Hello all. Kind of new here. I have a 2003 neon sxt, that i basically stole due to the fact that the little lot I bought it from thought it had a motor that was going out (ticks when cold. goes away when warm.) so i figured it is the usual lifter noise these engines get. Doesnt bother me a bit.lol I got the car for $1100. with 98,000 miles. I am in LOVE with this car. My one question, is there a way to kind of tell if the timing belt has been changed already. This car has obviously been well maintained. It is in wonderful condition. it would just be nice to know if the belt has been changed just to save myself some trouble. thanks for any help!

 

Unless they put the under hood service sticker for timing belt replacement I'm going to assume no its never been done. You cant really tell until you start pulling things apart an see the belt upclose on the inner teeth side for cracks etc or if it's loose feeling incase it has a non-sprung tensioner.

Me personally I'd do the timing belt kit because it will save you a cylinder head down the road if it breaks in a few days/weeks.months etc. Catching up on maintenance on a used car should always be top priority, but that's just me.

Any chance you can get the previous owners list of maintenance done possibly?

wouldn't hurt to give the red paint a good claybar & then wax job since hot summer is coming really fast

welcome to the best neon forum group there is ^^

 

Thanks for the welcome! and I think I am going to go ahead and do the timing belt. And a big yes to the clay bar! lol Do you know of anyting i can do for the lifter tick? I have read so many different things from thinner oil to thicker oil. junk yard rockers. repositioning the rocker spacers..etc etc. I plan on taking the valve cover off to inspect things. eventually. Or do i just learn to live with it?

 

Well, from what I've experienced, most Neons make this noise. My '00 had a bad knock which I was assuming was a rod bearing, and my '05 has a very light tap that goes away. A lot of people have suggested using conventional oil as synthetic oil reacts to temperature and pressure differently. If you're not going to be needing the extra benefits of synthetic oils (less frequent oil changes, higher resistant to oil consumption, etc) then I would just use conventional.

It should be noted that once when I put Lucas oil additive (not the synthetic mix mind you) AFTER 3.5qts of oil in an oil change, the knock went away for a few days, and then came back. So I don't know if this would help, but it probably wouldn't hurt, and it would probably help you root out the problem of deciding if it was a upper or lower knock.