Saturday I pulled into the driveway after running some errands and when I tried to turn off the car it just kept running. I was even able to remove the key from the ignition and the car just kept idling. I also noticed that the radio was still on and the gauges were still working. I also found that the transmission was locked in park and I could not get it into gear whether the key was in the ignition or not. I finally had to remove the positive battery connection to get the car to stop running. BTW it continued to idle for about 15 - 30 seconds after the battery was disconnected.

The car was taken to the dealership on Monday and to this day they cannot figure out what is causing the problem. They indicated that they even disconnected the ignition harness (a connection between the ignition key/switch and the engine) and the car still continues to run. They are now talking about replacing one piece at a time to see if that fixes it and this has me very nervous. I do not want to pay to have my electrical system rebuilt piece by piece.

Any help in resolving this would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Colin

 

[Chad Ellinger]

Wow, that's freaky man.

 

[Jay H]

Link Removed
I'm sorry but I remember that ad campaign...
I never knew that you could take the key out of the ignition while the engine is running on new cars.. My sister's late 80's cavalier you could but that is an old car.
By the rest of your message, it seems this fault is repeatable, that is better than having it happen on occasion. Perhaps it's a short somewhere that is bypassing the ignition control module.
Jay

 

[Kevin P]

I was going to say it was the ignition switch but if it kept running after disconnecting the harness it would rule that out. They disconnected all the harnesses from the ignition switch, right? I think there's more than one, if I recall correctly from when I installed a remote starter in my sister's Neon.

Does the car have a remote starter? If it does, perhaps that's the cause.

Otherwise, you have a short or a stuck relay somewhere. I don't know if the ignition is switched through a relay or not, but if it is and it sticks on, it can cause the circuit to stay on even when the key is shut off, removed, harness disconnected, etc. The relays are usually located under the hood somewhere, or in the fuse box area.

KJP

 

[Zen Butler]

Have you or anyone tampered with your radiator electric fan lately?

 

[Henry Carmona]

Oh man, if you can afford it, get rid of it.

My two close friends had major problems with their Neons, nothing like that tho.

 

[Leila Dougan]

I don't mean to make light of your situation because it sucks royally, I just think its kinda funny. I mean, you always here about how cars won't start and here you have the opposite problem.

Shouldn't your car be under warranty? I'm sure it'll suck to not have your car for a while but shouldn't it all be done for free?

 

[Dave Poehlman]

This doesn't have anything to do with your problem, but you've reminded me of my 1972 Dodge Coronet I had when I was in college... you didn't even need a key to start it! Just turn the ignition and away you go! That car rocked.

 

[Colin Davidson]

Thanks for the responses thus far.

Kevin P: The car does not have a remote starter.

Zen: No.

Henry: Would love to but with the problem I am afraid it would occur while the dealer is looking at it for trade-in and thus would get about half value for it.

Leila: Unfortunately it is not. 3yrs/30K is the warranty. Wife took the car to CA for 4 months while going to school at USC. Racked up a bunch of extra miles. :-{

Dave: Used to have a 56 Chevy that did the same thing. Damn friends in school would always "borrow" it during the day.

Thanks again everyone.

Colin

 

[Andrew Raubuck]

I dont think that I can be much help, but try going to Neons.org and asking your question. I have a 1998 Dodge Neon Sport Sedan that I bought new in 1998 and it now has about 97,000 miles with very little trouble. I had a head gasket go at about 40,000 and it was fixed for free. The Neon can be a great little ecomony car if it is taken care of.
But anyway, go to Neons.org and they will be able to help you out.
Good luck,
Andy

 

[Colin Davidson]

Andy,

Thanks for the link. I have posted the info over there in hopes someone will have a suggestion.

Regards,

Colin

 

[ace peterson]

That IS WEIRD!~ I always blame things on the Gremlins if you can't figure out why.

Ace

 

[Philip_G]

WTF? I'm sorry but if my mechanic is going to just replace stuff until the problem goes away, I'm looking for a new mechanic. Can no one troubleshoot anymore?!?

 

[Danny Tse]

Andrew,

Not a Neon owner, but you mentioning the head gasket problem at about 40,000 miles is kinda familiar to me since I have friends having the same problem on 3 different Neons at about the same mileage. Hummmm....

 

[Andrew Raubuck]

About the headgasket thing. The first generation neons from 1994-1998 had the problem. In 1999 (also considered 1st Gen)or half way through 1998, they went with a MLS headgasket that seem to fix the problem. Most "5 Star" dealers know about this problem and will fix it for free.

Take it easy,

Andy