2000 Neon racing and surging.

My wife just returned from a fairly long trip last night, and the car was running fine. This morning, on startup the engine raced for about five seconds, then began revving up and down. The motor rocks a bit on each surge. When I put the car in drive or reverse, the surging seems to stop while at idle, but once I start driving it returns. I tried the 'key dance', but all I get is 'done', no other codes, no flashing lights.

Unfortunently, my regular mechanic just took his kids to Disney World for the rest of the week, so, any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

my neon (a 1998) would always do that when it went into 3rd gear. it would race but the car wouldn't go any faster. it ended up being something with the transmission, but luckily i had a warranty on it. =/

good luck.

Embarrisingly, but happily, this turned out to be a simple vaccum leak. The hose running from the master cylinder had come loose where it attaches to the engine. It sits behind a pipe when looking at it from the front, and I hadn't noticed it at first.

Thanks for the reply! :)

Disney World? LOL!