Engine overheating and car choking

[Dian1]

I just god a 2000 Neon, but I am having some major troubles with it. It looked OK when I was buying it, but then driving back home it started to choke when I push the gas pedal more suddenly. This got worse to a point where I was afraid to make a left turn, because if I push the gas pedal just a little too much, the car would make weird noises (like banging) and would not really speed up... Then after driving for about 1/2 hour I noticed that the car overheated. I poured more coolant, but it overheated again and I can hear it boiling. Looks like coolant disappears, but I don't see any leaks or any unusual smoke... Does anyone have an idea what could be wrong with this car? Thank you.

[yale329]

check your timing belt and for goodness sakes, for twenty bucks see if you blew a heater or rad hose, or head gasket. Don't drive it till then
Best of luck Wayne

[Dian1]

Thank you for the quick response, Wayne. When you say check the timing belt and the hoses and head gasket, do you mean that I need to take the car to a mechanic? Or is there a way that I can figure out where the problem is coming from? Thanks. Dian.

[das2123]

Is your Check Engine Light (CEL) on? If so, you can read the codes by doing the key dance. If you don't see coolant on the ground, then you might not have a leak. Make sure you mix the coolant w/DI water and not tap water when you pour it in.

Headgaskets were a problem with the 95-99 neons, not the 00 and up!

[yale329]

I would visually check for any anti freeeze leaks first.
You shoud beable to see it.
Rince your engine off all over and under, let it dry and park on a nice clean peice of pavement. If it still runs , just let it idle till it is at normal temperature. you should see a drip som where.
Note, if your worried tow it to a mechenic.
Best of luck
Wayne

[neon_rt]

The most common problem that occurs with a Neon that has not been taken care of is that soon after 100K miles the timing belt, head gasket and sometimes water pump go bad. The manual says to change the belt at 100K, I usually do the head gasket at that time. Every time I have not done the head gasket, within 10-30K miles it went out anyway and warped the head, costing me much more that just a quick head gasket change. Did the car act up the day that you got it? If you got it from a dealer, most states have a "buyers remorse" law that allows you to return the car within 3 days. If a car started acting up on my way home, I would have towed, pushed or drove it back to the dealer and told them to cancel the sale.

[Dian1]

The guy that I purchased the car from must have done some temporary fix, because it seemed to work fine when I test drove it. I just tryed to figure out where the coolant goes, but the car doesn't overheat when it's idle. I guess it starts overheating when I drive it, because I just let it run idle for about 20 minutes and it didn't overheat. I did notice however, that there is some pink fluid leaking (closer to the driver's side) which looks like transmission fluid. I checked the color of the transmission fluid - it seems fine and clean - very pinkish looking.
Do you think this would be the head gasket or timing belt that's causing the problem?