Do I bother reviving a tired 95 Neon

For those who may or may not have been following my postings, I have a

95 2 door Neon with the SOHO engine and a manual transmission. Now that I know that the car has over 365,000km on it (228,125 miles for those south of the boarder), instead of the 134,000km that I was told it had, my question is, do I bother trying to rebuild the engine, transmission and clutch, or drive this call to the ground and move on? I have owned the car now for just over 2 months and have noticed the shifter is becoming harder to shift when the car is cold. The only reason I bother considering to do all this work is that the body is in amazing shape. Not a spot of rust on it, and all of the other machanics are in good working order. (all except the front wheel bearings, which are being fixed this week coming). Just in case anyone is wondering, I paid $1700 for the car cert. and e-tested.

Mike mlawrenc(at)rcc.on.ca

Reply to
Mike
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Look into a synthetic gear oil for the transmission, that may help your cold shifting problem. I use Redline MT-90 in my cars but I don't know what's appropriate for yours. Might not have to sink lots of $$ into it... I'd just fix what breaks and then dump it whenever you think it's time to move on.

nate

Reply to
Nate Nagel

I would choose the OR option.

Steve B.

Reply to
Steve B.

Not speaking from personal experience, but only what I've read on some forums regarding the Redline gear oil: There are two types of Redline oil (which I have heard only good things about, BTW) - the kind with friction modifiers, and the kind without friction modifiers, and it is critical for a given transmission model that the right type be used (affects function and longevity of the syncros - use the wrong type, and the syncros will not work right, and will possibly be permanently ruined). IOW, if you take Nate's advice on using Redline, be sure to inquire of Redline which is the correct type for that car if it's not crystal clear from the applications information on their web site.

Bill Putney (to reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with "x")

Reply to
Bill Putney

Go back to the seller and demand your money back, tell him that you are going to have criminal charges filed against him if he doesn't take the car back. A Neon with 228K miles on it is worth $0. A Neon is a cheap car, it was designed to go 100K miles not 228K. I wouldn't put a penny into that car.

Reply to
General Schvantzkoph

Now while I may question why one would pay $1700 for a 10 year old vehicle with even 134,000miles on the odometer, your statement that these cars are only designed to go 100k miles is pure crap. That has not been the case with anything made since the early 80's and even then was not by design. I have put all of my Caravans into the upper 100k miles and 2 of them over

200k with no problems. My mother had a New Yorker that had 161k on it when she passed away. I have a friend that regularly rebuilds neon wrecks (body work we are talking here) and many have well over 100k and still run like a champ.

As for the odometer reading on the vehicle in question here, before you talk criminal charges perhaps a carFax check is in order. Could be that this high mileage has actually been reported at one point and this individual himself may not have been aware of it. I am curious what the hell kind of use this car was getting to rack up those miles in 10 years!! That's almost double the average mileage.

Reply to
PC Medic

Here is Ontario, we have what is known as a Seller's package. It is the same as a CarFax report, and is required by law to register a car in the Province. This is where I found the milage issue. As for the purchasing a 10 year old car for $1700, this also included the safty and emissions tests. I think both aren't worth the paper they where printed on, but they make it possible to obtain plates and insurance and all. This car was bought as a second car, so that I could drive it the 10km to and from work each day, and let the wife use my car. (tired of the complaints of public transit) So $1700 worth of pocket change for a car and less bitching, it was worth it. I was really only looking for a car to last one or two years.

Mike

Reply to
Mike

Why only if he doesn't take the car back. No matter what happens you should file a complaint against the thief. Because he takes the car back does not make him any less of a thief.

----------- Alex

Reply to
Alex Rodriguez

I agree.. A car will last a long time if properly taken care of.

I had a 1990 Ford Taurus station wagon that I put 352,418 miles on before it died.

Even then, the only reason it died was because I let my girlfriend at the time drive it, and she deadpanned the transmission pan on a high curb and punched a hole in it, then failed to mention it to me...

Reply to
SMoo

Well now $1700 Canadian is also a big difference. I thought you were in the states.

Reply to
PC Medic

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