Festy lunges and stalls

[Munner]

Hey everyone,

What a frustrating day! I just picked my festy up at the shop after getting a new rad fan motor installed.

I'm driving down the road and the car kinda lunges as if it lost power for a second then kicks back in. THis happens a few times then gets worse. I'll stop at a red light - light turns green - step on teh gas and nothign happens, no noise, no movement...just sitting there like it's dead but it's still running, stereo is still playing. Then it'll kick in and i'm rolling again. It'll do that 2 - 3 times then stall.

Anyone have any ideas before I take a shotgun to my festy?

[HappyMom]

Spark plugs, plug wires? Have these been changed lately?

There's a long thread somewhere started by Tim about the same problem

[noreneol]

Car Lunging

Timing belt? I had a nasty experience like that with my dearly departed Chrysler.If that's it get it tightened or replaced ASAP.Without that you cannot drive.
N.Y.

[darkdan]

That's what happens to my car everytime the plugs start to go bad.

Which is every 8000 miles roughly on my car.

I'm one of the few people that change plugs more often then oil. =)

[Munner]

well I replaced the spark plugs and wires...took it for a test drive and it was still doing the same thing.

All day I had been thinking "it feels like it's running out of gas but it's not" - the gas gauge was at half. As I was test driving I noticed that the sputtering and lunging came mostly after I turned a corner. I figured that I"d go fill up the tank just to see if it had anythign to do with the gas. The sucker took $20 in gas and I usually put $21 - $22 to fill it up. I guess my gas gauge was just screwed up and here I am driving around all day with no gas! lol After I filled'er up she ran like a charm!

Is fixing/replacing a gas gauge difficult?

[noreneol]

Lunging and Stalling

Dunno,these cars seem to be easy to work on.But I let my mechanic fix mine.My gag gauge didn't work either so they had to get another sending unit for it.Is that and the "floater" the same thing?
Bye,
N.Y.

[studdyhalllooser]

the gas guage sending unit is easy to fix. the problem is finding one. i could not get one ordered from autozone or napa. get you a haynes manual. they are 15 bucks and tell a lot bout the car. to replace it you have to take out the back seat....fold forward the carpet (from the floor seatbelt asembly to the back of the front seat)...and there will be a little shiny plate with 4 screws in it...take off the plate...disconect the electrical conectors going to the fuel pump and take off the fuel lines. unscrew the 12 or so screws holding the fuel pump in and take out the fuel pump. the fuel sending unit (thing that makes the gas guage work) is conected to the side of the fuel pump. you have to tilt the top of the pump to the back of the car as you pull it out...be careful not to bend anything up or drop anything in the tank. disconect the sending unit from the pump and there ya go.
with it out it would be a good time to feel in the tank for any sand or dirt in the bottom of the tank. get as much as you can out with your hands and a little piece of screen if you have any. you should also replace the fuel pump filter (called a fuel pump screen) wile you have the pump out. its only 10 bucks. instalation is reverse of removal
it should only take a couple hours at the most.
good luck

[Tim]

I got the sending unit for a carb'd Festiva if you need it



Regards,

Tim