98 Dodge Neon

RLWHITELEY

MEMBER
1998 DODGE NEON

I have a 98 dodge neon with 156,619 miles on it. Yea I know its alot of miles. But I have an odd problem that no one seems to have any idea on how to fix.
My car started over heating a few weeks ago. First I replaced the thermostat, then the water pump. And now its still over heating. I took it to a mechanic and he ran a few tests on it and ruled out there being a gasket problem and a fan problem, Then he said it was the sending unit. So I replaced that. Now its still over heating. I dont know what to do. Or how to tell if its the radiator or not. I dont have too much of a budget So I cant afford to do the ruling out process, by replacing part after part.
So here is what its doing now. It will run for a little while with no problems, And the moment the fan turns on it starts to over heat. Whitch is really odd from seeing how When the fan comes on its sapposed to cool the car off. So if ANYONE could help me I would greatly appreciat it

5 Replies

GOODSAMARITAN742

MEMBER
12 POSTS

My wifes dodge neon(97) does the same thing.I noticed that the the canister that hold the coolant has been full for quite some time so im wondering if my wifes neon's engine isnt getting coolant. Have you checked the coolant level. I know that the fans on my wifes neon come on after a while but it doesnt seem to help hers out either.

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Wednesday, April 11th, 2007 AT 1:50 AM

FIRSTNEONOWNER

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2 POSTS

It may sound dumb but try changing the raditor cap should be under $8.00. You may be low on coolant in your rad. And it can't retrive anything from over flow. Also let me know do u have heat. Let me know if I was a help or not. If not i'm very sorry. Low budget myself

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Thursday, April 19th, 2007 AT 12:02 AM

GOODSAMARITAN742

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12 POSTS

Heat is fine on the car. But I have noticed the engine seems to be running pretty hot. The temp gauge is registering that it is fine?However all the gauges have been working intermittingly. The gas gauge and speedometer only work sometime so im wondering if it(the temp gauge is faulty as well)any how ive noticed that the coolant tank doesnt seem to be going down(its been at the same level for quite some time) it also looks like I might have over filled it. Another thing to note is that the idle problem gets worse after long drives. It starts out fine but if you drive for awhile it seems to get worse. And has died in the past. It has never overheated though. There is some tyoe of line near the radiator that looks like its been baked to a crisp.I tried to follow it to figure out what it is and it seems as if it goes near coolant tank but I cant be for sure. When my wife is driving the car she sometimes notices excess heat near where her feet are. We allways check that the heater is nt on. It gets how enough to be bothersome. Well thats all I can think of for now.

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Thursday, April 19th, 2007 AT 2:20 AM

FIRSTNEONOWNER

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2 POSTS

It that hose is coming from just below the rad cap its the over flow hose. Its probablly shut tight. Not lettin any coolant go through Good samaritan go ahead and just e-mail me it may be eaiser.

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Thursday, April 19th, 2007 AT 11:47 PM

RRV

MEMBER
9 POSTS

I had a similar problem and mechanic told the water pump was out. Had it recently installed and along with the timing belt and also the pullye (as it had chipped out somehow).

Have you done a pressure test on the radiator to check for any possible leaks or lose hoses.

Depending on the age of the radiator. The top portion of the radiator is made of some kind of plastic and it starts with a small hair line crack and gets worse. I had this problem initially so got a new radiator installed.

Hope this helps fix your problem. All the best.