Hi guys,

My first post here. I am condiering an 03 neon for a driver. What do I need to look out for as far as defects, TSBs, and common failure items?

Cheers,
BILL

 

Hey Bill, welcome to DF, is my first day on here as well . If you want to know about the strong point's and weak point's in crashes, you can go to MSN Autos: 2003 Neon and look at a bunch of useful info on safety, and on defective part's. Hope it help's.

 

welome to the forum to the both of you,
Bill, make sure if its used you crawl under and check out the lower control arm bushings, they tend to fail at around maybe 15000 miles, the stock ones are rather crappy, and pain to replace.

 

I haven't had any problems with my neon, but like with an used car drive it around before you buy and you may want to have a mechanic look at it

 

i should have specified a lil better, but the bushing problem is not all that big of a deal, if you are buying from a dealer, have them replace it,


if you don't know what a bad bushing looks like, picture this, a good bushing looks like a marshmelow when you squeeze it in ur fingers, a bad one looks like a torn marshmelow squeezed in your fingers they are black of course, good aftermarket ones are red, blue, black, purple, i've seen em all.

 

What exactly is a Arm Bushing? Also thank's for the help with the CAI question.

 

if u look under your car behind the front wheel(s) the thing that the strut is bolted to kinda shaped like an A, thats you lower control arm, the place where it pivots, is a rubber bushing, black and looks like a squeezed marshmelow

 

One thing that I have noticed about mine (I really wish I would have test drove it during the more winter months) but this thing fogs up like CRAZY. Mind you, I have not used any Anti-Fog yet, but probably will invest in that. Other than that, and the brief delay in acceleration out of first into second (5 speed here), I have zero complaints with mine.

Great Gas Milage + Cheaper Insurance = ME VERY HAPPY!!!


Hope this helps!

Jeff

 

[/quote] That seems to be the norm, my 04 does that, so does a coworkers 03.

 

Techmanbd - have you heard anything through the grapevine that has a work-around? I know it has to be something with the gear ratio but am not sure and don't want to mess with the warranty until after it's fair game.

Just curious,

Later!