97 2.0 sohc dies after its warm then restarts once it cools.

This is the place to ask questions about your engine components like cams, valves, pistons? just anything that is generally "engine" specific.
08kgraves
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97 2.0 sohc dies after its warm then restarts once it cools.

Post by 08kgraves » Thu Dec 15, 2011 4:12 pm

Ok people help me out, I'm out of ideas on this pos neon. What its doing is running and once it warms up it shuts off and won't start back up. Once it cools down it starts back up every time. It has good fuel pressure, the fuel pump relay is good, the automatic shut down relay is good. Pump still runs even when it won't start, so pump is good. It has new plugs, new wires, new coil, new crank sensor, new cam sensor, newer oil pressure sending unit. This thing is stumping me from hell any ideas? Serious ideas not just junk it like alot of my friends would say lol. the motor is out of a 96 had same mileage on it. put a new timing belt and idler pully on before it went in my car as well. new radiator new brakes, to much money lol

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Post by 08kgraves » Thu Dec 15, 2011 4:19 pm

i have a pcm out of a 96 that the motor came out of. can i use it to verify that mine is bad? its for a manual though and my car is an automatic

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Post by chipdogg » Thu Dec 15, 2011 6:42 pm

When you are trying to start it when it won't start, does it have spark?
'97 black ACR coupe- #3 - Scrappy
'96 black coupe- #4
'97 magenta coupe- #10 - 13.379 @ 101.07 mph
'04 SXT mtx - #45 - GF's DD
'96 ACR
'95 Astro Van
'11 Chevy Express
'02 atx - #48
'98 Intense Blue R/T - #49
'04 SRT-4 - #50
'99 Intense Blue R/T - #51

52 and counting, when will it stop?

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Post by 08kgraves » Thu Dec 15, 2011 6:51 pm

Not sure, someone else just asked me the same thing so I think ill have to go out pet of run till it dies then check spark

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Post by 08kgraves » Thu Dec 15, 2011 9:25 pm

ok, so i checked and verdict is that after it dies on me it has no spark. was checking it by myself with a screwdriver coming out of the wire and laying on metal. i had to be in the car cranking the engine but as i looked through the window i seen no arking or anything. so im assuming no spark.

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Post by chipdogg » Thu Dec 15, 2011 9:51 pm

Where'd you get the new crank sensor?

Try starting it with the cam sensor unplugged. It'll start, but takes a while. Like 8-10 seconds of cranking. See if it still dies after it warms up.

This problem is almost always the crank sensor. Autozone crank sensors have been proven to not be so good.

http://forums.neons.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=386685

I've also had one go bad within 3 weeks. Put in a high mileage used one and lasted quite a while.
'97 black ACR coupe- #3 - Scrappy
'96 black coupe- #4
'97 magenta coupe- #10 - 13.379 @ 101.07 mph
'04 SXT mtx - #45 - GF's DD
'96 ACR
'95 Astro Van
'11 Chevy Express
'02 atx - #48
'98 Intense Blue R/T - #49
'04 SRT-4 - #50
'99 Intense Blue R/T - #51

52 and counting, when will it stop?

08kgraves
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Posts: 290
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Location: north central ohio

Post by 08kgraves » Thu Dec 15, 2011 11:00 pm

its a borg warner sensor for both the crank and cam. from oreiley auto parts. these ones that i bought were the better option of the two both with lifetime warranty and advertised as the oem version.

i just read that whole thread and every thing that was described in there is what my car does to a T.

the only thing is the new crank sensor came with a new plug and some wire and i did not replace that. i just put the sensor on it.

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Post by chipdogg » Thu Dec 15, 2011 11:17 pm

New sensor comes with the plug due to the fact that in 95-96, Neons had a different style plug. Instead of selling it seperately or having a different part number for 95-96 Neons to come with the pigtail, it's cheaper to just give everyone the pigtail.

As for that thread, he was pm'ing me about it and I told him several times to try another crank sensor for the hell of it. Even a used junkyard one or two. Relatively easy to change (one bolt and some cussing usually gets them out), and a very likely cause.

I've probably had 6-7 or more fail in various ways, each a bit different.

1 would stop working only when it was shitty weather (rain or snow, but if it was just cold out it was fine). If I went WOT, sometimes it would work when it didn't at cruise. So when it was acting up, I could floor it till I was 10 over speed limit, toss in neutral and coast, and repeat. Left me stranded under a bridge in ankle deep water during a thunderstorm when I finally figured out what it was.

Another worked well enough to spark on 2 cylinders occasionally, and have 2 injectors squirting. DRB-III scan tool showed it working, and it produced a nice clean square wave on scope, but was missing 2 of the peaks. Drove us nuts at school for 2 weeks till we looked closer at it.

Another would randomly do the full throttle problem in my sister's automatic '95. It'd work only above like half throttle when it acted up. Problem was, it was also above same point the trans would downshift. So we'd coast a bit, and I'd go to speed up, engine would be "off" until I hit like half throttle, then it would downshift and scream. I felt retarded doing that on busy highway for 100 miles. O'Reilly sensor was installed, failed 3 months later when my friend bought it. New autozone sensor failed again 4 months later. Used OEM sensor and it was running a year later.

