I sold my 1996 Dodge Neon Sport Coupe today. I have had this car for 8-9 months and it was perfect. Absolutely perfect. Had 196,000 miles and it looked like it was brand new.

Here are the pictures I took just before the new owner came and drove it away.



Hi.



I had the original window sticker.







I had put in the original quickstart guide that came with the car.





Goodbye.

So I've been painfully struggling to drive my car in this 95 degree heat + humidity. My car has had a weak and squealing A/C compressor when I try to operate it. The can of refridgerent that I put in it back in June just wasn't enough to make the system work cooly.

I put another can in it, and guess what! It works! But it still locks up the belt ruining the power steering. I have always had a problem with that belt not being on tight enough.. so I went out and bought a gear wrench to work on it. The power steering bracket is very difficult to get at without it.

Once the belt was tightened back up the whole system worked beautifully. Who knew all I needed was a tightened belt and one more can of refridgerant!? I wish I had known that back when we took a road trip to Chicago in the blistering sun.

So my car has been "overheating" the last few days, and I didn't really think it was overheating. I was right.

The core support ground is bad.. or it is good. All of the Negative power is running through that one wire on the core support because the bolt is beginning to glow red hot.. and the wire is impossible to touch!

Looks like I've got some investigating to do.. I just replaced that other ground that goes to the engine, now I need to see if the one going from the engine to the frame is still there!

I finally am able to say the car is running fine and without hassles. I have almost put 200 miles on the car since the new radiator went in with no overheating, and no leaks that I can see. The car actually has a bit of A/C charge left in it to, so the air is cold when I need it to be.

The O2 sensor went out.. not sure about which one yet. Probably the one on the manifold, because that is cracked. It could just be the crack that is causing a poor O2 readout.. who knows.

Put the TYCs on it. They look amazing, especially with the amber bulbs which I didn't have / try on the R/T. Also installed an Iceman intake / battery tray, booger bushings (thanks Jeff/Tony), and a radiator from the R/T...



The battery connections are having problems. I know the battery has a charge but I cannot get it to do anything but click (jump starting works, and it runs fine once its started).. I've had the terminals off a few times now, cleaned everything and tried to seperate them. I cannot get it to make a better connection than what it already has. The nuts are pretty well rounded off... can I get new hardware? Or should I try some new connections?

I put a non-holy radiator into it, and I might have botched that up. I am noticing a bit of a drip from where the lower radiator hose goes. I'm not sure if its the clamp being too loose or the hose being punctured minorly... probably have to replace them both. Its okay... I'll be a radiator/coolant champion soon.

The car has been having some problems with overheating. It all started when the return coolant line from the heater core popped off and drained the radiator all over the engine. Luckily I had the tools to secure the line and enough fluids to fill it back up.

I thought everything was fine, but today coming home the temp gauge spiked up. Hopefully its nothing bad.. I've got a new coolant temp sensor to check that its not just a defective one.

Well... the brake line must have collapsed because the caliper has seized. The pads were pressing against the rotor on one side and heated the brakes up pretty good! Looks like the car will be getting new calipers, rotors, pads, and lines soon! Luckily.. those things are pretty CHEAP!

Got the 3.0L intake on the car today. It was trickey.. I don't see how people can just cut the battery tray and get this thing in here. It doesn't help that the filter was like 2" in Dia better than the inlet. I ended up taking out the driver side radiator fan, and just putting it in the front there (off towards the battery tray a bit too).

Took a bit to figure out why the car wouldn't start / get power. Had to redo the connections on the battery a few times till I realized the ground to the core support wasn't hooked up! Doh.. I sure hope this car doesn't gets ALL of its ground from just that little strap to the core support.

The car has a bit of a high idle (~1200 RPM). The IAC might be bad, because I can't seem to notice any vac leaks.

Ran a bit of Seafoam through it.. gonna let it sit til tomorrow and we'll see how much it smokes!

Also.. ordered a set of window stabalizers and a new driver side window track.

Gonna need to look up a new Bobble strut (the engine has quite a bit of movement), and I don't know about the other mounts.

This car is gonna be great.. Quiet. Reliable. (I hope!) Smooth. (the ride is amazing). Working A/C! Factory CD player.. Lights.. etc! I don't think I could let this one go!

Put on the UR (okay.. its a Cosmos) UDP on today with new belts. What a pain in the ass..

The actual removal and install of the crank pulley was easy. Getting the PS belt on tightly was impossible. Its still a little loose, but its as tight as I could get it (and I used the breaker bar in the hole for it). The Alternator was easy.. I'm glad they designed that one better (though it still was a pain!)

Buttoned it up tonight.

Had some major problems that made it take forever.

First, the engine mount had to come off again because the bolt wouldn't thread into the tensioner. So that had to be untensioned and the bolts loosened. Had to rebolt it up straight.. then put everything back on.

Second. The valve cover gasket sucked.. Even with RTV it wouldn't stay in its groove. So I ended up redoing that several times. Then I lost some of the bolts and washer and spent half an hour looking for them.

Third. I decided as long as I have the coolant drained that I should do the thermostat and the pressure cap. While removing the water neck.. broke a bolt off. Not a big deal, my dad used an easy out to remove it. Then he somehow managed to break a hardened steel tap in there. It took like an hour and a half to get that out..

After that.. it went smoothly. Power steering was a bitch to get back on.. the crank was surprisingly easy. Did oil, coolant, spark plugs.. etc. Several new hoses.. The only thing I didn't have was a new 2" section of hose that went to the PCV. Thats the only thing that hasn't gotten back on..

Stock intake system went back on. I still need to get a filter for the 3.0L intake. (I ended up ordering one off of eBay).

With the exception of the PCV having a vac leak. It runs perfectly.. needs some adjusting of the brakes with the new pads put on. Maybe needs a simple bleed.. all fluids are at good levels.

Runs pretty smoothly.