Running lean? Idling funny? No apparent vacuum leaks? Here's what I did

[mexaspire]

Hi guys! This is my first post!
I have a 1997 Ford Aspire MT, which is almost like the Festiva, so I decided to post this in case someone could use some help.

I recently bought a 1997 Aspire with only 88k miles on it. There are lots of small things that are wrong with it but what got to me the most was that it was not accelerating properly.
It had a lumpy idle and would accelerate ok but it felt like it was cutting the fuel and/or running lean when accelerating hard.

I did a full service including oil change, spark plugs, wires, rotor, air filter, cleaning the intake, etc.... And it still was doing it.

I recently did the brakes and while bleeding brakes, I lost all my brakes, pedal would go clean down, so I started troubleshooting the brakes. Obviously, I tried pumping the brakes and when doing that, the engine would almost die.... So.... vacuum leak coming from the brake booster!!!! I thought it only would have a leak when brakes applied, so I didn't think about it too much. Long story short, my brakes came back, I believe some junk got into the master cylinder and it got sort of fixed when bleeding the brakes twice. I still have to replace the master cylinder because I have a slow fluid leak and the booster (because it kills my fuel mileage, acceleration and because it has a vacuum leak). Now I know that my acceleration issues are caused by the master cylinder.

How do I know this? I was thinking about the booster again, and I decided to run the engine with it disconnected, of course, plugging the intake manifold where the booster connects to it. I then ran the car and the acceleration problem went away, so that is where my problem is. If you are going to troubleshoot this yourself be very careful because without vacuum you basically will lose your brakes and it will make it extremely difficult to stop the car, so troubleshoot accordingly.

I am now moving on to two other big items that my Aspire is giving me trouble with which are the front bearings making a ton of noise (thinking about putting in Kia Rio hubs and not worrying about the spacers needed) and the front end clunking when going over bumps. Tried replacing motor mounts but that didn't make the bump go away.

Thanks for reading and I hope to add more helpful tidbits in the near future!

[WmWatt]

Front end clunking could be worn stabilizer bar bushings but maybe not with your low milage. Peopel have difficutly finding replacemets and there are posts here about making your own by modifying from other cars. I got replacements from FourGreen some years ago. One way to diagnose front end bumps is to get under there with a pry bar and look for loose stuff. Good luck.

[mexaspire]

Thank you much for the response!
I am looking into refreshing the whole front end suspension with shocks, control arms and bushings, tie rod ends and see if that helps. I am thinking the ball joints are maybe worn and that is what causes the clunks but there are at least ten different parts up front that could be causing the thumping.

On a different note, I am aware that a lot of parts are interchangeable between the Festiva and the Aspire, what about the Aspire and any Kia models? As I continue to do repairs I would also like to update parts that may have become more resilient in the Kia range.... Thanks!

[WmWatt]

I tried Kia struts on my Festiva. they are higher and stiffer but they have ball bearings which make stewering easier if that's wanted. People have reported cutting down the springs to shorten. You can also swap just the tops to get the ball bearings although a heavy washer is needed to take up some slack. There were lots of posts here at one time. If interested you could do a search of this site on Kia struts. I thought the Apire front wheel bearings were no pressed on like the Festiva bearings. Again a search here will bring up plenty of info on that subjec too. This site used to be very active, not like now.

An unusual source of front end noise is loose brake rotors. Happened to me and took a while to figure out and a pain to fix because the bolt heads are at the back and the hubs have to be unpressed from the knuckle to get at them to tighten. Teach me to torque bolts when repalcing rotors.

[mexaspire]

I would not mind ball bearings to help me with the steering! It does get a little tricky doing all that parking at slow speeds and no power steering. Do you know if it’s just parts for the early 2000s Kia Rio? And the ball bearings, we’re talking ball bearings on the top mounts, right? So you change out the mounts and the struts?

Not it ready to do any lowering, I think the height is appropriate.

I was looking at the front bearings because they’re noisy. I couldn’t really do much because my rotors were not letting go from the hub and I didn’t want to mess with the ball joint to get to the rear of the hub. I don’t think the noise is the rotor because it’s rusted together to the hub, couldn’t even bang it off! I’ll have to go at it again. And I am sure the hubs have the weird spacer setup as well which is problematic with or without the shims. I was trying to do away with the shims.

[WmWatt]

A search this site on Kia Rio struts should answer your questions better than my memory. Yes ball bearings in the top mount. Stock is bushings. Also lots of info here on front bearings. Just keep the spacers and replace on same side. They go between the inner and outer bearings to hold them the right distanced apart for your knuckles so you can torque down the axle nut to the recommended 150-180. It's not like the rear bearings where you tighten the axle nut until the pressure feels right on the bearings and then stake the nuts in place. Good luck.

[harpon]

Found a loose wire on my distributor cap when my 96 Aspire had started missing and running rough and I'd seen this thread last week- so I was going to change the plugs, but it was raining today and I'm just barely recovered enough to do ANYTHING like that in the hot Florida Summers these days- new platinum plugs are on order, and I decided it just might be time for a new cap and rotor- so anyway- in the next few weeks or months when I can get to it. I might turn some time to the 91 Festy if I can too.

Runs great again after putting the plug wire back in solid, so thank God for the easy quick fix when you find one!.


Below- an electric bike is the BEST way to see old St. Augustine

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[mexaspire]

So I finally ended up replacing the brake booster and master cylinder, but had two big problems.

First, the brake booster I got was from a 1997 Ford Escort with discs up front and drums in the rear. It was a pain in the butt to fit correctly for two reasons, one, the four studs that go into the car are longer and take a lot longer to bolt. Second reason, the stem that connects to the pedal was too long, so after adjusting it and it not fitting I had to trim an inch off the stem, then adjust, then it worked great.

I STILL have the weird vacuum thing where the engine idles all funny when I pump the brakes. The hose connecting the booster to the engine is the original and I believe it still holds a vacuum.

Second, the master cylinder from the 1997 Escort with the same configuration is a completely different monster. For one, the reservoir from the Aspire is different and does not fit correctly, it leaks. For two, the master cylinder has these two big holes in the bottom of it where fluid is also pushed out. I tried plugging these with epoxy but no dice, started leaking within the second pump. Even if you try and finagle your reservoir and plug the holes like me, you will likely get a huge leak and lose brakes.

I can attest that you can use the brake booster as long as you shorten the stem accordingly but the master cylinder is a no go.

I also realized that my brake bleeder was letting a whole bunch of air into the lines, that's why I don't usually trust the vacuum bleeding of brakes. So finicky.

I am now on to the road of putting on front struts and mounts from the Kia Rio 2001. I am just unsure as to whether or not I can use my stock springs without cutting any coils.
I also have not yet gotten around to replacing the front bearings, which are very noisy. As to whether or not I will be replacing the hubs or spindles remains to be seen.

Thanks for the help!

[mexaspire]

Over the past few days, I have been troubleshooting the front end knock and also replacing a few suspension parts and such on the front end.

I successfully installed a pair of 2002 Kia Rio Struts on the front with 2001 Kia Rio Mounts (2 bolts for the Aspire and Festiva, not the three bolt). There was no noticeable change in ride height or ride quality but there is a little bit less effort used to turn the car now due to the Kia Rio mounts using bearings. I reused my springs and all rubber hardware, the bump stops were in bad shape, dust boots great shape, rubber piece on springs bad shape. Was able to mount it all back together with relative ease and to reuse most of the rubber after repairing it.

I replaced outer tie rods, EXTREMELY easy. Used a jack to apply pressure from below then a few taps with a hammer and voila. The ones on there were shot and the new ones are doing great. Just remember how many turns to take the old ones off!

I also replaced a pair of bearings in the front axles. And yes, the Aspire does use shims that fit in between the bearings. These shims are about 4/16 on an inch or about 2cm and you have to reuse them. It wasn't extremely difficult to remove the hubs but the nuts holding the axles in were. I used a long pry bar and a 2m or 6ft long tube over that. You then remove your caliper, rotor and then it should pull out with the use of repeated force or RECOMMENDED a hub puller. The hub pulls out in one piece with the front dust cover and front bearing attached. You can use another puller to remove these. The inner bearing and dust cover or seal you can remove if you disconnect the tie rod end, the strut from the knuckle and then move the axle out of the way, then you use a large socket and a hammer to pound the bearing and the seal out, not a lot of force needed. If you do that, you will only get the seal and the bearing, not the race. The bearing races, both inner and outer, stay in there and I didn't attempt to remove them but you can either press them out or cut them out. I didn't want to do that. Clean the bearings if they are in good shape and repack them and your bearing noise should go away or replace the bearings and pack them with grease. New bearings are cheap and the bearing races should be ok if they were not run dry.

I also attempted to remove the sway bar but I was not able to pull it out because you have to drop the front subframe to remove it, and I didn't want to go through all that trouble. It was easy to remove the sway bar mounts and inspect the rubber. Sway bar bushings on the ends of the control arm were also not possible because you can't move the sway bar forward without removing the subframe. Left that alone.

I still have a knock in the front end if I go through a bump at high speeds but not as bad as before. If in doubt, the outer tie rod ends are very easy to replace and shouldn't take you more than 1/2 hour per side.

My engine still idles funny but I will repost that on another post.

Thanks!

For reference, the part numbers on the struts I used are Sensen brand 42141060 and 42141061
The strut mounts I used are ST4980 (ST-4980) from Westar
The tie rod ends are ES3388 from MCQUAY-NORRIS

[mexaspire]

Today, I went in for an alignment and discovered what the front end clunk is. If you are stumped, like I was, and checked ball joints, cv axles, tie rods and such and can't find anything, don't forget to check your steering rack!!!! The alignment guy showed me the right hand side of the steering arm has CONSIDERABLE up and down play, which is not good, at all. But that up and down motion is the clunking I have spent months tracking down. Don't forget to check that!