Just picked up my "new" '90 Festiva

[Nihilist]

I just picked up my '90 Festiva L Plus today. It is an auto, with 100,800mi.

I have a complete set of Ford manuals on the way, just an FYI.

It was cold today, and after I stopped for lunch, the cold engine initially started fine, but then lost rpm and died, as if no choke/enrichener was applied. I restarted the car and applied a little bit of throttle, until the engine stayed running.

Once it warms up, the idle is high, about 2k rpm when in park or neutral. When I put it in drive , it drops to about 1k rpm , and has a rough idle.

There is also a sound from the accessory side of the engine that I can best describe as a blender full of sand. My guess is the water pump is going out. Any ideas ?

Tomorrow morning I plan on doing the basics , oil change, plugs, cap/rotor , etc. Any ideas where to look for the cause of the high idling and starting problem's ?


Thanks for any help..........................Blake

[Sparky]

Congrats on the purchase....a blender full of sand- never heard that description before! I'm no expert, so I will let the more knowledgeable fellas here help you down the path to your answer...you can learn so much here.

Got any pics?

[Nihilist]

A blender full of sand that varies with rpm.

Here's a link to the EBay listing. Only pics I have right now.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ru=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.ebay.com%3A80%2Fsearch%2Fsearch.dll%3Ffrom%3DR40%26_trksid%3Dm37.l1313%26satitle%3D220301246715%26category0%3D%26fvi%3D1&item=220301246715&viewitem=

It is pretty clean overall. A 1'x8" shallow dent on passenger side, behind door , minor rust around wheel wells.

Seems to run pretty well on the highway/around town.

GOTTA change the oil. Talk about BLACK gold . . . .Better said black and old.Nothing "gold" about it !


................................Blake

[25Horseplay]

Looks like a decent car. I have a 90 L plus too with a 5 speed and A/C!

[packrat427]

Nice looking car and congrats !!

You got a great deal.
I never seen that one on e-bay ??
Look what I missed out on

[batstiva]

Does the sand in a blender thing go on all the time, or only when the car idles high/low? When mine was idling rediculously high, I had alot of racket that seemed to be coming from the A/C compressor.(Sand in a blender not too far off) When the idle settled down, the noise pretty much went away. Saw from the ebay listing that it had an idle problem. That one's EFI right? Only ever owned a carbed one, so a little useless on FI models.

[freshtiva]

Ive got a blue 90 L plus too. Welcome to the club !!

[jr.fester]

I had the same issue.... do a compression check I had a really low cyl. on mine.

[Nihilist]

Well, I changed the oil/filter , cap and rotor, and plugs. I ordered a pair of air filters, as they don't stock them. Just cleaned the old element and airbox for now. Runs better, but the high idle-in-neutral/rough-idle-in-drive is still there.

Where do you guys get cap/rotor from ? I bought one from Autozone, it was their Duralast brand, and although it works OK, the caps' mounting holes were a bit wider than they should have been.

I will do a compression check when I can. Between crappy weather, work , and basic tedium of life, I haven't gotten to it yet. Is there any way to tell if low compression is caused by rings or valves , other than taking it apart ?

Most of the plugs looked tan and had ash buildup. One was obviously oil fouled, but not to the point of being "fouled out" . It was darker than the others and had more deposits on it.

I am running a bottle of Seafoam in leiu of 1/2 quart of oil, and also used a bottle of Seafoam in the fuel when I filled it up. After about 500 miles, I plan on running some Gunk Motor Flush and changing the oil again. Hopefully this will help flush out some of the nasty crap that was in the engine.


I'm still waiting for my shop manuals to show up. Any ideas on the high idle scenario ? It idles smoothly in Park or Neutral at 2k rpm, but drops to 1k rpm in Drive/Rev. and gets kinda rough. Vacuum leak or something ?


Thanks guys............................Blake