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The Festiva is history, a long and debilitating illness only diagnosed after the car got towed as abandoned. This had masqueraded as worn rings, which was always doubted.
The spring of 2013 a county sheriff's deputy asked the thing be parked since a visual hazard, due a smoke screen from the exhaust.
Oddly, this had seemed intermittent; until after being parked for months, one day I drove around the apartment building, after which the previously easy to start vehicle refused to go.
My theory, confirmed by disassembly of the fuel intake, is that accumulating varnish in the bottom of the gas tank, eventually overwhelmed what was left of the normal gasoline in the bottom of the tank and choked off any ignitable mixture which otherwise would have started the car.
The loss has been discouraging, which was a ride I had hoped to put a 1600/B6 engine in; that already sported 13" Mazda rims and FMS racing/lowering springs. Doing the Aspire brake swap however turned sour, since nowhere was mentioned the Aspire rear axle was wider than a Festiva's..forcing use of 155/13 tires as only the narrowest of rubber wouldn't rub on metal.
The spring of 2013 a county sheriff's deputy asked the thing be parked since a visual hazard, due a smoke screen from the exhaust.
Oddly, this had seemed intermittent; until after being parked for months, one day I drove around the apartment building, after which the previously easy to start vehicle refused to go.
My theory, confirmed by disassembly of the fuel intake, is that accumulating varnish in the bottom of the gas tank, eventually overwhelmed what was left of the normal gasoline in the bottom of the tank and choked off any ignitable mixture which otherwise would have started the car.
The loss has been discouraging, which was a ride I had hoped to put a 1600/B6 engine in; that already sported 13" Mazda rims and FMS racing/lowering springs. Doing the Aspire brake swap however turned sour, since nowhere was mentioned the Aspire rear axle was wider than a Festiva's..forcing use of 155/13 tires as only the narrowest of rubber wouldn't rub on metal.