I might buy a 91 festiva..

[engikay]

It has had 7 owners, a salvage title, and currently has over 200,000 miles. It drives okay but the transmission makes some noise in 4th gear. Should I consider buying it?
link to VIN check: http://www.chilsonwilcox.com/autoche...4#full-history

[old yellow]

Festiva Transmissions don't really ever go out, unless somebody put an Aspire transmission in place of the original one

3.77 final gears are better all around then the Aspire's 4.05 gears anyways

[Festivahopeful]

Amount of owners and salvage titles rarely bother me when buying a 20+ year old car. What's the price? Is the noise when shifting into 4th or is it anytime you are in 4th? Do you mind doing some work if the deal is right? I guess only you can answer some of these questions, I see Festivas running and "kind of" driving here and there for 500-1000 so if you are in this range you are probably good, but expect some maintenance.

[nonamekid]

Festiva Transmissions don't really ever go out...

I have replaced plenty of bad festiva trannies. It's alot more common than you think. They tend to lose bearings due to having the tranny fluid drain out of a cv shaft seal. Checking and refilling the fluid is not an intuitive or easy job for the normal grease monkey so it rarely gets maintained.

[old yellow]

oh... well I have replaced 4 or 5 manual transmissions in our Aspire, that's why I assumed

[roycehof]

O.K. - I have had lots of these trannies open. The typical problem is a seal bearing on the outward end of the input shaft. Not a really bad job, but you do need to pull the transmission and split the case. The replacement bearing typically is not sealed (just an open roller ball bearing). When that goes bad it is first noticeable in fourth gear (fifth gear is at the end of the shaft so it isn't noticeable at first). I'm not a betting man, but if I was, that would be my first thought (especially if it goes away with the clutch in but you get noise in neutral with the clutch out (engaged)). There are rebuild kits for these trannies at Autozone and I have seen some on eBay. The transmission is the Achilles heel of this car. Seems like a typical failure point for the bearing is around 250K miles. If everything else is O.K. with the transmission, you could just replace the bearing and it will only cost you about $30. You will need a press though to do it. You will also need a manual because there are little tricks to getting the case separated to get to the insides.