newbee with questions

[donna]

seems like the board is slow, so here i go with some questions...
1. Is the Fiestiva a Japanese made car, no American parts.
.
2. What weight oil do you use.
.
3. What octane gas is best with city driving.
.
4. Is there a reason why these cars wont blow heat in the winter.
.
5. What real world MPG do you get.
.
6. How many miles on your Festiva with no major repairs.

[jeffdjeffd]

1. yes. Mazda design, built by Kia in Korea
2. whatever floats your boat - drove 400 miles without oil once trying to kill an engine - didn't work
3. lowest you can get without knocking - 87 has always been fine to me
4. Little engine, doesn't create much heat
5. depends on setup and driving habits, mostly. I could get around 38 with my 4-sp carbed car, but rarely over 30 with my auto B6 car
6. HA - I could never go more than a few thousand without modding something!

[quaddawg]

My heat works just fine, and did in all 3 festys I have owned. Low on antifreeze? Controls working? Heater core connected? Blocked? Thermostat installed?

No reason the heat shouldn't work.


36 mpg with a B6 swap, and big carburetor. Stock you should get at LEAST 35-40 or even more... real world MPG


I use 5w-40 Castrol


Korean car, no American parts (probably why they last.... so sad)

87 octane should be fine


What is a major repair? Have had a festy with 150K no "major" repairs, many have MORE miles.

[Pu241]

Re: newbee with questions

seems like the board is slow, so here i go with some questions...
1. Is the Fiestiva a Japanese made car, no American parts.
.
2. What weight oil do you use.
.
3. What octane gas is best with city driving.
.
4. Is there a reason why these cars wont blow heat in the winter.
.
5. What real world MPG do you get.
.
6. How many miles on your Festiva with no major repairs.

1. No, it is not a Japanese made car.
It is a Kia (South Korea) built car from a Mazda design.
I don't know if the engines were made by Mazda or if Kia built those as well.
No, I don't think there are any American parts in it, except possibly the ford oval.

2. Use Castrol 10w-40 or 20w-50 in the summer and 10w-30 in the winter.

3. I use 89 octane it does run smoother and going up steep hills in
higher gears I do not hear the Pinging I get with the 87.

4. The fact that it is a small engine, as noted above does play a roll in low interior heat availability.
But, there can be other factors such as a clogged heater core, pinched heater line, wrong climate
control settings, or broken climate control controls.
In Memphis, I would think the out put of a fully functional system would be more than adequate.
However if you were up in the far northern reaches of Canada I would say it might be less than satisfactory.

5. real world MPG - '93 5spd with 200K miles, I get 45 mpg without working for it in the summer
and if I work at it, I can get well over 50 mpg.
In the winter standard MPG is between 41-43 mpg consistently.

6 currently 212K miles with only "major" repair being control arm replacement back around
130K miles and front bearing replacement at around 150K miles. Otherwise standard stuff;
breaks, oil, valve cover gasket, exhaust pipes, mufflers, axles, etc.
I expect to have to replace the clutch before 250K miles and my
complete rear axle due to too many years in the rust belt.

[WmWatt]

Repairs are a function of age, climate, milage, and use. I've repaired a rusted out hand brake line and all the foot brake line on my '89 here in Ottawa. I now coat the underbody with used oil in the fall. I haven't done any engine or driveline repairs. Cleaned the EGR valve and replaced the timing belt, also the ignition control module (transistorized points inside the distributor). According to the Used Car Lemonaid Festivas have a weak ignition system (electrical parts by Mitsubishi) and I have to wipe the ignition wires down a couple times a year when the engine starts to miss. Since I learned to do my own repairs I haven't been bothered by the cost of labour.

[DuritzCrows17]

ugh mitsubishi is less reliable than alot of american car companies but they still managed to get there electronics in lots of vehicles over time.

[Pu241]

ugh mitsubishi is less reliable than alot of american car companies but they still managed to get there electronics in lots of vehicles over time.

Quite a broad statement, but this states otherwise, and is backed up by numbers!
4th over all is far from the worst of manufacturers and based on 810,000 vehicles is a very reasonable survey!

http://tinyurl.com/2hyxx6

Also because they make various products it is possible for some Mitsubishi products to be better than others.
How many Mitsubishi electronic components have you had fail on you?
How many cars or cars of associates have been less than stellar?
I have no like or dislike of Mitsubishi products, but when a broad statement is made it is nice to see some factual backing for it!

[Quickslick4444]

The only thing to go wrong on my car was a alternator. Just so happened to have a Mitsubishi logo on it. On a side note I don't think anyone has ever said Mitsubishi was "reliable". Mitshubishi is very close with Dodge right? AKA DSM's

[miami man]

my 93 heats very good but my 91 does not heat that well.

[miami man]

both of my festivas and my 1990 323 have not had any major repaires. my 93 i has to put in a radiator a month ago and the last major repair was a water pump job. so far in about 5 years it cost me about 200.00 to 300.00 dollars for repaires. my 91 we had for about 10 years only had a radiator put in now it needs a valve cover gasket. the 90 323 we had for about 6 years and only had to put in a radiator so i have had good luck with these cars plain and simple. these are my facts not hear say evidence.

[donna]

Well I checked my heater today, it blows hot at the floor but just outside air from face vents,,,does it not blow hot thru face vents? seems like i may have read about this, or do i need to check something. It was in the low 90's here today so it wasnt fun turning on the heat, but trying to get things fixed on my neglected 89....I have a Haynes book (again, no help there) , I need to get an owners manual that will tell more about these controls........

[b3 madness]

The dash vents or "face vents" above the radio and on the sides of the dash can not and will not blow heat. They are set up as vents only and can blow fresh or recirculated air only....NO HEAT.

[ajb999]

festiva's only blow heat through the floor and defrost. don't know why. my guess is it looked good on paper.

[donna]

does that go for a/c as well, floor and defrost only? no face a/c?

[batstiva]

A/C, atleast on mine, comes through the face vents, not through the floor or defrost. Not sure why, but they were made into basically two seperate systems. Guess easier than trying to combine all that plumbing. :roll: