Modern Shite - Chrysler Neon

[Torsten2001]

I'm the muppet that decided a nice 2002 Chrysler Neon Auto would make a good interim runabout for my missus when I saw a cheap one on RR, to cut a long story short it ran very nicely indeed for about 20 miles (if that) until the gearbox seized, or so I think.

I harbour some extremely dark thoughts about the whole episode but aside from the fact it does not move it is a comfy and good looking car....sort of. So it needs a new gearbox or gearbox repair that isn't going to cost more than the car is worth, well a few hundred I suppose, thaey seem pretty rare and shite enough to be interesting so I'd rather not scrap the brute, does anyone have any ideas? I'd happily buy a scrap / crashed car for spares if need be! It looks like this:

[pogweasel]

As I believe the common parlence in internet circles is... EPIC CAR-BUYING FAIL.

[Torsten2001]

Yes indeed, an early Christmas kick to my financial bollox. As I said, I harbour VERY dark thoughts about this purchase!

[AXrescuer]

Sorry about your wasted funds but I thought it was universally known that the Neons truly are worthless pieces of shit.

[Torsten2001]

Guess what I figured out at 70mph on the outside lane of the M4!

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Glad i had nothing to do with this unhappy episode, however its nice to see you around Torsten! What else is happening with your fleet at the moment?

[pogweasel]

I reckon you'll find that every other one in 'spares or repairs' land will exhibit the same or similar symptoms. They are right there with Renault Laguna's for terminal gearbox write-offs, along with a host of other horrible antics. If I were you I'd cut it into tiny pieces and move on, if it helps think of all the great "touches" you've had down the years, all that cool grot you got for the square root of fuck all that make us jealous. Have you nowt else your bint can potter about in?

[ashmicro]

I know a bloke had one of those Neons. His gearbox developed a fault, and while I can't remember they symptoms, I do remember that it was a transmission ECU fault, something about solenoids?HTH

[Torsten2001]

To be honest I've had a strange combination of being hugely busy & not being in the country much along with seriously feck all cash which is a shame, so the only interesting car I have on the road is my old 1972 Merc 220! I do have a dungeon full of shite however. I shan't be too far away over the next few weeks!Anyway I do have a 2003 Audi A4 lying around (not for long) but as my missus still hasn't passed her test a cheap auto-shitter was in order to replace the CLK that sat around, the Neon would have been fine if it would have made it home!Of course I have since discovered that these jerry-built pieces of shit had two major failings (along with a massive list of small ones) which were auto boxes and head gaskets, this starts & runs runs nicely which would be great if I wanted it to run a saw mill so hopefully there's one either smashed up or with a fkd headgasket somewhere! I would like to sort this one out though.Of course I am obviously very grateful for all the wonderful stuff I've had in the past etc and if it's shit "getting a new car home" stories you want then Scooters can seriously make your toes curl, I am just a bit sore about being a prick!

[Torsten2001]

I know a bloke had one of those Neons. His gearbox developed a fault, and while I can't remember they symptoms, I do remember that it was a transmission ECU fault, something about solenoids?HTH

That's what I was told, pretty much sure it isn't that though as it won't get out of park although the gears seem to select

[pogweasel]

Of course I am obviously very grateful for all the wonderful stuff I've had in the past etc I am just a bit sore about being a prick!

BIG HUGS.

 

 

[Torsten2001]

Thanks a bunch

[Cavcraft]

Honestly don't want to sound a twat here but have you checked the oil level etc for the box?It's possibly worth trying something daft like flushing and replacing the autobox oil and seeing what happens or ask a local gearbox repair centre.I'm thinking that if you can get it to go into first and reverse you could chuck it into a car auction as traders will only check those two gears and if they work they'll bid on it.

[Torsten2001]

Checked the oil level, it's fine! I've been quoted £1500 for a recon box - far too much - so I'm holding out for a secondhand one, if that doesn't happen I'll sell as is but I couldn't knowingly do the auction thing unless I knew it was sorted which really annoys me!

[Cavcraft]

Checked the oil level, it's fine! I've been quoted £1500 for a recon box - far too much - so I'm holding out for a secondhand one, if that doesn't happen I'll sell as is but I couldn't knowingly do the auction thing unless I knew it was sorted which really annoys me!

