I came upon this grandmother's ad on craigslist where she warned about buying used cars and am trying to help her. (Haven't we all been there?) Any useful info would be appreciated. Here is what she emailed me is going on with her 2000 Neon:

How nice of you to offer your help! I wasn't expecting that from anyone. I live kind of far from you though.....Im in Bremerton. As for my car....... Its a no frills 2000 Dodge Neon. The knock happens when I turn the car on and it sounds like its coming from the top of the engine near the side of the timing belt. When the car sits and then is turned on it seems to be worse. As in louder and more pronounced. As the car engine is running, its idle sounds like it slows down and sputters a bit and seems like its going to stall, then picks back up as if to try to run correctly again.
Right after I bought the car though, I went straight to Walmart for an oil change and had a new battery installed, purchased spark plugs, wires, some fuel injector cleaner and a pcv valve. I just wanted to have it be in as good of condition as I could have it with what I could afford to put into it at the time. I had purchased it a couple of days before my pay date. Anyway, the guy who did my oil said that the pan threads were badly worn and that there was metal fragments in my oil but that they thought it could be from the worn pan threads. I had someone I didn't know come to my home and put a new plug in at that time. Then my daughter who only knows a little about cars, put in my spark plugs and wires and I put in my own PCV valve. I have only driven the car 4-5 times and not very far. I noticed a day or two after buying it that when I started it, there was a mild knocking sound. I also noticed that while sitting at a stop light, it seemed rather sputtery as if it was going to die. My daughter brought me a chiltons manual yesterday. I was hoping to find some info in it to troubleshoot but I''m not a mechanic either and only know minimal things about cars. I saved $100.00 out of my this months pay day and am holding on to it for dear life. There you have it! I don't like asking for help but If theres someone out there who is willing to Id be so grateful. And if you cant help, that's ok too, because at least you were nice enough to try. Thank you so much.......... Sincerley, Sue

 

Sounds to me the car was "raw dogged" (A term I have used since I was a kid) and the previous owner found some poor unsuspecting granny to pawn it off on.
The motor may be gone. Timing belt, something dropped into the intake port, or even a valve is been slightly pounded. Course I could be wrong, It's happened before.

One way to find out if the motor itself is producing the shavings instead of the pan (hopefully it's like mine and it's aluminum) is to take a strong magnet (like the black doughnuts from a car stereo speaker) and have it placed on the bottom of the oil filter. or if it's a steel pan on the pan itself. When the oil is changed the next time have the magnet removed from it's place and inspect the oil that comes out. There are also some oil plugs out there with magnets already installed, that could be the easiest choice for a novice owner.
Also, don't trust Wal-mart to do ANYTHING. The biggest majority of the "mechanics" that work there are morons.

 

If the timing belt broke, 99.9% chance the car would not even run. The Neon has an interference engine, so if the timing is off, the pistons slam into the valves and bend them. Interesting though: Yet, she knows the knock is near the timing belt on the topside of the engine. Seems odd to me. Also curious how the Wal-Mart geniuses were able to see metal shavings in the oil as they were changing it. They drain it out into a large capacity tank. They must have some damn good eyesight.

Anyways, sounds like there is a pretty decent vacuum leak somewhere.

 

Yeah right? I wouldn't trust Wal-mart mechanics to do anything.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by kirsten1972

The knock happens when I turn the car on and it sounds like its coming from the top of the engine

Hmmmm.... This seems suspicious.

 

you know.. I didn't catch that.

In my defense, I wasn't saying the belt was broke.. maybe stretched and off time. What I did catch however was the "threads were worn" part.

 

I don't know that these belts can stretch, per se, since they have ribs that go across them, and every single one lines up in a slot on the cam gear. The belt would have to somehow jump, if anything.

 

I think the belt can still develop a little slop though, but as soon as it skipped a tooth you would get a code.

 

The neon engines are notorious for getting lots of carbon buildup on the rings and they knock very loudly at cold startup when this happens. Mine happenned at 25K miles and it was horrible sounding. Dealer pulled the plugs and put top end cleaner down the holes and let it sit overnight fixing problem right away. Happened again around 80K and I just added seafoam to the gas and it cleared the knock up once again.

 

I told her to try cleaning her IAC since I read a lot about neon owners having dirty ones that caused the car to idle cycling up and down. Several people seem to think her posting on craigslist and her subsequent emails to me might be a scam- really? I just figured she was trying to (best as she could) explain what was going on, but what do I know- not a mechanic either I just felt sorry for her. Makes sense what someone said about the Walmart guys- how did they see the shavings? Maybe a magnetic plug? Last email I got said that her daughter found a shop that would look at it for free.