95 Neon Main Seal, Suspension, Gas Gauge, Overheating

Tiny
RED FORMAN
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  • 1995 ALL OTHER MAKES ALL OTHER MODELS
I have a 95 Noen SOHC with less than 60k miles on it. The reason for the low miles is that it's a Korea car (bought by a contractor from AAFES and driven around this little country for the past decade). The bad side of that is that it's driven for decades on these crappy roads and sometimes by Korean women (bumpercars is fun and what's maintenance?). So, on to the questions.

1. I have an oil leak between the engine and auto tranny. I think it's the rear main seal, but I'm not sure. The area where the engine and tranny meet always has fresh oil on it and it blows back on the half shaft. Is it the rear main seal, and if so, how hard is it to replace?

2. I have replaced the shocks and front sway bar bushings in an attempt to rehab the poor suspension. Unfortunately, I still have a lot of noise in the front. It sounds like somthing is loose over bumpy roads. I can't pinpoint it, but everything seems solid under the car. Thoughts?

3. As I said, I replaced the all four struts. However, when I go over particularly steep speed bumps and moderate speeds, the right strut rebounds hard, making a loud noise. I have been told that Neon suspension were designed with little travel and that was the cause, but the left strut never does it. Also, I owned a 95 Neon back in 97, and it never did it. Bad strut or something else?

4. Sometimes the gas gauge drops to empty. Not a huge deal, but annoying.

5. In the summer, the car occasionally overheated. Most of the time it was fine, but sometimes it would overheat, and I would notice that the fan wasn't running. Sometimes the fan works, othertimes it takes a timeout. I would like to be able to fix this one, but since it's intermittent, I haven't been able to reproduce it with a mechanic.

Thanks!
Red
Monday, January 1st, 2007 AT 5:21 PM

3 Replies

Tiny
SERVICE WRITER
  • MECHANIC
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1. Clean the oil off with brake clean and check it while running. These were common for a headgasket leak on the driver's side rear and I think a cam seal. I remember a TSB on a oil leak being mistaken for somthing else.

2. Moderator Chris ( carundell ) mentioned on a previous post:

easy way to TRY to diagnose these gremlin noises (and I use this on those rattly jeeps all the time) You'll need a min of 3 people to do this. 2 people stand on either side of the car and literally shake the living crap out of the vehicle! (Side to side) the 3rd person (with a good flashlight) looks for the source of the noise. I mean get that car really rockin' back and forth! Pay very close attention to all the suspension parts as this seems to be the source! Let us know!

3. Mounts were also replaced?

4. Ground problem?

5. Another ground problem? Cooling fan relay? Check connector condition for corrision at cooling fan motor.

Note: were the ground strap that attach to the front struts re-installed? May not have anything to do with your problems, but I think they are there to stop electrical errosion of the front wheel bearings.
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Tuesday, January 2nd, 2007 AT 7:07 AM
Tiny
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Thanks for the quick reply!

I took the car to a local Korean mechanic who works on American cars for AAFES and had him look it over.

1. He thought that it was the valve cover gasket, which looks like it could be leaking. He recommended changing that first, cleaning it up well, and then seeing if oil is leaking from the rear main seal. He said the labor to replace the rear main seal would be about $200. I plan on buying the valve cover gasket and camshaft gasket. Will all 95-00 SOHC gaskets fit?

2. He said the noise was being caused by the tie rod ends and recommended I replace the inner and outer on both sides. He showed me that the wheels had play in them when the car was on the lift. He said that this was causing the noise as well as the car's inability to keep its allignment. Not sure about the noise, but it seemed it would at least fix the allignment problem. Bought these on ebay for a cheap price. I will get a couple of my friends together to shake the car, since that doesn't cost a thing except maybe a couple of beers.

3. I replaced the entire strut assembly with quickstruts from Monroe. They came fully assembled, so I just pulled out the old ones and slapped the new ones in their place. When I reinstalled the front struts, I hooked up everything I disconnected, but I don't remember grounding straps. I'll check this weekend.

4. How do I check a ground problem for this? Open the dash, or is it at the fuel tank?

5. I'll check the connectors for the cooling fan this weekend.

Thanks again for the assistance. I will let you know what progress I make.
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Wednesday, January 3rd, 2007 AT 3:06 AM
Tiny
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Your welcome :D

I'll check on the tsb for the oil leak and see about the fuel gauge ground and get back to you.

REgarding parts compatibiliity one our sponsors may be able to help, pretty sure they are the same though.

https://www.2carpros.com/kpages/auto-parts-store.htm

Hopefully you'll make a contribution, if not at least consider supporting our sponsors.

Looking forward to hearing from you.
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Wednesday, January 3rd, 2007 AT 5:17 AM

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