240 / drifting guy, plus neon of course. and with problems

[tryiian]

Hello all. New guy here. 240sx / drifting guy for most of my life, but recently picked up a Neon as a dd. I like it pretty well but even more recently it shut off on me and I`ll be making a diagnostic and suggestion thread as soon as I figure out which sub forum is most appropriate for it. Briefly, the fuel pump won`t prime and i`ve checked fuses and the connector to it for power. More on that in its own thread.

So I say I`m a 240 / drifting guy and if you`ve met or known of any, i`m not too different. Maybe just slightly more geeky and oddball (which, saying you`re more of an oddball than most drifters is really saying something). It was actually a Neon owner, local photog, and friend of mine, Clint (probably eastwoodsn here i`d guess), who turned me towards 2GN well back before my neon had its issues. Back when I asked him about what issues to look for in a neon. He suggested trans cooler which i think is quite wise considering the folks I got mine from said they had blown one in the past in Alabama`s stupidly hot and humid summer weather.

My primary passion or hobby is actually computery things, and I especially follow Apple and a lot of general consumer tech stuff. If you`re familiar with Leo, Kevin, Patrick, Twit, diggnation... then you already know what i`m in to. I also do a ton of rss feed reading... more than is healthy, imo. Just thought i`d throw that stuff out there in case anybody else is interested.

So all that and I`ve hardly said anything about the Neon, the whole point of posting at this place. Well, that may be because it`s a bit unremarkable. If you`ve ever seen a white 00-02 ES, and who hasn't, you`ve seen my car. In fact, I don`t have any pictures where it`s the point of the picture... fortunately, I happened to have it in a place to get shot by aforementioned fellow neon owner when I was using it as a cone running car at our local drift event (alabama`s first decent sized drift event btw!)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stillbandi ... 088489438/

You can watch all my footage from the day if you`re interested, here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RpOKRQ7YRM

or see all of Clint`s pictures here.
http://stillbandits.com/2011/07/alabama ... ados-suck/

but back to the Neon. 2001, ES. Auto (not my favorite, just what was available on the cheap). Manual windows which i like cause they`re less likely to break and easier to fix if they do. Air con worked when I got it, started getting intermittent and would kick on if the brake pedal was pressed (got that idea out of a google search) and now just won`t work at all. Local shop says compressor is probably bad, but i don't know enough about a/c to know if they`re right or not. I`d love to get that working, in case the earlier point about stupidly hot alabama weather wasn't a clear enough indication.

Whoever owned it before was not a huge fan of taking care of it. Inside and outside seemed like they had never ever ever been cleaned when i got it. Belts were slipping and tore off completely shortly after I got it. P/S was not working when I bought it, guy said it was just a hose and putting some fluid in made it start working for a few minutes, but strangely, after the belts tore off and i replaced them, the few minutes became a few weeks between when it would get low on fluid. If it needs a hose, it must not need it very badly because about the only time it gets low is when i really work the system (such as turning the wheel without the car rolling, or doing reverse 180`s). Continuing with the previous owner thing, I also got it without the top of the air box, but the best part of the previous owner is / has definitely been all the electrical issues they`ve brought on the car.

Whatever normally goes below the head unit on the car has been replaced by a three port cig lighter socket hub with a chinese knockoff build quality and garish neon blue light emanating from it (when it works, which isn't always). It`s held in by, as far as I can tell, some glue, so it moves around quite a bit and will turn off or on depending on how it sits. I tried moving it by hand once and (something must have touched because) it blew a fuse... not reassuring. Also plugged into this thingy were these cig socket powered little led light majiggers from auto zone. Two of them in the shape of traditional fluorescent tube bulbs in the front footwells, and other itty bitty leds ran up through the doors and squished in between the roof liner and body panels. When it all works, it does somewhat light up the inside of the car at night but not nearly as well as I imagine the dome light would have if it worked... I haven`t looked into why it doesn't but i suspect all that`s wrong is a bulb out. But putting in blue lights all over the car seemed like more fun to the previous owner than fixing the dome light. The head unit is also aftermarket, and again with the huge, bright blue light (which is always on if the head unit is, very distracting at night, so i covered it with electrical tape). Another sign of not so terribly professional work, the clock on the head unit resets every time the ignition is off, so the random wires attached to places on the fuse box in the engine bay probably account for that strangeness. Which I`m expecting somehow ties into my big fuel pump problem. I`ve tried swapping around some of those relays (since they`re all the same part) but I`m hoping some of them are just bad and need replacing. but as I said at the beginning of this post, the fuel pump connector is showing some power on a volt meter... wouldn't that indicate the relays are alright?

At any rate I think that`s enough for now. I dunno why I felt so talkative this late at night (4am local time). Maybe getting delirious. I bet that`s one of the longest, ramblin`-est intro posts you guys have ever had. I`ll take that honor with pride.

Also one last thing, if anybody could point me in the appropriate direction of a sub forum for making a thread about my fuel pump not working situation, I'd appreciate it.

[C1DoG]

Welcome to 2GN!

You can probably post about the pump in this section
viewforum.php?f=14

[wickedgood4684]

www.streetwisedrift.com

Charlotte based group. Formula D affiliate. They currentkly have venus in Palm beach FL and at Road atlanta. Biggest east coast drift series.

[Midnight_Rider]

[bigbird]

hello there, welcome!