by Tubular Toby » July 23rd, 2011, 3:18 pm
Okay! So here is the story... The car is a 1996 Dodge Neon Highline
Problems with the car in the past include a bad battery wire and connection that was replaced. Also replaced the coil pack and spark plugs shortly before that. Has been running fine since then. The boyfriend and I decided to take it to Chicago, since it was much more reliable than his car. The boyfriend changed my oil and filter the day before we left. Prior to this, I also replaced broken bulbs in my dash and found that my battery light was on. I drove it for over a week like that with no problems, and my brother who owns a neon says that it was probably the sensor on my car, his car did the same thing. It was "nothing to worry about".
744 miles there and not a problem. Car ran great the entire way. We get there, park it for 5 nights, and get in it to leave. Still running great. Once we got outside of Chicago, we pulled over to eat and check the oil. The stick wasn't bone dry, but it was only half way to the minimum mark. Odd. My car always uses a little oil, so after 800+ miles, we figured it was fair to add some more oil. We got it above the minimum mark (I wanted to add more... but the boy argued with me) and continued on our way. Within about 150 miles of home, I was driving down the road at night when my car engine lost all power. The lights didn't dim, nothing happened but the engine slowed. I don't think it quit working entirely, because the brakes weren't hard to push at all. I pulled over immediately, the check engine soon light came on and my oil light came on. I turned the car off and noticed that it was running a little hot, but certainly wasn't over heated. After giving it about ten minutes, Allen checked the oil and said that was a little lower than half way to the minimum mark but still read on the stick. Well... my mom on the phone suggested checking to see if we had an oil leak. Allen said that it was slowly dripping near the oil pan, so I told him to check the plug since he had changed the oil, maybe it wasn't on all the way. He claimed that it was in properly but there was oil around it.
We tried starting the car several times and it turns over but won't start. The lights don't dim or anything, so I'm assuming it's not anything related to the battery (?). A lot of people have said that it sounds like a fuel pump problem, but I haven't been back to the car to see if I could hear it coming on when I turn the key on or not. I'm really hoping it's not a problem related to running low on oil. If it is, I'm not going to be a happy camper since I told Allen multiple times (we even had an "argument" over it) that the car needed more oil and that half way to the minimum mark was NOT "fine". The car also sounded very quiet to me when we tried starting it after it broke down. It didn't sound nearly as loud as it normally did when trying to start it.
I am really worried. We didn't hear any loud noises, no smoking, etc from the car. But if it is an irreparable problem related to low oil, it's going to take me awhile to get over it. The car isn't worth my relationship, but that won't stop me from being irritated...