[sarah255]

I am having serious engine stalling issues with my Neon. It's a 1996 SOHC Expresso model. The first major issue was 2 years ago with the replacement of the fuel pump twice in 3 months. After that, the car was fine.

Recently, my engine has been stalling. (70K miles on the car) It began on a highway drive. The pressure sensors went wild, the car chugged violently and died. After 3-4 minutes it came back to life and went another 10-15 miles before pulling the same stop and start act.

Luckily a friend has a 96 Neon 4 door model and had similar problems. So we followed his suit. Changed the spark plugs (upgraded the quality) and wires. Found oil on one of the plugs as well. Replaced the cam sensor. (1996 models have a recall for this item) Replaced the spark plug valve seals and the seal around the engine. The car ran fine for about a week. Then the same engine stalling occured. The stalling can occur when accelerating, decelerating, and idling. The car only seems to want to go about 15-20 miles before pulling this stunt. Sometimes less. And the car always restarts. There also seems to be a chugging sound from the engine when the car begins stalling.

What else could it be? I rechecked the spark plugs for oil and they are looking clean. I'm fairly certain it's not a head gasket or vacum leak like my auto book suggests. And I doubt it's fuel pump related. I have heard from a mechanic that it might be an exhaust issue, fuel injector issue, or coil issue. Does this sound right?

Please help. Any ideas?