The wife and I are looking at a I beleive a 1999 neon with the 2.0 SOHC engine. The lady was driveing ti to work and it died about 1/2 mile from here house. She said it was just like you shut the key off. When her husband went to bring it home it was leaking coolant from the front side of the engine near the passenger end of the motor. I know these engines have a problem of head gaskets, but do they have a low collant shut down switch? The car has 190,000 on it and can be had real cheap. I am thinking of buying it to fix up and use as a work car for the wife. Any ideas as to what might be a problem. I am thinking of doing a complete run through the engine before buying it. Compression check and that sort of diagnostics.
Thanks for your time.
Bob

 

My bet is the timing belt broke (supposed to be changed every 105,000 miles, but recommended by the 85-90k mark) and took the water pump with it (driven by the timing belt). The engine is an interference design, so chances are you have 16 bent valves at the very least. The head stands a good chance of being warped, and check the rocker arms for cracks (I missed this, and it cost me big...). There is a small plug on the timing belt cover, you should be able to see the belt on the cam gear with a flashlight.

On a positive note, you can pick up a complete working motor (any 1995-2002 SOHC will work, just keep the sensors from the original motor) in the $200-400 price range at a salvage yard or in the neons.org classifieds, even a Magnum engine (2001-2002 R/T and ACR) shouldn't cost more than $800 or so. Overall, the motor/tranny is pretty easy to swap out, a good full day project if you have a hoist available. Easier than a head gasket, in my opinion...

Best of luck!

 

I believe i might have the same problem. I have a 96 neon, 2.0 SOHC and a while back the water pump went. Seemed simple enough at first except there is no F$%# room to work on that side of the engine. Now i didnt like this car to much but i still needed it to get from A to B so i spent the $80 to get the new water pump and i was doing this with me and my mechanic friend. Took a lot of time disassembling but we got it, we replaced the water pump and it ran good for about 4 blocks..............then nothing, just kinda hard dieing sound like a stall


Here are some details, the timing belt tensioner.........normal you push it down and then hold it with a pin while youi put it back then pull the pin for the tenion, i dont know if anyone has had any experience with this but we could NOT push the pin down, i called around it would take a few weeks to get so i said f#@$ it and we just put as much tension on the belt as we could and sealed her up. After it was running again, it didnt sound to good kind of like high low revolutions, inconsistant timing probably. I have since bought a new car and this was about a month ago.

Car still wont start, is this an easy fix or did the tenisoner completey f$## it up? If anyone has any opinions id apprecite it, i would like to know if it is worth keeping or if anyone knows a good place to get rid of cars.

 

If you pin the tensioner before you pull it out, it sould stay. If you have a good vice, you can compress it that way as well. Personally, I feel it's worth the extra $40 or so to just get a new tensioner... 3rd most common failure point in the setup, right behind the water pump and the idler pulley bearing...

Bent valves aren't always obvious. Of my 16, I thought only 4 were bent until we stuck them in a drill and checked for out-of-round with a mic. All 16 were bent, and it only takes a couple hundredths of an inch to make them completely useless. I've only heard of one Neon busting a timing belt and getting away with no bent valves, most need all 16... Then you have to take a good look at the cylinders to make sure they aren't dinged all to heck or have holes in them. Not quite as common, but it happens - timing belt could get jammed preventing the camshaft from rotating so the valves can get out of the way.

The timing belt can be a pain to set properly. All it takes is one tooth off and it runs like crap. After getting the belt on and tensioned, rotate the crankshaft at least 2 full revolutions and make sure the cam position is right. Took 2 tries my first time, even with help. One tooth off may not even set the skipped tooth code (13?), depending on which direction and how far off the sensor is.

As for room... once the useless a/c and power steering components are gone, there's tons of room! Easiest car I've ever had to work on. The only time the engine needs to get pulled is to replace the block itself. Everything else can be done in the driveway on a weekend.