Neon troubles

As a second car, we have a 1995 Neon that ws a good relaible car up to about 180,000. The engine and transmission are still tight BUT....

The car suddenly goes dead on the road with an apparent electrical problem. Igniton, dash and all accessories go dead. If one waits a few minutes it can be restarted.

The obvious things like ignition switch, fuel filters, fuel pump, fuel pump relay, battery, battery connectors, etc have all been checked. It may well be a wiring harness connection problem.

Finding it is the bugabo. Two dealers and an independant garage have tried with no luck.

Any ideas?

Doug

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Doug
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Don't you just love intermittent problems! :)

Don't know why you checked some of the items you did - i.e., don't quite know how a fuel filter will cause dash to go dead.

But get the schematics to the main bus circuits and trace it out. Check main grounding points - there's usually one main one from the battery. Trace the main power cables - look for shorts to ground (around exhaust especially) and opens (not as easy to spot visually). Check your battery connections again. From the schematics, see what fuses or circuit breakers would effect all those things at one time and do some wiggling of fuses and connectors. Got a multimeter?

Oh - and batteries can develop intermittent internal shorts, and internal opens (cracks) to one of the posts - have seen both happen - neither of those would show up in any tests - how old is the battery? If it's more than 3 years old, it is suspect. If more than 5 years old, replace it anyway - even if you don't think it's the problem - you might be surprised.

Good luck.

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

Reply to
Bill Putney

Oh - and don't waste your time on the fuses and loose connections that couldn't affect the whole bus - that's why you need schematics to narrow that process to a handful of connectors and fuses. Fuses can have cracks in the element that *look* fine but will open up at certain temperatures. Ohm it out while putting stress on the fuse.

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

Reply to
Bill Putney

Reply to
man of machines

If you have the tilt wheel, set the adjustment in the middle and see if it makes any difference.

I'd have to check, but there may be a main fuse going bad or with poor connection in the fuse box under he hood.

I'd have a look at the battery connections too, including the cables.

The other replies are also good advice.

RRB

Reply to
likearedrubberball

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