So I got a 1996 neon for dirt cheap yesterday. The girl who owned it said she was driving it home and it suddenly stopped running and never wanted to start again. She never got it checked out cause she was about to get a new car and really didn't care about this neon anymore. This happened in 2004 so the car has been sitting for about 7 years now.

I replaced the battery and tried getting it to start.....no luck.

Got my OBDII scanner and picked up a P0340 (camshaft sensor circuit malfunction)

I replaced both the camshaft position sensor and crankshaft position sensor. Apparently they updated the plugs so i had to splice the new harnesses into the old wires.

Tried to get it to start....still no luck. Plus the P0340 code is still showing up.

I pulled the spark plugs and 2 of them were completely COVERED in oil so I cleaned them off and put them back in. While cranking, the engine doesn't sound like its really even turning over which makes me wonder if there is a problem with the timing belt.

I'm not sure what to do next. Does the oil on the spark plugs indicated that the timing belt snapped and did big damage? Why is the P0340 still showing up when I replaced both sensors? I'm leaving for college this Friday and I really only have tomorrow and early wednesday to get this thing running. Please help!!

 

Btw, the engine is a SOHC and only has 103,xxx miles on it. I read that dodge recomends chaning the timing belt every 105,000 miles so maybe the belt didn't snap?

I am getting the feeling that this is a timing belt related problem because of the free-spooling type of sound that the engine makes while I crank it. How can be sure what is going on?

 

if you think its the timing belt. on the passenger side of the engine, near the top theres a little square inspection cover that you can remove. the bolts an 8mm and inspect your timing belt right there.

 

I checked the compression today and got 0-30-90-0 psi. Then I spent the whole day removing the timing belt cover. I found that the timing belt was still intact but had come off o e of the sprockets (the furthest one towards the front of the car). What the hell is going on here?

So basically right now I don't know if there is big internal damage or not.

 

have you done a cylinder leak down test the 0 psi means there is no compresion witch could mean u need to replace the piston rings but the car should still start if tht was the problem

 

It looks like the water pump has seized and the belt has slipped off the the pump pulley. When that happens kiss your valves goodbye

 

I agree. Bent valves due to belt loosing time. Kind a car I like to buy,fix and sell.

 

How do you "fix" that without replacing the engine or re-doing the heads/valves? Seems like the costs of new parts would offset any profit you might make.

 

sometimes a valve will smack the piston hard enough to crack the piston so ya that job is worth way more than the price of the car in most cases.

 

is this a 2.0 or the 2.0 Ho??


this is a neon its shouldnt have a 0 talerance motor so you valves shouldnt be bent at all. reset the timing and see if it brings back compression. we race the neons with the 2.0 ho and blow belts at least one a year. dont normally bend valves unless something locks up on the head. either way the 2.0 heads are only like 200 bucks. **** a whole motor is only like 750 800