'99 Neon, what am I in for?

[RoadWarrior222]

Hi folks,

Sister in Law is getting a '99 Neon, it's a "need-a-car-right-now" kinda thing, and I won't have any veto before it's hers, or know what model/trim it is. But I am probably going to have to help with any problems and issues that come up with it.

So what can I expect, and what should I look out for that will need immediate attention? Kinda suspicious when I hear she got $1700 off the asking price...

I guess HG should be good in that year. Gotta worry about the tranny if it's the A604 though... what else?

thanks in advance,

RW222

[Aries_Turbo]

its the 413/31TH.... same trans as in our cars.

the HG should be fine.

anything that goes bad should be cheap to fix/replace.

my wifes 98 neon has 147k on it and all it has needed were some struts (two diagonal ones were bad :confused: ), one wheel bearing, outer tie rod ends and one balljoint.

those are the only things ive had to replace other than wear items like brakes.

check the trans fluid and make sure its not burnt. change it every year and youll be fine for like 200k miles.

good little cars. id like a dohc 5-speed myself.

Brian

[Dodge Aries K]

I have a DOHC 5 speed and a DOHC ATX...

They're great cars to drive. Both of mine have needed very little work thus far.

[Aries_Turbo]

i find the dohc atx to be a terrible dog lol. at least my wifes is :)

Brian

[Dodge Aries K]

It's not bad at all actually. It's not FAST per say... but when you're already moving so it can go into it's 4000+ RPM power band it's pretty fun.

[Aries_Turbo]

right. :) but you have to hold it in the gear cause it wants to shift way too early. if the trans and the rev limiter was set to shift at 7500rpms it would be nicer. :)

Brian

[RoadWarrior222]

Screw the line pressure all the way in :D

[Aries_Turbo]

but that doesnt take care of the rev limit in the ecm. i wish someone would hack the 96-2002 neon ecus so we could reflash them.

Brian

[raccoon]

inspect the timing belt or find out when it was replaced last, otherwise just fix it as it breaks. neons have a bad rep for no reason at all, there so much better then any escort or caviliar/sunfire of the time.

[Aries_Turbo]

and they wipe the floor with hondas pretty easily, power and handling. especially with a set of sway bars and springs.

Brian

[Dodge Aries K]

I put a manual PCM in my ATX Neon. I was going to do the tranny swap but my wife bought me a whole Neon instead. Anyway, the car goes 100 MPH in 2nd gear at 7000 RPM. You have to put it into the 1 or 2 to use the high RPMs but woo boy does it rock. Apparently the ATX isn't supposed to rev that high though because of the torque converter.

Since she's driving said Neon, I'm going to put the auto PCM back in so the lockup will engage again.

[Aries_Turbo]

thats awesome! im going to have to try that sometime. I can just make a TPS/RPM/time based switch to lock the torque converter. :)

I dont know why they have limits based on the torque converter. lots of performance cars rev really high with autos.

maybe someone on here can offer up an explanation.

Brian

[fleckster]

thats awesome! im going to have to try that sometime. I can just make a TPS/RPM/time based switch to lock the torque converter. :)

I dont know why they have limits based on the torque converter. lots of performance cars rev really high with autos.

maybe someone on here can offer up an explanation.

Brian

With the position of the converter in the FWD layout and the fact that they never tested it at RPMs that high, they were probably worried about the Torque Converter becoming a huge granade aimed right at you!

[Turbodave]

With the position of the converter in the FWD layout and the fact that they never tested it at RPMs that high, they were probably worried about the Torque Converter becoming a huge granade aimed right at you!

Broken Stator + Nuts = Ouch????

At least on a rwd car it would just cut your legs off.

[Aries_Turbo]

hmmmmmm i like my nuts.....

i know russ J revved his 2.2 16v really high with the auto but I think he had a built converter. i wanna try it with the wifes car... maybe ill strap a big scatter shield under there to protect my nuts. :)

Brian

[Dodge Aries K]

The AF/X PCM you can get for the Neons with the auto raise the rev limiter up to I think 7600 RPM AND still make the lockup torque converter do it's thing last I heard. I never had one, but am considering one for my 99 since the wife doesn't want to drive a standard in fear of screwing it up.

[RoadWarrior222]

Hmmm still haven't seen it yet, but it left a bit of an oilslick on my driveway last night while I wasn't here... looks like it is probably leaking on the belt/passenger side.

[JDAWG]

is it a sohc or dohc? Look at the spark plug tube seals, cam seals, and vc gasket. Also the cam sensor seal is misdiagnosted as blown hg alot, but i think that is on the other side

[TurboRon25]

Hmmm still haven't seen it yet, but it left a bit of an oilslick on my driveway last night while I wasn't here... looks like it is probably leaking on the belt/passenger side.


or the oil pressure sending unit. Back of the block (firewall side) about center.

