I just purchased this '96 Neon with the DOHC 2.0L for my to get back and forth to school. I was excited about finding a DOHC for the price and he had receipts of new clutch and timing belt within the last 15K. He hadn't driven the car since it expired tags over a year ago so it smoked a bit. It had plenty of pull and I was hoping it was just burning out some seaped oil or junk in the exhaust line.

Anyhow ... after the mild blue smoke didn't go away 30 miles later I ran a dry and wet compression test. (REMEMBER ... I AM AT 5,000 FT ELEVATION!) I got a crappy 115-120psi in all 4 cylinders dry and about 150 with oil in them.

Is this common for rings to go out so early in these engines? I didn't mind replacing the head gasket ... but rebuilding the bottom end of an $800 car is just ridiculous. (No CEL though!)

 

its not usually common but it does happen when a car sits like my plymouth neon did had to replace quite a bit of parts on it because it sat but it does happen if a car sits as i found out with my car

 

why would it cost so much to replace the rings?

 

If they're leaking that bad already ... I wouldn't trust to just replace with standard sized rings. I'd want to go prolly .020" over with new pistons to makes sure I get a good seal. $250 for pistons/rings ... plus any bearings I might want to replace. Then add all the labor hours that I wuld NOT want to put into an $800 car.

 

was the engine warm?

 

I would perform a leak down test to check your valves, its possible if he replaced the timing belt, it may have broken and damaged the valves slightly, usually it takes more than 104K miles for rings to get worn out, in any engine...

 

well it depends on how often the oil has been changed and how the engine was used.But yeah a differential comp test isnt a bad idea

 

You left out the part where I said USUALLY, lol.