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For the last 5 years i have been driving a 2001 se with the 3 speed auto... i'm not a fan of this transmission or the way it shifts and am currently thinking about doing one of two things, one is selling the car and getting a truck with a manual, or two is swapping out the transmission for a 5 speed. I have looked through this forum and found a number of lists for doing a swap and many things still seem a little unclear, but one main concern right now is over-all cost for doing a swap. If one of you guys who have done this can even give me a guesstimate or advice it would be greately apreciated.

I was wondering this exact same thing. The cost of a SRT engine is high so I want to just put a 5-speed in my 2.0 and be happy but want a cost estimate and a parts list.


Help us without being mean. We did look! :p

This is a very difficult question to answer. Here is why...

Cost of parts will vary. Junkyard or private seller? Some things will be easier to find than others. For the basics you will need trans, clutch, clutch controls, shifter and controls, PCM (possibly).

Cost of labor will vary. Are you willing and able to do the work yourself? Paying someone to do this at a shop would be very expensive if you could find somewhere willing to do it. If you are doing this yourself, be prepared first. Don't expect this to be done in a driveway with basic hand tools in a weekend.

Now, is it worth it? That depends too. Do you drive in traffic a lot? If so, you may not want a manual for long. If you are looking for better performance, you should look into a R/T or ACR trans with 3:91 gears. If you want economy, go with the standard 3:55 gear.

There is much more, but that is something to think about first.

well, due to a recent accident with a deer... (deer ran into the side of my car on a highway) i'm paying $100 deductible to get the $2800 worth of damage fixed and then i think I will be moving on to a truck for winter. I am still looking for the 5 speed, i do a decent amount of driving in trafic but i am used to driving a dump truck with a manual through it so it really doesn't bother me, i for some reason prefer it

Being that you both have 3 speed ATX's the PCM shouldn't be needed. I believe the speedo input is the same, driven off the passenger side axle. There are really no other inputs, other than possibly the TC lockup, but that would be an easy work around. The 4 speed is the one that has a lot more issues to work out.
For the 2000 you will need a chunk of firewall from an '01-up for the master cyl. to mount in. If you search hard enough there was a thread with pics for that.

occasional demons wrote: For the 2000 you will need a chunk of firewall from an '01-up for the master cyl. to mount in. If you search hard enough there was a thread with pics for that.

you can customize the firewall instead of replacing the "chunk" or you can just simply use a manual tranny from a 2000, if you have a 2000... the 2001+ are hydraulic instead of cable

If you have a pull a part style junkyard to go to, it can be really cheap.
http://www.pullapart.com/Default.aspx
They have all kinds of different variations in names, pick a part, pick ur part, u pull it and so on. Check out your local yellow pages. There are also the conventional private junkyards, they seem to be more expensive and have no set pricing.

As an example of pull a part cheapness...
$55 transmission
$11 clutch
$30 axle
$10 clutch cable
$7 shifter/cables
$15 pedals

Then you can just buy new fluid/axle seals for $30 more and you have it done for $160. Your experience may vary!

There was one privately owned yard I spent a couple thousand at over the years that had a neon I wanted to buy whole, but they couldn't get the title. They let me have whatever I wanted for $150. I grabbed the transmission, axles, hood, steering rack and a couple other bits.

i have swaped two car now and the first one i picked up a car that was blown up i picked it up for 500 got all of the parts out of it i needed then went and scraped the car for almost 400 so it is just what kind of deals u find. then with my with my neon ji have 1500 in it just cuz i could not find any thng in state and a trany for less than 500 so it just depends on the deals u can find

Some dude was going to sell me everything for $100...so it very much depends on what kind of deals you fine. Meet as many people as you can in the local neon community and you'll get some stupid crazy deals where people are almost paying you to take out their trash (or treasure?)