But the most common is the issue you and the other guy had. Ran great when cold, as soon as it warmed up, dead. Come back 10 minutes later, fires up like nothing happened. 5 minutes later, dead. Irritating as all fuck. Had a couple do that, one on a car I sold. Dude drove it 15 miles home and it died a block from his house. He called next morning and said it fired right up and drove home. I brought down a used crank sensor, we drove it around till it died. Tossed it in, he drove it for 2 years happy as a clam that I took care of it for free.
'97 black ACR coupe- #3 - Scrappy
'96 black coupe- #4
'97 magenta coupe- #10 - 13.379 @ 101.07 mph
'04 SXT mtx - #45 - GF's DD
'96 ACR
'95 Astro Van
'11 Chevy Express
'02 atx - #48
'98 Intense Blue R/T - #49
'04 SRT-4 - #50
'99 Intense Blue R/T - #51

52 and counting, when will it stop?

08kgraves
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Posts: 290
Joined: Fri Aug 05, 2011 10:48 pm
Location: north central ohio

Post by 08kgraves » Thu Dec 15, 2011 11:38 pm

well for some time now my car would act up. usually not until it was warmed up running for a while and at a cruising speed of about 70mph. it waould drop rpm real quick and spit and sputter. the biggest time it did it was between 3000-4000 rpm's. if i was under that or could make it over that i had all the power in the world (well for a stock automatic sohc neon anyway). then one day i found out that if i turn on the rear defroster it would stop acting up for me. then lately its been getting worse to where it will start acting up whenever on me. then a while back i did plugs wires and an msd coil on it. well first the coil went bad on me and i figured it was just the sensor. so i put the new sensor or and my stock coil for time being thinking i fixed the problem. (coil #3 stopped firing all together) so i was on my way to return the coil (warranty) when the car died on me. wouldnt start back up pushed it off the road. after some running around we go back to my car and it starts back up again.

so i drive to oreileys and the only codes were random misfire, misfire cylinder #3, and open injector circuit which was a combination of the bad coil and me unplugging the injector. so my buddy clears the codes and were both like cool, the crank sensor code is gone, and i think before i put sensor in there was a code for the 1-2 ignition circuit which i was told was common with a crank sensor.

so i had it towed home and then it started back up for me again. so i got my new coil on thinking maybe my stock one was bad from bouncing around in my car possibly. to be safe started it and let it run and sure enough after 15 min roughly it dies. checked the fuel pressure and its solid at 49 until it dies then its down to like 45psi when trying to start it again. after it died i swapped out the fuel pump relay and tried restarting, did nothing. so i tries swapping out the asd relay and still nothing, so then i replaced the cam sensor, and that still did nothing new either.

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Post by 08kgraves » Sat Dec 31, 2011 2:46 am

car still doesnt run, i dont know what wrong with this junk

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Post by neon=ferrari » Thu Jan 12, 2012 5:34 pm

How many miles, sounds like it is heating up and loosing compression. When it gets warm and then dies have someone check the compression if it is low on compression you need a new motor.
1995 neon $300 + dirt track 1995 dohc 2.4 swap neon with 300+ hp abs disk brakes front and rear sway bars = ferrari

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Post by 08kgraves » Thu Jan 26, 2012 4:55 am

motor only has about 140k on it. its not the compression. it heats up and loses spark bro. things been dead in the water for over a month now, cus im not trying to lay in the snow to change wires and connector for the crank sensor. its still acting like the crank sensor though so im hoping that fixes it. need to charge the battery though because that thing is crazy dead and wont even light up the gauges barely lol

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Post by 08kgraves » Thu Jan 26, 2012 11:12 pm

well with a recharged battery it started right up again just a minute ago. so i moved it next door to my gramas so i dont have to lay in the mud to change the plug/wires for the crank sensor. hopefully that fixes it, but ill figure it out one way or another cus i miss my 37 1/2 mpg highway lol. gotta test the alternator and make sure its charging and didnt go out on me again. not sure if the dead battery was from the trying to start or the alternator going out but ill get my results and post them up.

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Post by 08kgraves » Mon Jan 30, 2012 8:58 pm

ran some tests just now. the battery was at 12.4V before starting and a fully charged battery is 12.6V i thought my alternator might have went out on me but after starting it up it ran for about 4 minutes before it died again. during that 4 minutes it stayed at 14V even with headlights on and radio on so the alternator is still working thankfully. and after it dies the battery was at 12.8V so it has just a hair of surface charge on it. just gotta put that crank sensor conector on with the new wires and see if it fixes it. if not i got a guy that is willing to look at if for free and only charge me what it costs to fix it. so thats awesome. just thought i would post what little results i had though.

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Post by 08kgraves » Wed Feb 01, 2012 5:47 am

finally got the new plug on which i thought would fix it. but no....... of course not................ now it decides its not going to start at all! fml...............

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