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  • slantvaliant

    Aug. 24, 2011 8:21 a.m. slantvaliant Dork

    My sister asked me after the fact to look at her Neon purchase. She intends to let her 18 year old daughter drive it.
    2000 4-door, 2.0 16V, 5-speed stick, stock steel rims. 75K miles. Good paint, straight body. Clean, but not suspiciously so. Upholstery faded on the top of the rear seat, and there's a seam coming apart on the driver's seat.

    Everything seems to work, including the AC. Has had a cam position sensor replaced recently. Little else is known about the maintenance history.

    OK, since I'm her technical advisor, let me ask: What do we need to check and prepare for?
    I'm thinking timing belt, for one. What else?

  • BBsGarage

    Aug. 24, 2011 9:05 a.m. BBsGarage HalfDork

    Water pump when replacing the timing belt, possibly the belt tensioner as well. Pretty sure the head gasket problems were solved by 2k

  • Duke

    Aug. 24, 2011 10:04 a.m. Duke SuperDork

    Headgasket should be a non-issue for a 2000. Waterpump and timing belt are 100,000 mile intervals, so she's got a year or two before they come due. Do the idler/tensioner at the same time.

    Cam position sensors fail as this one did. I had trouble with oil pressure senders leaking on both of my 1-gen Neons, but that may have been solved by 2000 as well.

    Other than that there are no real problem areas, particularly in a 5-speed. May want to consider changing the coolant and transmission oil just on principal. Neons like fresh spark plugs, too. The replacement interval on those is pretty frequent, though they will run fine with old plugs. If the plugs are oily when you take them out it is just the o-ring at the bottom of the valve cover well.

    Sounds like a nice little runabout.

 
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