Mom's Neon
 

OK, the wife's Neon sounds like a f'n rattle spray can and I'm probably going to throw some rod bearings and a new camshaft in it. The rod bearings have been noisy for some time which is typical for Chrysler 4 cyls. and now there is a tappet like noise coming from the top end. It's an '02 SOHC ES with 54,000 miles and I want to know were to start and how to do it on the cheap. No exotic stuff here just the basics. It's running fine but it just drives me nuts listening to this racket.

There is the "spark knock" tick. How loud is it? Is it there whenever the car is on?

My saying is if it isn't broke don't fix it. LOL. My car is a bit noisy, but now that it isn't quite cold anymore it doesn't sound like a diesel engine anymore.

Well I did some further investigation this morning and now realize that the ticking or tappet like noise seems to be coming from the air conditioning compressor or clutch. I'll have to check out the drive pullies because the sound started after I kicked something up off the road. I heard a clunk of something hitting the underside of the car and that was when the noise started I think. Somewhat of a relief since the cam I was looking at runs about $250. But the bottom end noise I can't live with. Can I just pull the pan and throw in some rod bearings or does it get more involved than this? Looking at it from underneath it looks like the pan should drop easy enough giving access to the rods.

First check your oil levels. See if whatever you hit in the road has damaged your oil pan. May even be a thin crack, would would cause enough loss of lubricating oil for excessive friction. This would lead to a rod knock. Personally, I'd swing by a salvage yard, and get the rods, pistons, and crank from a dohc neon. The rods and crank are the same, but the pistons will give a bump in compression. The crank really should be polished and checked for scoring. Doing this ahead of now, will save time later on. New rings would not hurt either, but that is your call.


You could also skip everything else and just get a yard crank checked and polished, and swap that into her whip. I'd aim for a 02 crank though. Dodge made some changes around that year dealing with the engine management system, and the timing setup.

Oil level is fine. I'm thinking whatever road debris that got kicked up might have nicked or bent a pulley. There possibly could be something even stuck up under there. I'll get under it today and check things out. Before I do the rod bearings I'll inspect the crank for scoring and mic it but a complete tear down isn't going to happen. It's momma deranged's daily driver and she won't want it down for long.

Find anything when you got underneath it?

Yeah, I took off the splash shield and immediately saw a 1 inch chunk out of the serp belt. It also had 5 or 6 other spots where about half of the ribs were missing. I guess whatever got kicked up spent a little bit of time kicking around in the belt and pullies before it exited from under the car. The ticking sound must have been where the missing chunk would pass the idler making the tensioner bounce and rattle. I replaced both belts while under there and the sound is gone. Now I just have the rod noise to annoy me.

Good luck with that sir sounds like quite an ordeal.