Hello! New to my old Festiva

[erincheese]

My name is Erin, 20 years old and living on my own. I have a '91 Festiva, it is a manual. I bought it in December for $250 and wouldn't start. About $900 later it was up and running to pass inspection. I just took it to a shop since I don't really know much about cars (sorry!). I love my car and want to learn how to take care of it properly and maybe even fix things on my own so that I can save more money. It still needs a lot of work done, so I figured joining a forum would be the place to go! Even with all her problems, I love my car and want to make sure it will last me a long time with road trips and driving it daily.

The person I bought it from delivered pizzas in it and then let it sat for 3 years. It has 130,000+ miles on it. It's running now with some miss firing problems and seems to be eating oil. When I first got it, my ex did some basic maintenance, but won't tell me what he did... I really want to learn how to work on my car, so if you festiva gurus wouldn't mind, where should I start? Where can I get a manual for it? What type of oil should I be using? I've been using Chevron Supreme for gas. I keep refilling when the tank goes bellow half, that's when the miss firing gets really bad. It's kind of hard to explain, but its like the spark plugs (or fuel injectors?) aren't working. Again, my ex replaced one of those, but can't seem to recall what he actually did... I wish I could give better information :/

Anyways, I really would appreciate any kind of help

[Prafeston]

Well I can't help too much, but I will say welcome and I'm sure someone will be along to give you some advice on the misfire. I'm not sure what could be the problem especially as it's related to the amount of fuel in your tank...Maybe it's got bad gas since it sat so long? But I would think you had run all that out by now. Or maybe the shop already drained it. Also 130k on a Festy is pretty low mileage. If you can get it running good you should have a solid DD for some time!

[zoom zoom]

Welcome! Check eBay and Amazon.com for the haynes manuals, usually they're 5-10$ shipped compared to 25$ at a parts store.

Not sure what's going on with the misfire, could be plugs or injectors, but I don't know what the gas level would have to do with it. Plugs are really easy to replace, injectors aren't too hard at all. Might want to start with a fuel filter and seafoam treatment first tho! If it does have some sludge from sitting it can and will keep clogging everything until it gets cleaned out. A couple seafoam treatments might fix it.

Get that haynes manual and go from there! Take the fuel pump out and check for sludge, then you'll have a better idea of where to start.

[RhodeStiva]

the first thing i would do is replace dizzy cap and go from there.

[TominMO]

Maybe some member from or near Houston with good mechanical skills could go over and take a look at it, and give her some good advice based on eyeballing the actual car. $900 is a lot to get the car running, but of course that's mostly labor. You can fix a ridiculous amount of stuff on a Festiva if it's all parts money and you can do the work yourself. These are good simple cars to learn on too.

[drddan]

The gas tank issue. I've read about someone on here having this same issue, sometime ago.
I would look in there and see if its clean or dirty. You can access the entrance to the tank from under the back seat. Flip seat forward, raise carpet, and there is an access panel there to get to the fuel pump. Remove panel, disconnect the wires to the pump, remove the screws, pull up on the fuel pump, and take a look in there.
What you are looking for is crud, built up on the fuel screen, and floating around in there. A little crud wont hurt, as there is usually some in there anyway, but if you have a lot, that is not good. There is a fuel drain plug on the outside bottom of the tank. Also the tank should be somewhat shiny inside. If it is rusted badly, that could be your issue. Doesnt take long to take a look in there, and will comfirm whether thats the problem

[erincheese]

Thanks all for your answers! I ordered my Haynes manual and will start from there.

And thanks drddan! I'll check that out tomorrow, sounds like that's where my problem is

[sc72]

Hello and welcome to the site, Erin, Dr Dan has given you some great advice and it's a good place to start but don't get upset if your problem doesn't go away, it's just a starting point, there are many good people on this site who will do what they can to help. If you do find that the pump filter sock is nasty and plugged your next stop will be the fuel filter next to the firewall on the drivers side. Good luck oh post up some pic's of your car, outside and under the hood.

[Spike]

Also, when the gas tank is 'below half', how much fuel does it take to fill it up completely? It almost sounds like you're running out/low on gas.

I've only seen one Festiva with a properly working fuel gauge, and mine only works above 5.5 gallons.

-Joe

[Prafeston]

To be on the safe side it's always a good idea to disconnect the battery before doing anything on a car. Especially if it consists of unplugging wires around the gas tank!!

[Charlie1717]

Welcome!

I'd start with what drdan has suggested. As well as the seafoam treatment, google seafoam treatment and you will see what it is. It easiest/cheapest to do the easy stuff first, stuff that probably needed done anyway. I'm guessing your ex replaced the spark plugs being that is something a lot of people can do. It would be very easy to pull of the plug wire and get a Spark plug socket and take one out. You should be able to tell if it is pretty new or not. If it is old that will give you a good idea too of how the car is running.

Check your air filter, fuel filter, spark plugs and oil. Also, do the seafoam and it should help the festy. The worst thing is to start guessing and throwing money/parts at the car and get burnt out to find that it was something simple.

There are several members around Houston I think that would probably be willing to help too!

[Charlie1717]

Also, when the gas tank is 'below half', how much fuel does it take to fill it up completely? It almost sounds like you're running out/low on gas.

I've only seen one Festiva with a properly working fuel gauge, and mine only works above 5.5 gallons.

-Joe

Liar you've seen my festiva

[Spike]

Okay.. two.

If I can't fudge the truth, I'd have to eat all the fudge myself.

...*nomnom*

[Prafeston]

Mine appears to have a pretty decently working gauge. Sometimes toward the last like 7/8s of the tank or so it gets iffy so when I see it approaching the red line for E I always try to fill it up sooner rather than later.

[drddan]

I've only seen one Festiva with a properly working fuel gauge, and mine only works above 5.5 gallons.-Joe

^ You need a new sending unit!