Want to say hello. After all of these years and one head gasket replacement I must say this car has been a relatively good buy with only the one major repair.

From what I understand they solved the head gasket problem with the ones made in November of 98 (mine was October!) creating the best model neon they would ever achieve and every year going forward each 'improvement' was literally a screw up (weight, gear ratio, etc) until Dodge ceased production.

So the 98 neon and if cared for properly had been known to achieve ultra high mileage and still run.

Granted mine is low mileage at 96k as most of these on the road are clocking 150k. Id love to know how many of these are still on the road and humming or what was the last straw that made you sell it or that ultimately killed it. If you bought an automatic transmission that was likely your fatal mistake.

Im thinking about switching to synthetic oil as I want to keep her running for as long as she will.

If anyone has got a contrary view or positive or negative insights please feel free to chime in.

IMHO opinion the aforementioned car if maintained is a reliable steal at today's resale prices, and the body may rust through before it ever becomes undriveable.

 

Welcome Aboard clintNY2VA! Stay tuned - a Technician (or member) will jump in shortly to provide a possible solution. In the meantime, don't forget to browse Sub-Forums: Neon for stuff related to your ride.

 

Welcome to the site. I run synthetic in all my vehicles that include a 6 month old engine (my wifes Suburban) to a 42 year old engine (1969 Coronet) and will not put regular oil in any engine again. Royal Purple is the best followed by Mobile 1 in my opinion,
FF

 

Welcome man! I hope you know that you need to change at least the water pump and timing belt very soon. But anyways, you wanted to know mileage... my Neons are as follows...

95 Plymouth SOHC mtx - My DD -- 285,5xx miles and still going very strong. I use dino oil with a 20w-50 weight.

97 Dodge SOHC mtx - My Autocross/nice Neon -- 132,xxx miles. Dino oil. 5w-30

97 Plymouth SOHC atx - my other forgotten project -- 142,xxx miles... never ran for me lol. Timing belt broke and took the head which is why I bought it actually.

Neon that was taken to the junkyard last year was a 95 Dodge SOHC atx - 218,xxx miles. Finally laid to rest due to trans issues plus the lack of brakes. But from 180,xxx miles we never did any maintenance, just kept adding oil, but no oil changes or anything. So it lasted 40k with almost zero attention....

Take care of your Neon, it will take care of you.

 

Welcome to Dodge Forum!! Enjoy the site!!

Dusty