General questions about the automatic Festys

[Tim]

I've never owned an auto Festy before, and I have a few questions.

Is it normal for them to shift hard from 1st to 2nd gear? Mine will slam into gear if I'm giving the car a lot of gas. 3rd is pretty smooth.

Also, what is the lifespan of the drivetrain? Can I expect 200,000+ out of my automatic?

Do the higher RPMs cause excessive engine wear? I can't imagine cruising at 4000 rpm does the bearings/water pump/alternator any good.


Regards,

Tim

[shawnw]

I cant answer all your questions but I can share my experiences with my auto as well as a few others that I've driven.

Yes, if you're hard on the gas they will shift quite firmly. I've got a bit of a sweet spot that gives nice crisp shifts without having to crawl at a snails pace. But thats like most cars, cheap, compacts in particular. If you give it a lot oof gas it'll shift pretty hard.

We've got 250,000kms on ours and it's still not doing to bad. The previous owners did 90% of there driving in horrible stop and go Vancouver city driving so thats a testament to how well these will last with a stock B3 engine.

I imaging it would be harder on the engine, how could it not be. But from my experiences and from what I've learned on this site the stock motors are very durable and tough.

[FB71]

high throttle angle will yield high line pressure, resulting in hard shifts, especially 1-2.

I've ha d a few autos open to do Yvan's performance mods, and have seen no appreciable wear at around 150k miles.

no worse on engine wear than a 4-speed manual

[Safety Guy]

Luxstiva now has around 220K miles on her with what appears to be her original ATX. Shifts okay: not perfectly smooth, but not hard.

I did the engine swap to the B6 around 190K or so. Yep, I don't like the high rpms at over 65mph, but it seems to be okay.

I never thought I'd like an ATX in a little car, but I've gotten to like it, especially for commuting. After I clock in and grab my foam coffee cup, it's nice not to have to shift getting to the worksite.

Tim, if there's nothing wrong with it now, it should last for awhile. The autos are supposed to be pretty robust.

Karl

[Justin]

high throttle angle will yield high line pressure, resulting in hard shifts, especially 1-2.

I've ha d a few autos open to do Yvan's performance mods, and have seen no appreciable wear at around 150k miles.

no worse on engine wear than a 4-speed manual

My Auto has around 125,000 & after I did my fluid & filter it Shifted Really Smooth so you might want to Try that out as well.

FB71- What is this Trans Mod you Speak of??

[muscle_Car1]

yeah either you or brian should really rehost that info.

[FB71]

Brian did, check the "Custom Engine and Drivetrain" forum.

[GenevaDirt]

Link does not work that I find...went through all the pages to see if anyone updated it. No go. Am I missing it?

[FB71]

ah, ok. I thought Brian updated it. He has it in a PDF format.

[25Horseplay]

I will have to get that fixed, thought it was working.

[miami man]

i have two festiva automatics and when i give it the gas to get on the highways it shifts hard but otherwise smooth. my 91 drops out of drive and into nutral and makes a grinding sound so i will rebuild it myself for the knowledge.

[Tim]

My Auto has around 125,000 & after I did my fluid & filter it Shifted Really Smooth so you might want to Try that out as well.

FB71- What is this Trans Mod you Speak of??

Well it just got serviced a year ago... the owner was coming home from a ski trip and it started slipping and leaking massive amounts of fluid.

She took it to the dealer where they did a $200 "Transmission Service" (whatever that is) and I assume it had the fluid and filter changed then.

I guess it's just a quirk of the transmissions.


Regards,

Tim

[MONSOON]

Ive noticed the harder shift between 1 - 2 as well. But have to say Im not totally disappointed with Bella. Seems to be getting good gas mileage even the way I drive which is normally around 70 on the hwy. Might get lucky and get better with a good tune up.