I have a 1998 neon DOHC 127000 miles. A 43 code popped up a week ago and the idle became very rough. The auto store hooked up the scanner and said cylinder 1 & 2 misfiring. I reset and the code came back. I reset again and drove the car very mildly. The 43 code has not come back yet. Although the 43 code has not come back, the engine still idles rougher than it ever did, with weakness in the mid-range of acceleration. This is at engine turn on. As the car warms up things seem to run closer to normal. Also at this time I am experiencing difficulty with the engine wanting to overheat. It will want to head toward the red when I have the A/C on, Highway speed or stopped seems to make no difference. To get the temp to drop I just shut down the A/C compressor. This overheating is not a constant. It cycles thru these overheat stages during a trip. Sometimes you will have to fight it to keep the temp down, other times it doesn't have the desire to overheat. I did put in a new thermostat, no effect. Also the car seems to have white smoke coming out of the exhaust at times when I idle, not all the time. And finally I did a compression check. Cylinders 2,3,4, all close to 180. Cylinder 1 is at 105. Does this look like the beginning phase of a head gasket failing? One other thing is that the car goes thru oil. About a quart a week. I never see blue or dirty smoke coming from the exaust and it never leaves oil on the ground when parked. Have no idea where the oil is going. Actually I have 2 1998 DOHC Neons and since day 1 they have both gone thru more oil than any other car I have owned. Between 3000 mile oil changes they would both need an extra quart put in prior to reaching 3000 miles. Just lateley, the neon with the recent problems has been going thru much more oil. Anyway any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

hmmm with the oil problem that sounds like like one of my Neons... it does blow white smoke out the exhaust though....

 

seems like im always answering this type of question lol, ok it could be a bad headgasket but do some testing and checking, a bad headgasket can cause you to missfire because of the antifreeze that is entering , white smoke is a sign, your oil could be in your antifreeze tank so check that out, check your oil to see if it has a milky look to it, when the A/C is on it goes from cold to warm to cold again, the smell of antifreeze coming from your exhaust, the smell of it from the head as well, I was on my way to lake erie when mine started going bad, the A/C went in and out, and even when I had the heat on full blast the gauge still didn't want to go down, I also would misfire on start, as bad as it seems it could be something else as well that could be causing your problems which I hope it is but,if it is your headgasket then try to get it fixed as soon as possible, while your at it have the head milled and valves polished as well as crack testing, a new waterpump, timing belt would be a good idea and make sure that a MLS gasket is used, kinda sounds like the starting of a bad headgasket and im sorry to say that especially since you have a dohc ( the price of parts and labor) but at least your car is giving you a heads up hope some of that was helpfull and good luck !!

 

Code 43 is a single or multiple cylinder misfire. Change your spak plugs with the stock copper Champion plugs or NGK's...stay away from platinums or split-fires. That will solve your idle problem.

 

hopefully that solves the problems which like I said before, something as stupid can cause big problems.

 

I appreciate the thoughts but have heard so much controversy about platinum tips, it's hard to tell what is true and not. All I know is that I have used the single electrode Bosch plats since they came out in the 80s, on every thing I owned. Why do so many people with Neons have problems? I have 2 98 DOHC neons at 127000 and 104000 miles. All they ever seen was the platinum tips every 15000 miles. They have done fine by me. My misfiring, overheating, loss of cylinder 1 pressure, and heavier than usual oil consumption have all started at the same time. Should I seriously be looking at sparkplug type? If that is the consensus I will have no problems giving that a shot, but I just thought something more serious was going on with the engine. Thanks.

 

yeah a lot of controversy, I said something about it before, someone wrote that the plat 2's where ok to run but not the plat 4's then I did some checking and thinking and I came to the conclusion of the temp of the spark because of the electrodes and material they are made of( hoter running sparks etc..) you said you have ran the single electrode plat so that might be the correct number ( or safter) to use with platinums or maybe the plat 2's are the limit and the next best before running into a problem, then the plat 4's could be just to many electrodes to run with platinum, who knows but, a lot of people on this forum will tell you that bosch ( which makes those plats I was talking about) makes crap products for the neon, like O2 sensors that like to go bad really fast, so basically it comes from a lot of bad experiences vs the good ones, but at least your happy with yours and they work out good so if its not broke don't fix it I guess lol hope that did solve the prob, there should be a section devoted to overheating, like the possible causes, signs and sypmtoms of bad gaskets and how to check to see. just a suggestion though, I think that would help a lot of people out who are affraid of asking.

 

Neons see no benefit from platinum plugs. The wasted-spark ignition system on Neons doesn't work well with platinum plugs, tends to erode the 'backwards' firing plugs' center electrodes, and tends to cause poor running and eventually misfiring by about 10,000 miles. You should change the plugs every 10,000 miles, so where is the benefit of spending more money? Kind of like buying Mobil 1 oil and still wanting to change your oil every 3000 miles, doesn't make sense.

 

Well I looked at a couple things. I just wish there was a definate way of telling if it is the head gasket. I drained the oil. Nothing but oil was in the oil. I drained the radiator and it seemd somewhat dirty, but no oil mixed in with it. Do I also need to empty the over flow tank and check that? I didn't do that. I am baffled by the over heating with the A/C, and that I am able to control the temp and get it back down. The cylinder 1 compression being around 100, and the recent 43 misfire codes. Do head gasket failures always result in the mixing of the fluids? It's like I have some of the indicators but not all of them. Could this be how it is at the beginning phases of a head gasket failure? This is so darn frustrating. I just wish the bad component was obvious. I thank you for all the responses. My friends garage will do the headgasket change for $600. I did the timing belt, tensioner, pulleys and water pump 28000 miles ago so i believe they are fine. I'm in that position now to decide if I should spend the $600 and pray it will fix my problem. Meaning I wish i could be certain the headgasket was really bad. Thanks.

 

A bad headgasket will result in coolant in the oil or vice-versa. The overheating could be your radiator going bad on you. When you put in coolant, do you mix with DI water or tap water? Tap water will boil off the minerals in the water and leave deposits in your radiator, clogging up the tubes.