Looking at a 1996 Neon 4-Door with 83,500 miles on it. Auto trans. My son is interested in this car. Have owned Dodge Spirits for years and I do like the cars. Have heard that the head gasket is a trouble spot for this year of Neon. What do you people know about this? Really would like to buy it. Thanks for the info! John

Yes they do have head gasket problems but no big deal. The new gaskets have been redesigned. I have done manhy repairs on these and have not had aone to come back. Just do a good clean job and do things correct and any other head gasket job.

has the gasket already been done? i have a 99 and mine started to leak just before the warranty went out on it so i was lucky. being that it has 83,000 miles on it it may have already been done. other advice that i can give you is aroung 100,000 miles or so replace the timing belt because if it breakes your going to bend some valves at the least, while your changing the belt change your water pump too regardless if its leaking or not being that it is located behind the timing cover and is driven by the timing belt as well. I made the mistake of not doing that 12,000 miles after doing the timing belt my water pump started to leak therefore i pretty much had to do the same work all over again. the only other problem that the older neons tend to have is the rear main seal but other than that its a pretty good moter i cant complain with mine hope this helps you out in your decision

Yes yoi are correct and I guess I failed to say anything about the timing belt. As for a Neon I would always recommend doing a timing belt anytime a head gasket is done. I mean why not you have it almost off. This would always be a smarter time do get it out of the way. And yes if any timing belt drives the water pump or even if the timing has to be removed to do the job by all means replace it too. And I would say always put on a new water pump. With the prices today a new water pump will always be better than rebuilt.