What would cause a 2000 Dodge Neon to start but stops seconds afterwards?

Answer 1

Here are the details:

It will almost start every time first thing in the morning.

If I try starting it after the first time I start it within an hour or if it is during mid-day it will crank up fine and run for about 2-3 seconds, dying before I have a chance to move in reverse. Sometimes I get lucky and it starts after the 2nd-3rd time I try starting it, but more often than not after the 3rd try it will not try to start up at all. No clicking or indications except for the Red circle (check engine?).

The battery is fully charged, I did voltage checks to all fuses and found that when attempting to crank after it no longer wants to start up there is no 12v going to the solinoid. Oddly, when I took the leads off the battery and let it sit for 10-15min and attach them and quickly start, it will start up fine. However, after two weeks from today I was stuck for five hours troubleshooting in a parking lot as this method now seems to be no longer working. I knew at that time that it had to either be 1) Ignition Switch, 2) Solenoid, or 3) EMC board.

To my Horror, I realized how Frankenstein the electrical wiring really was. It looked like all the electrical cabling was made from spare loose wires bundled together with five year old electric tape..... to make matters worse I found that three unknown cables were loose hanging unconnected (reconnected them which I knew one was the brake warning indicator on the dash).

At the moment I'm leaning towards the 12v connection that goes to the solenoid, I would use the jumper method to try to bypass but I'm confused as I thought that there should only be 2 wires going to the solenoid: the main + wire from the battery and the Ignition 12v thin wire, yet I saw a 3rd wire unprofessionally soldered on top (labeled 12v fuse line). The 12v ignition wire has a break in its covering toward the connection.

I really want to just get all the wiring replaced with something that at least looks proper.