It's a Sway Bar, Not a Drivetrain Support...

[Schildir]

...my Festiva believes otherwise, though...

From the front:


From underneath the engine:


It's been like that since I bought the car, didn't notice until a couple days after I bought it while changing the oil. I have been meaning to post pictures since then, and finally got around to it today.

Is there anything I can go to fix this, other than cutting the bad chunk out and welding a new one in (which I do not have the resources to do)? Maybe bolt a decent sized piece of steel across from the good part on one side to the other?

[collegeboi]

wow.

[Nerd Racing]

I think you are going to have to replace the entire lower radiator support bar with a piece of square tubing.

[blkfordsedan]

Remove the radiator cap, drive a new Festiva under it, then reinstall the cap.

Seriously, ......................WOW.

I would not recommend driving it very much in that condition. It could cause some serious control problems when it finally gives out. If it's that bad, I suspect the rest of the car is pretty rusty as well. You could try to replace the entire support with some steel tube, but I doubt you'll have anything significant to weld to. I would look for another Festiva and swap any good parts over.

[Festiva_Fred]

Could give this a try.. http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=23331

[JPT]

Could give this a try.. http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=23331

^ There's a good idea.

[takeone51]

holy shmoly!

[Festiva_tunner]

Could give this a try.. http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=23331

That's your best bet

[Schildir]

Could give this a try.. http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=23331

Thanks! I didn't even think to search for it.

Surprisingly, the rest of the car, structurally, isn't terribly rusty. I've got a hole in my floor pan, but other than that, it's mostly all body panel rust. The rest of the underside has been preserved by the constant coating of oil it gets while being driven.

[timmay89]

Thanks! I didn't even think to search for it.

Surprisingly, the rest of the car, structurally, isn't terribly rusty. I've got a hole in my floor pan, but other than that, it's mostly all body panel rust. The rest of the underside has been preserved by the constant coating of oil it gets while being driven.

No offense, but that's hilarious. Just a hole in the floor pan, that's it, lol.
The wrecked area should be fixable, just give yourself alot of time to work on it.

[92festie]

if i were you i would go thru you entire car and find all the rust spot and weld em up.(i hate rust!!) but that wouldnt help as you dont have access to a welder

[Dave G]

This is one of my pet peeves - it's not a "sway bar", it's the main trailing link that holds the dang front wheels in place! All the stress of both acceleration and braking is transferred through this arm. "Sway bar" indeed...

Also, those things you all call "rims" are wheels. The outside edge of a wheel is it's rim, but not the whole thing.

Andy Rooney mode off

[Ogrestiva]

Thats actually a very common problem...it happened to 2 of my vechicles. I ran my white one with the mount like that for about 10k-20k miles before I sold it. Not that I would recommend that, but the rest of the car was junk anyways. The only good fix is to re-wield that whole area with new metal.

[blkfordsedan]

Sorry, I thought the bracket that was rusted out (off) was the sway bar mount. If it is just the engine cradle mount then that's a little better. If the area where the sway bar mounts to is OK, then there is hope! The sway bar mount has a lot of different forces acting on it and is critical for keeping the front suspension geometry in place.