I admire you honesty but auctions are fair game because 99% of the people there are traders who rip you off as soon as look at you and they will also just punt it on through the next auction if it's fucked.Another (uninentionally) perhaps daft question: were these boxes fitted to other cars too, might be able to narrow your search down a bit if so?

[Lankytim]

Id have got it recovered back to the guys house and demanded a refund!

[Station]

There has to be a crappy Neon gearbox in a scrapyard somewhere? Did they come in manual? Here's a 300 quid one on ebay:

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Chrysler-Neon-2.0 ... 10001r7072

 

They're nice enough looking, but a bit bland.

 

Here's something else to cheer you up:

 

In 2005, the Institute carried out side impact tests on 14 small car models, simulating an impact with an SUV. Among these, the Neon performed the worst. IIHS stated that the Neon had “...major problems beginning with its structure. This car is a disaster...The structure is poor...If this had been a real driver in a real crash, it’s likely it wouldn’t have been survivable...if safety is a priority, the Neon is a small car to be avoided.â€Â

[r.welfare]

2002 appears to be the changeover year between 3 and 4-speed autos. The 3-speed is shared with the Chrysler K-Car, but they aren't exactly thick on the ground in the UK. If it's the 4-speed then they were shared with the PT Cruiser, which doesn't expand your search by a lot, but might help.

[Volksy]

You can pick up a Neon normally for a couple of hundred quid. Most are autos as it was a no cost option when new.I had an earlier one, but its lack of ability to keep fluids of any sort in its system made me keep it for about a week.One of the guys who was on the design project for the Neon stayed in my hotel a few months ago, always remember they were designed to be a $1000 car to produce.

[scooters]

I have a huge amount of sympathy with torsten here. ok - a risk when you run shite is that you are going to every now and then take a bath - the dialema comes when you have, what lokks like, a decent motor which then develops a serious fault that stops it working - the newer the car the more of a pain in the arse it is to find - I bought a 960 2 months ago as a daily - it broke down on me on the way home (Swansea to Herts) outside Windsor - diagnosis - ignition problem - I then spend over 300 on parts chasing the flippin problem and was still unable to find it - I lost paitience and flogged it on to a VOC member who had the time and love to locate and fix - erog cost of exercise - £600 for the car £300 for bits £600 for the XM I replaced it with....ouchI have since come to the4 following conclusion:there are 2 types of cars - those you use as tools and those you have as toys.Tools - for me this is a 0-12 year old car that costs me under a grand and will be expected to do 1000-1200 miles a week and not let me down.Toys - doesn't matter how much they let me down as they are toysthe danger is when sentimentality gets you over a tool - and I have suffered for this in the past as torsten will confirm with you - a tool need to be looked at impartially - you buy it for under a grand - if it breaks then you have to be brutal - is it worth your time and cash to fix or do you bin it and move on. My tools return me 40p per mile therefore if the car has 'paid me back' in mileage then it gets either sold, scrapped or given away if it breaks on me. I recognise I am in danger of falling for the XM - I have already shelled our £250 for new front brakes - the MOT is up in Feb and I will have to decide whether to spend the £1k worth of citroen specialist gubbins it will need or to sell it to an enthusiast looking for a toy and move on..Torsten - I would bin the Neon mate, if autoboxes for that shite are going for £300 then I they are obviously in demand!bad luckthough - it is the worst thing about running old kitfeel for you buddy

[Guest]

Part costs for those Neons are a bit of a joke, I was genuinely surprised how expensive even basic replacement parts cost so I'm not unsurprised to hear a whole autobox is a fair whack. You'd think bits would be really cheap given that in the US they're considered a plentiful economy car, seems not though! Shame because the facelift ones in particular seem like a nice motor, you could drive up and down the Humber Bridge and pretend you're on the Florida toll road system, bonus points if you faff around for ages at the toll booth and cause a huge queue because you haven't got used to the crazy foreign coins. Further bonus points if you then ask the toll collector if they know the way to the International House of Pancakes.Is that going to be Mrs Torsten's new motor then? CLK to a Neon, just keep working through the range! Before you know it, she'll relish the idea of driving around in a Hyundai Stellar with underseal up to the rubbing strips! Excellent work.

