head gasket problems anyone

I am looking at buying a 99 breeze and was told they have head gasket problems with the 2.0 has anyone out there had those problems? or know of anyone who has?

Don't know my engine size, but I had to have my head gasket replaced. That was consistent with my experience on a number of other older Chrysler vehicles.

they came out with a new head gasket design in early 1998 (august of 1997 but 1998 model year) to fix the problem. motors with the new head gasket report very few failures.

Either mine didn't have the new design or it didn't work because mine is a 98 and its failure was just like that on at least 4 other vehicles I've had.

here is a cut and past from allpar about the problem. and at the bottom is the link to the TSB from chrysler on it. It goes without saying that maintenance on the cooling system (lack of it) will cause a gasket failure on any car. But the 2.0L with the old 95-97 gaskets are pre-disposed to it. Also this is the sohc motor we are talking about the dohc motor had but a few gasket failures! mike

Common repairs: head gasket.
The Neon head gasket seems to typically last about 60,000 miles, at least for 1995-97 models. Calling Chrysler will usually yield a new head gasket for $100 at most, assuming you have less than 100,000 miles on your car (call 800 992 1997). The new head gasket design is better, we are told, and not likely to fail quite so quickly. Symptoms: oil in the antifreeze, oil on the engine, antifreeze in the oil. (Note that a leaking valve cover gasket can also spill oil onto the engine, though this is much less common). Dealers are also empowered to do this for free but most will not.

Chrysler did introduce a revised (MLS) head gasket which works much better and seems to be designed to last the life of the car. It was brought out in 1998 models and should have eliminated the problem - if you get a new one.


TSB LINK:
http://www.neons.org/neontsb/TSB/09/090598.htm

ok according to this article the problem was fixed in sept of 1998 for 1999 model year. mike

link:
http://www.aa1car.com/library/2004/us60426.htm

lastly here is a link to the allpar 200,000 mile club (when i searched for 2.0L)
one has 440,000 miles on it and there is multiple pages of them despite the head gasket problem early on! mike

Link:
http://www.allpar.com/old/club/search.php?q=2.0&type=engine