my girlfriend has a 1998 Neon SOHC with 66k on it. i have noticed that its been leaking something profusely in MY driveway. so i took it to my work yesterday, ad put it up on a lift to check it out. It appears that the rear main seal is shot. it basically goes though about a quart of oil every few days. the car also has 4 BALD tires.
my question for the Neon people: is this something worth fixing? she was thinking about leasing a New Beetle from Nothtown and they will give her $1100 for her Neon (does NOT owe on the neon) and she would use that as a down payment. paying for the lease would be a stretch for her, but then again she wouldnt have to worry about anything else on the Neon breaking. I know what i would do in her situation, but clearly making important financial decisions is NOT my strong point.
so im jsut looking for some answers from people that know about Neons as to how involved and pricey such a repair might cost, or is it really not worth it. thanks in advance!
From the sounds of it she could barely afford it. The parts in question are cheap as long as there is no other damage to the car. A payment plus what will most likely be worse gas mileage isn’t worth it. (Except the TDI)
But even then it wouldn’t be worthwhile unless there is a lot more wrong with the car.
Could be rear main or could be head gasket, depends on where the oil is leaking out.
Headgasket leaks from the driver’s side rear corner of the head(when looking at the engine from the front of the car). Never saw what a rear main leak looks like on an auto, but for mine, it got a lot of oil up on the transmission and a good bit on the bottom.
Both are easy fixes, IMO. Very cheap to do as well, if you do it yourself.
If you do a HG, do a water pump and timing belt. Maybe a new tensioner too.
A friend of mine just traded his Neon that had a bad rear main seal. They gave him a good amount for it so he traded it in on a new Civic Si instead of fixing it. They obviously didn’t know about the problem. However if a new car is going to stretch her pocketbook, parts for that car are cheap if you can do the repair for her.
i know its not a headgasket. i was actually hoping it was either that or a valve cover gasket, but there isnt any oil leaking down from the side of the block.
so what exactly is involved in this job? is this something that i could do in my driveway? im sure i could do it, but to be honest im not so sure i really want to.
Yup, done this 2x now. Not bad, just a PIA, since removing the trans is tough to get it back in, and pulling the whole engine involves draining everything.
Just out of curiosity, how are you sure its not the HG? Did you do a compression test? If its the stock HG, they almost ALWAYS go bad until you put a MLS head gasket in it.
And yes newman, new engines do cost around 100 at a junk yard.
Compression test won’t tell you shit about the “normal” Neon HG leak. The stock fiber gasket breaks out around the right rear corner oil passage and allows oil to seep out. The combustion rings of the gasket are unaffected.
And, yes, a stock gasket will go bad most times. Mine went around 60k miles. A properly installed MLS gasket will basically never go bad.
yes, but if it was the head gasket, wouldnt there be oil seeping down the sides of the block? i checked really good and its definitely not doing that. its coming right from where the tranny meets the motor. what i did was put it on a lift at work, decide it was coming from the bottom om the motor for sure however i couldnt tell if it was the oil pan gasket or the rear main. so, knowing the thing pisses oil like no tomorrow, i cleaned everything up really good, and drove the car around for a while. I put it back on the lift, and sure enough, there just was enough seepage to tell that it was coming from right where the tranny and engine meet.
and i suppose if i did tackle this myself, id prob do it after hours at my work so id have access to a lift, so it prob wouldnt be too bad. Maybe i will do the head gasket while im at it just as a safety precaution.