Okay, I am new here. Recently I purchased a 2001 Dodge neon SOHC for $500.00 with 142,000 on it. It does run pretty good actually on start up blows a little white smoke not bad and that goes away. Seems to be holding oil drove it 100 miles sense I got it oil hasn't moved. It could be normal white exhaust stuff too. Sealed around were you take that top part off the engine were the spark plugs go that big piece that comes off. Had no unusal stuff in there other than oil color. Doesn't overheat at all holds antifreeze.

So far only had to put on back brakes, back wheel bearings, calpiers on the back has to do with holding break fluid my husband is doing the main with im helping and we did front breaks and we did a oil change. That's it for right now.. Was told it had timing belt replaced we looked at it it doesn't look really old. But probably soon i'll just get one.

The car was brought to a car seller/performance shop on a trade in aparently the person IS A PIzza delivery guy I heard he didnt wanna look into seeing what was wrong with the car so it he traded it into the shop cheaply and they sold it cheaply as is.

The A/c Does work on this car and the sunroof works as should.
I do wanna put a nice low mile motor in it no later than october even though thr tranny works was thinking about getting one of those too while im at it do everything at once. We got a motor from a 2003 neon with 88,000 but some people say that will fit some say it will not. So what all do you think and did i Get a good deAL?

I do however really hate the standard cluster gauges. I hate not knowing how my car is on ideling. And the radio/cd deck is factory and doesn't wanna work! They told me it didn't when I got this car but I put a fuse in for the radio I wanted to see what it did. I got it to work some then it cuts out/turns off then I started tapping it it started working then went off again. So I took the fuse back out.

Engine light is on but it looks like it is something minor enough to wait til my next check codes are : p1684 and p0551 I did the thing were u turn the key on off 3 times on the car to get them. Think its battery was disconnected within last 50 starts that one will clear itsself right? And the other is a throttle position sensor?

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If you're going to put in a new tranny, see about getting a manual. They're better on gas and more reliable in our cars, as far as I've seen.

The cluster can be replaced, just buy any cluster off eBay from a 00-05 Neon and it will fit. Even the SRT-4 cluster!

As far as the 2003 motor goes, technically, it's supposed to swap over. However, due to the change in computer system between 2002 and 2003, I think a few of the sensors are in different locations, and might use different connectors. It would be a lot easier to swap a 00-02 motor into it. However, someone correct me if I'm wrong.

As far as the radio goes, just get an aftermarket head unit. The speakers in our cars are great, and it's really easy to install a head unit. Of course, if you really want a stock head unit that works, I can sell you my old one for $50, but then again it's still better to get one from Wal-Mart for the same price.