I have an 02 dodge neon es. It is completely stock with regular maintenence done. The tranny was actually completely replaced at about 50,000 miles because it totally dropped out on me. But anyways the engine has started to have a knock in it only on startup though. It will do it for maybe 1 minute tops and usually when it hasnt been drove for a little bit. It is a pretty fast knocking or pinging. When you drive it for a minute or so it will stop and i have even had a couple occasions where it has stalled while idling right after start-up. i still have have a few thousand miles on my warranty and plan on getting it checked out. the car has 72,500 miles on it right now. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks

 

I have a 03 that has the same problems, the knoking i have heard is very common in the neons and real good oil sometimes fixes it! the dealership told me it was normal. as for the stalling i think mine was because of lack of sufficiant air. it has never done it since i put cold air intake on.
but i would still take it in if you have a warrenty!!!

 

does anyone else have this problem? What kind of oil did you put in and the problem cant be that normal. I know that GM had some problem with piston slap that is similiar to this. Maybe the same thing but im not sure. I want to do the cai also. Any suggestions on a decent priced cai. Thanks

 

I have that problem in my 04. Started when new only when really cold like single digits and would do it when going back down to low idle. Then recently started a little more frequently.

I have just tried a new combo myself of Castrol Syntec 5W30 and a Motorcraft FL-300 filter. This has cured mine so far. Going to switch to 0W-30 German made Syntec which is a Group IV instead of Group III Synthetic. A BITOG forum type issue but anyway. The FL-300 is the Caravan (Viper for some of the readers) sized filter. 5 Quarts to full!

As far as a CAI I went ahead and spent the money on a K&N Typhoon and it mounts up so solidly even better than the stock airbox. My stock would rattle a little at times and MY K&N does not! Some say to replace the Bellows tubing between the throttle and intake manifold for best results but would probably wait untill you put in engine mount inserts to limit motor movement from harsh throttle movemnets.

 

I MADE MINE MYSELF, BUT THE K&N IS THE BEST FROM WHAT I HAVE SEEN. i WAS TOLD BY THE DEALERSHIP THAT IT VERY LIGHT PISTON SLAP, AND NOT TO WORRY ABOUT IT, I THINK A FEW YEARS HAVE RECALLS ON IT BUT IM KNOT SURE.

 

I have a 2001 neon that had the same problem. Went to semi-synthetic 0w-30 and the knock was gone the next day and has never come back. The car has over 150,000 kms. (over 90,000 mi.)
A lot of people have gone to full synthetic with the same results.

Good luck

 

it looks like that is what im going to end up doing. It is almost time for an oil change too so i will throw in full synthetic and see what happens. What be the repair behind a recall on something like that? A new engine would be nice then i would have almost a brand new car . Well about 20 k on the tranny. I did a little bit of reading and it looks like this is a bit of a common problem.

 

Check out Allpar.com------good info there.