Newbie with a problem!!

I have a 96 Neon, Was driving the car and came to a stop and the motor died. Turns over, but won't start. I checked the fuel it is getting fuel to the fuel rail ( not the fuel pump). I am not getting spark. so I pulled the plug from the coil pack and I am not getting any juice/voltage to the coil pack. That tells me it is not the coil pack??? Now before I really get into this.:banghead: I was hoping somebody here might be able to lead me in the right direction. I am thinking the crank position sensor is bad. But would that just go out all of a sudden?? I have them go bad in other cars before, but they usually gave you a sign before they quit working.

They can and will go out on you in a second. Try checking/cleaning the connections before replacing it.

The exhaust manifold can be as hot as 1000°f when you are buzzing down the highway, and after stopping the engine, would take perhaps ten minutes to cool down to where it would no longer be able to ignite paper held against it, or oil dripping onto it. I have measured an exhaust manifold on an Omni that was 500°f with the engine slightly above an idle. That was on a hot day.
When you examine the crank position sensor & its connector, have a close look at the wiring harness that runs behind the engine. It can get heated enough to sort of glue itself together. Its hard to see. I removed the air inlet tube (from the throttle body to the air cleaner) and the air cleaner housing - in order to be able to see back there.
Our 97 Neon has 140,000 miles on it, and gets about 1500 miles to a quart. Before I replaced the rear main crankshaft seal it was leaking there, and losing a quart of oil about every 75 miles!

On my '98 i drove if for over one hour, stopped for a traffic light and it died and would not start, had it towed to my home and then tried to start it and it started and ran for maybe five minutes. She would not code with a cold engine so we started her and let her die and then coded her and it was the crank position sensor, I replaced that item and for two yers all has been OK.

Thanks guys, i will try this out. Hopefully that is all it is. I will also need to check the wiring. I will let you guys know if that is what the problem was/Is.
But anymore suggestions will be appreciated.

Well turns out that the car , was apparenttly flooded. Go figure that one out. Put the wires back on it and it started up,:screwy: has been running ever since. So hopefully that is what was wrong with it.:)

On some fuel injected cars, you can -unflood- the engine by turning the ignition key to 'start' while holding the gas pedal all the way to the flloor. Does anyone know if the Neon has this feature? We used to have to do this in below zero weather to our 83 Chev. Citation years ago; and I think Saturns have the same scheme.

On some fuel injected cars, you can -unflood- the engine by turning the ignition key to 'start' while holding the gas pedal all the way to the flloor. Does anyone know if the Neon has this feature? We used to have to do this in below zero weather to our 83 Chev. Citation years ago; and I think Saturns have the same scheme.That is kinda what we did. Didn't hold it all the way down, but it did kinda hesitate to start then vroom!!!
Hopefully this is all it was. Time will tell, been driving the past three days.

Well the car is on the brink again. It will run fine until you turn on the defrost then it dies. Let it set for a few minutes and will start and run fine for awhile. Now it is getting worse, it will run then die set a minute start it up and run little more than die again.
Does this still sound like a crankshaft position sensor ???

Sounds just like my '98 when the CPS went. Will it run long enough t get to Auto Zone for a free scan or will it key code?

A mysterious problem. Assuming your air conditioner system is working, any time you turn on the defroster the a.c. compressor is also turned on. At the same time the Idle Air Control valve is supposed to open slightly to let the engine idle at the same speed as before the a.c came on. Could the problem be a sticky idle air control valve?

Well the CPS wasn't that expensive so I am going to go ahead and replace it. If it desn't fix the problem I will take a look at the Idle control valve.

The thing is, the check engine light doesn't come on. I was told at advnace auto that the light had to be on before it would read an error code.