A few days ago, I accidentally left my 97 neon sport running in the driveway for about an hour. Anyway, when I tried to drive off, the temperature gauge was at the max and it was beeping. I drove a little while before I noticed this, however. Anyway, I thought it might be the oil since I hadn't checked it in a long time. As it turns out, I was extremely low on oil (almost out!). I was at a gas station so I filled it up. After that, it worked perfectly for about 24 hours in which time I drove around 150 miles.

Now, I left it run in the driveway again for about 30 mins while I was cleaing the inside, and it started overheating. The oil indicator still shows full oil. What's the deal here? I'm really really hoping it's not a head gasket problem.

UPDATE!: After looking closer, I noticed that the fans attached to the radiator were not moving at all. Hopefully that is the problem (the fan clutch I assume)...I had some problems with my fan clutch before, where the fans would keep running all the time. That would explain why the car is fine when I am driving, and overheats when I park. What do you think about this? Is a fan clutch home-repair material?

 

There is no fan clutch on the neon. The fan is controled by a temp sensor. I forget where it is located, but thats most likely the problem. If you put straight 12V to the fan does it spin?

 

How do I put "straight 12V" to it? With a charger? Wouldn't it be dangerous to use the battery connections just to test the fans?

Anyhow, I begged my father to take it to the local shop rather than fixing it (a.k.a. breaking it further) himself. Good thing, because he was so sure he could replace that fan clutch...

 

The easiest way is just to use some wire and the battery.

 

There is no fan clutch, as stated. A fan clutch is used on engines where the crankshaft faces the front of the car, and the fan is attached directly to the crankshaft, operated with a fan clutch. The engine in the Neon is mounted transversely, and the fans are 100% electric, mounted on a bracket that's supported by the radiator. The PCM monitors coolant temperature (not oil temperature) to determine when to turn the fans on and off. They should come on when coolant temp is 220F or so, and turn off around 200F. The PCM sends a signal to a relay (fan relay), which causes battery voltage to go directly to the fan(s). The PCM will also send a signal whenever your a/c is turned on.

You can disconnect the connector that is on the fan mounting bracket, it should be right near one of the fans (or both, my setup only has one fan...). Running a wire straight from the battery to the fan (with a ground, of course) will let you know if the fans are actually working. More often than not, it's just the relay or the fuse. The fuse is located in the black box behind the battery. The relay on your '97 should be up near the driver's side headlight. Any of the other relays (from that black box behind the battery) should swap out if you want to test the relay. I usually swap with the horn relay...

Best of luck!

 

Excellent info from those who have responded. I just have a little bit to add to what Radar said. While he was right on the location, just back from the headlight under the hood on the drivers side "framerail", the fans don't use a "relay" but a "module" (kinda diamond shaped with a three prong connector, held to frame with 2 10mm bolts). It won't swap with the other relays. Otherwise yeah like everyone said, see if the fans will run if you put power to them and then go from there.

 

Good to know. I always thought they were the same... My 95's is up in the PDC, same relay as the rest.