edit: questions in bold at bottom of post, sorry I wrote too much in here

Ah yes, a neon. Honestly wasnt my first choice of car, but I picked up a 95 neon. AC (kinda warm), cruise, no power locks/windows. But does have power steering. 200k on motor. Its just the "base" sohc motor too. Unfortunately its a 4door AND an auto, but im gonna make do. Im 20, this is my 7th car (previous was a tuned 1987 hatchback accord) and ive taken 4 years high school mechanics and 1 post secondary. Im not into the rice scene, and I dont plan on "modding" this car too much, and only doing what will be worth it to me, or pay itself off. I drive about 5000km/month so with 200 on it now, I hope its gonna last. So enough babbling about me and my car and onto the questions.

What I will do to this car is mostly interior. Ive been building and selling carputer systems casually, kinda hobby based but business comes every now and then and I make a few hundred. So its time for my 2nd system, had one in the 87 accord, but I sold it so its time for something new. Not gonna bore with details, but itll have a fairly decent heart (1.5ghz + 512 ddr) for the computer, and will sport an Audigy 4 sound card. Ive already got tons of stereo stuff I had from my last car (6.5 MB Quart components[front], 5.25 Hollywood digital components[rear] left over dynamat, Alpine subs. Amps for everything) with a 7" lilliput touchscreen fiberglass molded into a custom piece I will make for the dash where the stock stereo is. blah blah blah, I just got the car today so I havent even bought the computer yet.



What I want to mod to the car: Make it more efficient, nothing big. Home-made kinda stuff. I can fabricate pretty much anything as Im quite the handyman, and I can weld and have my own welder in my garage I rent (live in apartment with gf, no garage here)

So that means a cheap intake consisting of: custom mandrel fiberglass reinforced tubing and a K&N Filter. I already have the filter from another car I owned that I took off the short ram, sold the tube, put factory on and kept filter. Just to make it breath a little better, and give a little bit of sound to it. Exhaust, basically stock. Will change out the MOST restrictive part (probably the cat) with a straight through glasspack with an 02 sim (assuming its needed being OBD). Probably keeping the stock muffler on there too. I dont want it to be loud at all. Infact thats the only reason I bought an automatic, quiet and easy to drive, dont want the cars sound interfering with my audiophile stereo anyways. Plus who am I kidding, its a base model 4dr automatic neon, its not gonna be fast. Im building a project in ^said^ garage we'll say will be a 13 second 800lb "kart" before we even do any major engine work, like high compression nitrous on a cast iron block. Should take quite alot (I can post pics of progress later if wanted, in another thread probably).

The neon is in good shape well maintained over the last 5 years the guy has had it he has receipts for lots of the new stuff, and its a pretty solid car. 2500 canadian. *shrug* wasnt much to be found around here.


So to summarize: I want to spend a maximum of 150 dollars "tuning" this car for better efficiency. Power isnt a big deal, its the DD so I just wanna do some minor intake/exhaust work but keeping the sound somewhat stock. A little better oomph to the sound wouldnt hurt, but not loud. No louder than a stock mustang GT.

And to be honest, I signed up for this site, and am now posting this. I have yet to do my searching so be nice. Im gonna do my work looking myself, as I like to learn about the cars I drive anyways (and im a fairly "big" member of www.3geez.com where I learned about my last car)


So the questions I have are: 1) Are the door panels as easy to take off as they look? Or is there something hard to get at? Clips that break? 2) Is the dash top easy to take off aswell? Looks like its all 1 piece. Im doing this to change the speakers. Putting my x-over'd tweeter in a panel in the dash top, and the 6.5 cone in the door.
**3** I do not have power locks, but if I were to purchase stock locking mechanisms/solenoids/pushrods whatever off another 95-99 neon, would I be able to get them into the door? I dont need a button on the inside of the car, I just want to wire up a command start alarm system. Just for the front 2 doors is all I need, just for convenience with the 12V pulse from an alarm when you hit disarm would be nice if the doors would unlock too.
hmmm 4) The AC may need a re-charge, I dont remember when the freon was changed out for the new stuff, but do I need to convert my ac system or can I just simply get it re-charged?

I think thats all, any help is appreciated. Ill be a good noob

 

1)Door panels are easy to take off
2)Just push up on the dash and it will pop off
3)if you have a junkyard in your area, look in there for all the parts needed.
4)just get it recharged, you have the new system in there already

Congrats on the car and hope you enjoy it. If you want just a little bit more power out of it, look for a stock DOHC muffler and swap it on and fab up your onw CAI. The cat isn't very restrictive as you think it is, so leave it on.

 

Cool thanks for the info. Is the stock exhaust on the base and sport models the same diameter? 1 3/4 - 2" probably. Is the muffler the most restrictive then? Hows the sound?

edit: And coming from a honda enthusiast forum ive been getting all the "bad things" come up when I asked whether or not to buy the neon. How are they reliably would you say? Ive heard bad things about head gaskets and auto transmissions, was it just domestic hate or are they kinda flaky? Should I do a tranny oil change now to be safe? Also, theres 65000km since last timing belt (receipt for it) from 3 years ago, so I check that out soon too? Hondas say they are good for 100000km, hows dodge?

 

The SOHC muffler is pretty restrictive. The DOHC muffler flows well from the factory. The stock piping on both the SOHC and DOHC is 2.25".

The auto tranny is considered "bulletproof" if taken care of correctly. Read the 1st gen FAQ's for more info on the fluid. The Timing belt, tensioner pulley, and water pump should be changed every 100,000 miles. The HG's were a problem on the 95-98's and some 99's but if you have an MLS HG on there, you should be safe.

 

my Neon has 239,000 and the only problem i've had with it was the headgasket that went at 150,000 miles... plus when things do go wrong...in my opinion its normally pretty easy to fix...

 

on the o2 sensor note, as ive heard, the 2nd o2 sensor can stay or go, my 95 i have no cat, the o2 sensor is in the pipe, runs good

 

the power windows might be a little tricky to get woking...it will all swap in the doors, but the wiring might be a problem....first thing to do is find out if you have the wires alredy in the car....if you do, then its just plug and play......if you dont and you wanna do it right then you will have to get a whole interior wire harness

 

Cool guys. Hows this sound: Leaving factory exhaust completely as is, except swap in the DOHC muffler. Done.
Intake: Looks pretty crowded in there, but I should be able to get a 2.5" diameter tube between the trans and firewall with a filter there.

Im not sure about the door panel wiring, havent pulled them off yet. I know with hondas they put everything in there assuming it was fully loaded. Then subtracting the options later, so the wiring is there. Hopefully dodge does the same

hehe, locks and "working". ahaha just picking on ya
Cool, it doesnt slip or shift rough right now, Ill probably do all the fluids. Ill put about 150 into the car giving it new wipers, exhaust, intake, plugs (maybe wires, though they look good). And it doesnt seem like an aftermarket ignition coil is an option with it being electronically controlled. But ill look into that a little more later. The water pump doesnt appear to be on the bill that the timing belt was on, is there a way to check it? Like cooling system pressure or anything to make sure its still got some blades left on it to move the coolant around.

This seems like a pretty good site so far!

 

If the water pump was not changed go buy one, better safe then sorry. There are a few aftermarket coil packs for the Neon, do a search and you can get some links. For the custom intake it's better to go in front of the battery (or relocate the battery) so it's getting cooler air from the lower area in the front section of your car. BTW the coil packs are the same for the 95-2005 Neons, PT Cruisers, and SRT-4's.

 

About the water pump....... It's not that the pump loses it's blades, it's the fact that the bearing goes and can cause problems for your timing belt and possibly head.