Looking for a little general advice on our 2005 sxt

[andymac0035]

Hello everyone. I've posted breifly before, but now I have a few more questions.
(I just wanted to search around a little before asking).

My wife and I have a 2005 dodge neon sxt with ATX.
It is all stock, and we intend to keep it that way. We've had it since 2006 (18k). It now has around 112k on it. Up till now we really have not put a lot of money into it, as it just plain-old has been good to us.

Last fall I had the timing belt and water pump replaced @ 105k.
This was done mainly because it was the recommeded interval, the car was running fine. Other than having the the front LCA bushings and a few sensors (usually the cam sensor), it's only needed routine maintenance. I do the routine/basic stuff and the local mom+pop shop has done everything else since we've had it. They have been good to us and we trust them.

I spotted two rot spots over the winter (ahhh road salt...) one on the door corner and the other on the DR rocker panel. I will be having patches welded in soon, and that should (I hope) stop all that, at least for a while.

The other thing that recently came up was tie rod ends and LCA bushings (again).
While it was in there they spotted one of the rear struts was leaking.
I've also had a very slow leak in the steering rack for several years now.

So now I'm looking at bodywork, struts, and maybe a steering rack.
That's a lot to get hit with at once....
I also need new front pads and rotors, but I'll be taking care of that.
Tires before summer's end as well.... the hits just keep coming....

So, I'm currently needing to make a decision on two things:

Just do the rear struts?.... Or do all four?
(honestly, the car handles fine for us, even though the struts are original)
The idea being, the front ones ain't broke.... so do I really need to fix (replace) them?

Then there is the steering rack, I need to look at it again to see if the leak is worse, but over that past 5 years or so that's it's been leaking, I've only had to add fluid once or twice.
So I picked up some stop-leak, any reason to not try this first?

Thanks in advance for the help/advice. This is the only car we have BTW, so having it down for extended periods means borrowing (or renting) something, and that's tricky at times, and honestly, I just want to give it what it needs.....not go overboard.

[occasional demons]

If you are keeping it, then replace all four struts. You should anyways, to keep it matched. While it may handle adequately for you, you never know how it may react in an emergency situation. Your braking will perform better with less suspension movement too.



I used stop leak in my leaking rack, and it seemed to do the job. I still ended up replacing it tho, because the bushing was shot causing a klunk, and wandering like a bad tie rod end. As much as it was moving against the seal, I honestly don't know how it didn't have fluid pouring out.

[andymac0035]

Thanks for the reply.

This is a rather unusual situation for me to find myself in because usually my attitude is to put the best possible into my cars/trucks.... in fact I used to go overboard all the time going through things.

A few years ago I would not have hesitated, my attitude was always "whatever it needs, just do it". But when you suddenly are looking at a few grand in repair bills all at once and you don't have the kind of money to throw it things like you used to.....well you get the idea.

I did find your thread/post on your steering rack, and how you got another 30k out of it. I also read what the job entails and that translates to me into some serious lagor charges. My main concern was whether or not any types of stop-leaks react badly with mopar AFT+4?

The bottle I picked up is made by "white shepard".

I did have a clunk in the front end initially (noticed while turning with the car stopped), that was the start of all this. After tie-rod ends and LCA bushings, that is all gone now. Car is driving straight and true after an alignment.

This car has a lot of creaks and goans in the dash, and ALSO, from the rear, which I'm assuming are the struts? So I will be doing all 4 struts, because the plan is to keep the car long-term. Maybe if I'm lucky some of those noises will be less too.

I'll be taking a closer pook at the rack when I do the pads and rotors this weekend.

[occasional demons]

Yeah, it sucks when everything seems to happen at once.

While I hate going into debt for things, sometimes it may be the better option, than driving around on worn out parts/bald tires. If you have Pay Pal, and qualify for the "Bill Me Later" you can use it as 6 months same as cash with purchases over $99. It would give you that long to pay on the parts provided where you get them takes Pay Pal. I am not promoting it, but it beats paying interest like you would with a credit card, if you pay it off in 6 months. Of course if you do not have a place to work on the car, or the tools, it kind of puts a damper on that.


Sure you could do the front struts later, but if you are haveing it aligned, then that is two alignments, which the extra would pay for about one strut.

[andymac0035]

Thank you, I have decided to have all 4 struts replaced, as well as have the bodywork done.

We did in fact, take a small loan out against my retirement, so we have the money to get things done.

I bought the pads and rotors, but mother nature didn't co-operate this weekend, so that's not done yet.

I did get under the car today and look at the rack. It stopped leaking (it does that) so I'm not going to have it replaced. I'm going to wait like you did with yours. What I did do while I was under there was put a pair of zip ties around the sway bar. It may sound silly, but basically, what happens is that when it does drip, the drops land on the bar, and eventually run along each end of it till they get to the sway bar bushings. Hopefully now, the fluid will just stop at the zip ties, and drip off them instead.

Also forgot to mention, one of the transaxle seals is a little damp/wet (passenger side).
Not dripping or anything, just damp/wet. I've checked the fluid and it is full.

Do these seals normally leak/fail much?

[r/tguy02]

^with higher mileage yes, although if its not dripping I'd hold off, replace both when you do.