In actual fact the reason I could not find the flasher was that it had been stollen right out of the van! I do have another question if I may:
1996 dodge neon.188000 km. It has an aftermarket Sony CD player that has a removable faceplate with a beeping alarm to remind one to remove the faceplate after the car has been turned off. (May be important in diagnosis)
Sat August8. My daughter (it is her car) drives to work and back. No problem
Monday. The vehicle acted like it had a dead battery, would not turn over.I jump start it with my Dakota (the Neon fires up right away). Let it idle for 10 min. Turn it off and once again it will not start. I jump it again. It fires up right away and let it idle for 1/2 hour. Turn it off and try to start it. And it will not start. I give up and go inside as it is absolutely pouring rain outside, first rain after 40 some odd days.
Tuesday. I try to start the neon again but it still acts like it has a dead battery.I pull the battery out of the Neon to put it into the Dakota to see if I can get the battery to hold a charge. My son walks up fires up the Dakota (with the neon battery in it) and it fires up right away. The battery that appeared dead 10 mins ago has lots of juice to turn the Dakota over. So I think. Not a battery problem. I put the battery back into the neon and it fires up right away! The Neon is driven 10km to town as a test drive, turned off, restarted with no apparent problems, however on the return trip at about the 1/2 way point home the battery light comes on. The car is parked and restarted fine. I then pull the codes, get a 12 (battery disconnected within 50 starts), a 46 ( Low amperage concern) and a 55 (end of codes). I am now thinking alternator?
Wednesday. My daughter goes to her work and comes home stating that there was no problem except once again after 15km the battery light comes on. I jump in the car and 8km later the dash board starts going haywire. It appears that as I increased the pressure on the gas pedal all three gauges (gas, speedo, and temp.) Lost the power and went to 0; the radio lost power and the "take face-plate with you" beeping started, along with the "fasten seatbelt light and beeping and the battery light went on. The one lighting system that did not appear to be affected was the turn signals. No matter in what stage of electrical collapse that was occurring the turn signals behaved excactly as they should. It appeared that when I took my foot off the gas and "coasted" then the gauges would, one by one, return to normal. I tested this (accelerating and coasting and playing with turns signals) numerous times and the behaviors were consistent. There does not appear to be any loss of engine power during the electrical failures so I am thinking that fuel pump etc were not affected. The car is back to behaving that it has a dead battery.
I realize that this is a long story but I did not want to leave out any detail that I thought was not important to have you wonder about it Thoughts?
Wednesday, August 12th, 2009 AT 8:24 PM
