Well I got me a D.D. car

voidfinger · Apr 19, 2008

So yea I just picked up a 99 Dodge Neon from a repo place and got it for like 1200 bucks with like 120k on it. So anyway, its ok car but I don't know a thing about them... does anyone know of any good sites to go to about them or anything? Its got an auto but it must not have O/D b/c at 65 i think it turns like 2800 rpm... that can't be good for gas milage... so i'm thinking of putting a manual in there and I have no clue where to start and what to get. Thanks guys... and you guys know what getting a D.D. Means huh lol. Time to start working on the car hahaha

TomV · Apr 19, 2008

Hey you could do a lot worse for a DD. I owned 5 neons from 94 to 2002, and they all worked pretty well. Honestly not a low-maintenance car but easy and cheap to fix. Go to www.neons.org for all your neon questions. I know way too much about them. If you drive the auto easy it will still get pretty high gas mileage.

Bluesn95 · Apr 19, 2008

4 cylinder cars normally run higher rpms on the highway due to the fact that they produce very low torque numbers, so I'm pretty sure you're ok. Its probably just a 4 spd auto anyways.

realitygt · Apr 19, 2008

our mazda is a 4 spd auto and it rolls 3000 rpms at 65, but we still get 30 mpg

voidfinger · Apr 19, 2008

Bluesn95 said:
4 cylinder cars normally run higher rpms on the highway due to the fact that they produce very low torque numbers, so I'm pretty sure you're ok. Its probably just a 4 spd auto anyways.

3 speed

, but I don't know stuff for them is pretty cheap.

Jrgunn5150 · Apr 20, 2008

Neons don't have OD in autos, it don't matter, they still knock out 30 mpg anyway. The motor is a 420a, very reliable, there are freaks who try to make them run 11's, but why not just drive it?

scarface · Apr 20, 2008

I was big into neons for a long time. www.neons.org is the best place to go. Im still registered there under "atomic Jellybean" be warned though if you search my name there bro, you are gonna see those nasty wreck pictures again.

PM me if you have any questions, I still work on alot of them.

realitygt · Apr 20, 2008

Scarface said:
I was big into neons for a long time. www.neons.org is the best place to go. Im still registered there under "atomic Jellybean" be warned though if you search my name there bro, you are gonna see those nasty wreck pictures again.

PM me if you have any questions, I still work on alot of them.

are you talking about the wreck that nearly cut your head off!?! those were turrible pics.

Pennywise2 · Apr 21, 2008

www.neons.org is your best bet.
I belive investing the money to do the manual swap isn't worth it
since it will only be a few MPG difference between a automatic and manual.
I have a 03 Subaru WRX as my daily driver and it's been a great car to me
without any problems.

scarface · Apr 21, 2008

realitygt said:
Scarface said:

I was big into neons for a long time. www.neons.org is the best place to go. Im still registered there under "atomic Jellybean" be warned though if you search my name there bro, you are gonna see those nasty wreck pictures again.

PM me if you have any questions, I still work on alot of them.

Click to expand...

are you talking about the wreck that nearly cut your head off!?! those were turrible pics.

yeah, that was the forum I was a regular on during the accident.

voidfinger · Apr 21, 2008

well the car is pretty bad ass. I just cleaned it up but it came from MN and it has a little rust problem

damn salt huh. Anyway, it has the 2.0 DOHC motor but the auto is junk. Either the kick down is crap or something is wrong. When you nail it the thing doesn't kick down into lower gear it just keeps going up... but when you let off it doesn't upshift or anything it still will run like 6k in that gear for about a mile or so... I'm not sure what it is but it only happens when you nail it. My dad said where he picked up the radio that they had a wreaked one with a 5 speed in it... so i don't know if the motor is different as in the SOHC version but i don't know if it makes a difference. So if possible i'm gonna switch it over. Dave if you have any info on how to switch it over I would apriciate it. O and back on track. The car is like a shinny gray with metal flake in it and it is a 98 sport... thought it was a 99 but no biggy. It is a 4 door with some kinda kiddy party looking cloth inside but it is a really sweet look bad I was dead wrong it looks a lot beter IMHO than the 2 door ones. But who knows. The motor looks really clean just a little dirty and we looked at the timeing belt and it looked almost new and the car has like 120k miles on. In case I didn't let you guys know how I got the car... the car belonged to a women from MN and she was coming through my town well she got stopped for DUI and when they asked her to get out of the car a bag of crack dropped out her skirt. Anyway the car was impounded in 2006... well she called back to see how much for the car back and they said like 2400 and she told them no way. So they got the title and we got it the next day for 1200 bucks. Well I cleaned it out today and tried to get the Cig. smoke smell out... well under the passengers side seat I found a home made crack pipe and inside the drivers seat I found what looked to be a small bag of crack :nonono: well while I was vacuuming the back seat area There was like small pieces of glass or what looked like glass... it was more crack. I was like WTF b/c I thought they searched the thing better than that... I'm thinking of going and getting the police to search it with a dog and see if there is anything else I missed. :wall:

scarface · Apr 21, 2008

I could tell you the answer but there are how too write ups on it with pictures on neons.org.

BTW the auto trans in a neon is POS.

tigerpwr · Apr 22, 2008

if you start working on it doesnt it defeat the purpose of it being a daily...why spend hundreds converting to manual just to save a couple bucks on gas and not get that much better mileage.

if you want a truly dependable daily, get a 2nd gen 4 cyl camry (87-91) with some minor body damage for cheap. they run forever and replacement parts are plentiful at junkyards. its a lot harder to kill a camry than a junk neon and the camry will still be worth $$$ when you're done with it. neon = throw away car

scarface · Apr 22, 2008

but you can get neon parts dirt cheap.

Jrgunn5150 · Apr 22, 2008

Scarface said:
but you can get neon parts dirt cheap.

True, but the point of having a DD is you leave it the hell alone and drive it, lol. If it becomes a project of adding a turbo, or swapping transmissions, then you can't drive it daily, because you are working on it.

Hey Mitchell, free crack, bonus!!! :2funny: My T-type came with free crack too.

voidfinger · Apr 22, 2008

yea well i was reading up on it and it seems that the auto neon gets 33 mpg on the highway and the 5 speed neon gets around 39 mpg it said... that is a pretty good jump. Also, its not fast so I would like a little something different b/c i'm tired of an auto and since the car in the junk yard is totaled I might can get it for dirt cheap and since my tranny is wierd ... why not. but yea I'm gonna leave it alone and not do anything major to it... I already know that it needs a new intake... never heard of having the intake box on top of the exaust manifolds... thats :crazy2: but other than that its about it... if i can get the camera working I'll take a couple pics.

voidfinger · Apr 22, 2008

tigerpwr said:
if you start working on it doesnt it defeat the purpose of it being a daily...why spend hundreds converting to manual just to save a couple bucks on gas and not get that much better mileage.

if you want a truly dependable daily, get a 2nd gen 4 cyl camry (87-91) with some minor body damage for cheap. they run forever and replacement parts are plentiful at junkyards. its a lot harder to kill a camry than a junk neon and the camry will still be worth $$$ when you're done with it. neon = throw away car

I havent found a toyota or honda in my area under 2 grand and the one that was 2 grand was almost totalled and had like over 200k on it. so i say why not. its a cute/sexy little car with nice curves.