Ron

[NickKo]

Broken Stator + Nuts = Ouch????

At least on a rwd car it would just cut your legs off.

Good point, there. :lol:

Leave it to Dave to make a great understatement.

Anyways, I've always wondered about the "low" rev limit on the PL body ATX.

This explanation makes sense.
It also makes me wonder about the wisdom of trying to spin the engine higher than the factory allowed on the PL ATX cars..... without a scattershield.
It could, uhhh, really hurt.

-Nick

[RoadWarrior222]

So she's had the thing over a month and I still haven't seen it closer than 20ft away. Hasn't been trackable by it's oil spillage lately though, she says the vendor replaced a seal just before she bought it, and it was wet sprayey weather when it patterned my driveway so might have just been all the previous leakage washing off.

She keep offering to lend it to me... I dunno whether that's coz she's just being generous or it's making funny noises and she wants someone to blame/figure it out.

[inmyshadow]

There are several common oil leaks on Neons.

Those are the Cam Position sensor leak. There is a o-ring seal on the back of the sensor that leaks. You can buy that o-ring with a new cam seal for 5 bucks..

The other typical oil leak is the oil pressure sending unit. It cracks, spitting oil out the connector. My leak was so bad, the oil pressure shot my rubber band like seal 6inches down the connectors wire. The sending unit from the parts store is less then 20 bucks. My first one failed in like six months. It started tripping the oil light. Luckily I had an autometer digital oil pressure gauge installed when that happened.

When I bought my 95 Sport Sedan from a coworker over a year ago. The coworker and several of his work buddies got a good chuckle about how much oil the neon leaked. I pissed the coworker off a week later. I told him it only cost me 100 bucks to fix all the oil leaks, do a tune up, and replaced the rotted metal fuel tank. I even have enough parts to also make a cold air intake for free. He wasn't happy.

He let the car go for 100 bucks. I spent 100 in repairs. I had a free set tires/rims thanks to a turbododge friend that I helped strip a parts car for. My parts car shadow supplied the replacement power steering rack. Hell, even my shadow parts car supplied this years winter tires for the neon.

Of course, the original SOHC motor spun a rod bearing shortly afterwards. So I swapped a 2.4 motor with 31K.

Now it makes a great little beater and autocrosser. It also returns much better gas mileage then my shadow.

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2513329


So she's had the thing over a month and I still haven't seen it closer than 20ft away. Hasn't been trackable by it's oil spillage lately though, she says the vendor replaced a seal just before she bought it, and it was wet sprayey weather when it patterned my driveway so might have just been all the previous leakage washing off.

She keep offering to lend it to me... I dunno whether that's coz she's just being generous or it's making funny noises and she wants someone to blame/figure it out.

[87 charger]

I would look at replacing that water pump before to long. They tend to go bad and break the timing belt. The crank pulley is a HUGE pain to take off. Just my learning all about neons. :nod:

[Sgt Craig]

I would look at replacing that water pump before to long. They tend to go bad and break the timing belt. The crank pulley is a HUGE pain to take off. Just my learning all about neons. :nod:


With the proper puller the crank pulley isnt difficult at all to remove. Most autozones have the proper loaner to pull it off.

[ShelbyTurbo]

With the proper puller the crank pulley isnt difficult at all to remove. Most autozones have the proper loaner to pull it off.

If you ever need the proper puller, it looks like this.

http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd79/brownj255/P1250019.jpg

http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd79/brownj255/P1250018.jpg

[Sgt Craig]

If you ever need the proper puller, it looks like this.

http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd79/brownj255/P1250019.jpg

http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd79/brownj255/P1250018.jpg

Thanks.i didnt have a pic. I haven the exact same one except mine didnt come in the cool plastic case. www.toolsource.com has alot of these special tools too. I bought the puller for the crank timing gear used on the 2.0/2.4 and they have the proper installer for both the crank pulley and crank timing gear.

[ShelbyTurbo]

Mine only came in the cool box because I paid way to much for it.

I think I bought it on sale for 150 or something close, figured it was worth it to have a couple of specialty tools hanging around for a car that I actually own.

[Sgt Craig]

Mine only came in the cool box because I paid way to much for it.

I think I bought it on sale for 150 or something close, figured it was worth it to have a couple of specialty tools hanging around for a car that I actually own.

I paid $85 for mine in a cardboard box a few years ago. Now at Autozone its like $50 and comes in the cool plastic case. Not a blue point thats for sure.