The Smurf

Well I'm true GRM fashion, might as well start the thread before I get the car. Tomorrow morning we're meeting to swap titles. 

It's an 04 "not a neon even though you have to hit neon on rock Auto for parts" SRT4 in blue. 155k on the clock, mostly back to stock form. It's got some weird aftermarket struts and some fugly in person wheels with chinesium may pops, but under the hood appears proper. 

There's rust. It's... Better than most Dodge products of this era around here, but definitely a long time concern. I'll see how bad it flexes on a lift and decide what to do from there. 

Main points are reliability and longevity mods. I don't want crazy power, I can't afford to autocross currently, I just want it to be a close to an appliance as I can. That means a more stock wheel and tire combo, a catch can setup, and uh I'm not really sure. 

Drivers side is in rough shape, but the underside is pretty reasonable. Aside from the rockers being mostly a memory at this point. 

Ran good on the test drive, it's a half hour drive home tomorrow, half twists half highway, so I'll try to put it through it's paces.

Congrats. And I feel like we have seen this car before. :) 

In reply to RevRico :

Box flares and a body kit....

You got your own smurf blue vinyl or do I have to locate some? 

You know what time it is. 

Definitely a Smurf - even the rust is blue. Congrats on unloading the Excursion?

I loved these stupid little things when they came out.  Didn't hurt that every fourth car guy on base bought one upon returning from deployment 

In Bob Lutz's name, let us together now recite the litany of maintenance:

Bobble strut

Head gasket

Rear main seal

well the little blue boost buggy has made it home. 

Rides nice. Stinks like nasty air freshener and vape, which as a cigarette smoker I guess will change. 

Definitely needs front tires, I'm looking around for something more stock wheel wise first. Also dearly needs Bluetooth with the new "no hands free round 4" law that got passed recently.

I was good on the way home and kept it under 70mph, handled fine on twists and straights.

Did it have a felony forest in it?

In reply to Mndsm :

Just one black ice, so far. Buried in the shifter boot. 

Might go get a bag of charcoal to leave on the back seat floor for a few days.

Noticed it pulling hard right on the way home. Put in 10psi and it's better. BFG somethings up front and "lionharts" in the back. Yuck. 

Well I might as well show the ugly too.

drivers side is terrible

passenger not as bad. 

In theory, this could be fixed a few ways. In practice, I think I'll bribe my inspection guy until the car feels floppy. 

Might do some sheet metal patching, maybe, but honestly with my skills, it'll only look worse. 

I've got a soft spot for these engines/cars. Got a PT Looser GT for a donor for a much cooler car.

There are many here who know Neons/SRT-4s better than I, but I'll help if I can. That drivetrain should be worth some duckets when you're done with it...

So I'll hand it to Dodge, they sure did make trouble codes easy to sort out. It's like they knew. 

1188 throttle input pressure sensor (Forum link)

0456 EVAP small leak (gas cap?)

0301 cylinder 1 misfire

0522 oil pressure sensor low

0038 O2 sensor 1/2 circuit high

I haven't cleared any of them yet. I only learned about this because this morning the check engine light started blinking and I googled to see what the deal was. Blinking light means misfire OR catalytic converter problem, going from Old forum posts. I probably should clear them to see what comes back. 

Now on a cold start, the oil light comes on. Shut car off turn on again and lights out everything good. This seems to be a common problem, catch can is recommended fix. Cold idle feels like an antilag system until everything is warmed up. 

Also, slow leak on front passenger tire. I gotta get some new fronts figured out. How slow? Filled it to 35psi cold Saturday evening, showing 29 today cold. 

2003-06 DODGE NEON SRT

 Bolt Pattern: 5 X 100
 Stud Size: 12 X 1.5
 Hub Center Bore: 57.1 
> Bolt Pattern Details and Matching Vehicles
Torque Sequence: 1, 3, 5, 2, 4
75 to 85 lb-ft.
7 Turns Minimum

So I have this somewhere easily accessible. 

Got a cheap Bluetooth dongle, it doesn't connect to the ECU in torque. Guess I'm going to finally need to get a physical scanner. 

Getting new front tires next week. 

I also picked up a pack of spacers in case the tires rub. 

Otherwise. It's running good. Gas mileage is abysmal, considering I'm rarely in boost, but 9 miles each way isn't great for gas mileage, and that's 95% of my trips. Perfect use case for an EV, not for much else. 

I don't like the trunk. It's huge, but inaccessible. When I shop at Aldi, I take one of those 27 gallon totes with me to put all the groceries in in the car. It goes in fine, getting it back out full is a total pain. The Civic will continue to be the Aldi car I guess. 

I love the noises it makes engine braking though. I haven't really beat on it yet. Haven't been to redline in any gear, haven't broken 80mph. But compared to the excursion, this thing is quick when it wants to be. 

Oh, and big surprise, none of the A pillar gauges work. At all. There's a spare, undrilled trim piece in the trunk, but it's tan. And I'd kinda like oil pressure and maybe fuel pressure gauges that actually work. Boost gauge moves though, not sure how accurate it is, but it seems to work.

Also this somewhere I can find it

Bought some Riken Raptors this week because the price was right and they looked like a good tire. Turns out, not all 245/40/zr17s are the same 

Even after a lot of Hammer therapy, the spring perch rubbed the damn tire, so my nice shiny new fronts are now on the back, and the lionhart maypops are on the front. Not super happy with that. 

Cleared all the codes, been about 50 miles and none of them have come back yet, so maybe a win there. 

Gas mileage seems to be ok. I'm gonna fill up after the prices drop again from the goody weekend and see how it's doing. Regardless it's better than the excursion was, so win there. 

Really really hating the Kenwood head unit I bought. Needs to forget the phone every other day then reconnect to keep streaming music. I should have kept my old one. 

Actually looks like fairly easy rust fixes with some new patch panels. Subaru and 90-10's VW and  Audi's TT's run 5x100 rims. Might be able to find something less ricey looking for not a lot of $.

Misfire comes on at cold idle still. Car shakes and shimmies a bit, then flashing check engine light. Shut off, turn back on, drive away normal and it's fine. Let it warm up to operating temp, and it seems to be fine.

Old forum posts point to lower injector o rings, with remote possibility of a bad PCM, and a not so remote possibility of an intake manifold gasket. 

I gotta remember to ask my mech if he has a boost leak tester or a smoke tester. 

No return of any other codes yet though, so that makes me happy.

I forgot to mention on the tire update, we replaced an O2 sensor that had it's wires cut. That should help codes and mileage I have to think. 

23mpg average so far. I'm liking that. 

Turns out, the little blue boost buggy really likes cold weather. Shame I don't.

It'll break 90 in third. Oops. 

Driver's side side skirt is starting to come off.b there's not a lot behind it to reattach to. 

Aside from the rust and the angry cold idle, she's being a good little beater.