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The guy did put new plugs in. I'm wondering if the car really did run after he worked on it or if maybe he got it back together and it had the miss and he was upset he couldn't figure out how to fix the miss and sold it. If he really drove it for a few weeks and then it sat the plugs or wires wouldn't have suddenly gone bad from sitting for a month would they? I have some plugs for my sisters 2000 neon I can try in my car, we didn't get them installed in her car before she got rid of it. Maybe I should go ahead and get a new set of plug wires. Should I just get some after market ones or do you need to get Mopar ones?

I had a little time to mess with it last night. The check engine light does come on with the key so it should be working. I tried to get the codes by doing the key on-off thing but I couldn't get any codes to come up. I must have been doing it wrong because it did nothing at all. The engine does idle fine so the problem seems to just be when it's under load. Hopefully that eliminates the timing belt maybe being installed wrong. From what I could tell all the injectors were clicking but I went ahead and unplugged them one at a time and each one had an effect on how the motor was running so it seems that at idle all the cyliders are getting fuel and spark.

Do these cars have a jack to plug in a code reader? A friend of mine has a reader and would check the codes that way for me since I can't get the key method to work. Although if there were any codes to read shouldn't the check engine light be on all the time?



If he put plugs in but not wires that may be the problem. The "good quality" parts store wires do OK for a couple of years or at least one plug life. The OE last longer. I would stay completly away from the "value price" parts store wires.