[AnthonyG]

If a cheap s/h gearbox dosen't come up soon - (check scrapyards for crashed ones if you need a 2002 onwards one) - then I would punt it into an auction if you can. Don't feel bad about it at all - one of the main uses of auctions to punt defective cars on with no comeback.

[Mr Lobster]

there are 2 types of cars - those you use as tools and those you have as toys.Tools - for me this is a 0-12 year old car that costs me under a grand and will be expected to do 1000-1200 miles a week and not let me down.Toys - doesn't matter how much they let me down as they are toys

Very true I'd say. My Alfa was primarily a tool in that it was my only car at one point. Trouble is that I ended up spending an absolute fortune on it before selling at a considerable loss as I really did love that car. From a financial point of view I should have just binned it My R4 is definately a toy - whatever it needs gets done. Everything else is a tool and has to remain economically viable.Torsten - Personally I'd just get rid and chalk it up to experience. Every now and then you'll end up with a pup but you seem to have had plenty of good stuff to offset the loss on this one.

[Torsten2001]

Thanks for all your kind words chaps. Yes it's a pup, horrid old bag of shite with the later, rarer gearbox but I have never scrapped a car before and if I can get it on the road for a few hunnerd that'd be nice, if all else fails I'll bung it on ebay.Looking at the ads though there seem to be a few good ones out there that have made it past 80k, maybe I'll get a good gearbox, I'll keep my eye out!

[Cavcraft]

I truly hope it works out for you but what happens if you buy a second hand box, arse about fitting it and it goes tits up in a few weeks or something?As a matter of interest what did the previous owner say when you told him what had happened?

[Richard]

Is there really no comeback if you punt a dodgy car through an auction?

[Guest]

If you put it through an auction I don't think there's much of an opportunity to get away with it as such. If the box is seized up, they wouldn't be able to drive it around the auction place for a start. The sort of thing you might get away with is hidden rot, some intermittent running problem, that kind of thing. Otherwise you could just send something over with a completely blown-up engine and sell it as if it wasn't, which would make for a bit of a rubbish auction.

[Cavcraft]

Is there really no comeback if you punt a dodgy car through an auction?

Not at most of them, no. That's why it's a gamble and the majority of people know that's it hard luck if you buy a lemon hence why most cars are so cheap. The ony 'rule' being (fortunately) that any semi-decent auction house will HPi everything that comes through so people shouldn't end up with something stolen or on the hit list.As said earlier with autos 99.9% of traders will only want to test first and reverse, this because if the rest of the box is bollocksed they'll chuck it through another auction and try and get their money back.Hirst: you're right of course about non-runners but I've seen first hand cars that were described (by seller) as 'running when bought in' which then went through being pushed or left static, and some mug has bought them. I used to know an extremely dodgy bloke who was quite 'handy' at this kind of bullshit and certainly got away with it more than once. I had privy as to what cars in the auctions were his and consequently never bid on anything that was. I do appreciate some 'innocent' people get caught buying crap at auctions but alas it is the case that most people who frequent them would mug their own granny for an earner hence the 'fair game' bit. Also most people know car auctions are a gamble you should only partake in if you can afford to lose out. I'd personally have no qualms about trying to bodge that box up and let it go round the block.

[Guest]

If you were at a car auction and bought something as a runner entirely on the seller's word, you shouldn't have been there in the first place. I wouldn't have thought anyone would have been dim enough to fall for that."It's not starting, oh no! How am I going to get to the pyramid scheme meeting now? I swapped my last car for some magic beans! Ah well, is a cheque OK? I was going to pay with a wad of £20s I had in my wallet, but they're currently with a nice man who offered to iron them for me."

[Cavcraft]

Hey, you should have been there when someone bid on (and 'won') a pick-up once for about £1200. Sold as a non-runner, he was told (probably by seller on the note on the screen) it drove up to the auctions.Soft lad here spends twenty minutes helping trying to push start the heap of crap as the buyer is all the while telling me how he's some ace van dealer/mechanic.It was only when one of the lads from the auction came up and whispered to me it would only run after a full engine rebuild that I stopped pushing and went home.Transpired it was absolutely corked, the seller must have pissed himself when it sold.