I'm stumped

[nonamekid]

1993 festiva w/ 1.3 and 5-speed, 220,000+ miles, no AC or PS
new plugs, cap, rotor, and wires

Here is my problem. I'll be driving down the road at 70 mph, on flat terrain, and then all of a sudden it will feel like I've taken my foot off the gas pedal a little bit and my speed will start to decrease. If I don't move foot on the pedal and wait another 30 seconds, the power will change again and the check engine light will come on. As soon as I take my foot off the gas pedal the check engine light goes off and my car seems to run ok till it starts happening again. It has been getting worse recently, such that when I'm driving, it won't accelerate in 5th gear and I'm only doing 60-70 mph. Also sometimes when it is acting up, it will shutter or when I give it a little more gas it will start losing power like it is missing. Sometimes the car will work fine and I can go 90mph, I don't get it.

Also, one more question, what is the correct timing mark I should be using? There is a mark with a "T" and then there is one that looks like an "8".

[FB71]

sounds like fuel delivery. I'd lay money you have a fuel pump starting to drop out.

[nonamekid]

I had another festiva that I sold that did the same thing so I figured it was kind of common and other people had run into the same problem.

[packrat427]

Maybe if we compare notes we can solve this eventually , I have been chasing this same problem for 2-3 months ,come's and go's if you have seen my other posts , plugs ,wires ,cap ,rotor are new , fuel pump has been replaced twice ,first time it just quit pumping ,second time I replaced it because of the problem now ,it did not fix it ? they both were new pumps, It has not done it since last week but if I add Heet , Seafoam it covers it up for a while mine has done the same thing you described , 5th gear and it is like you just turn the key off and coast you can push down on the gas and nothing ,and then it comes back on ? , and I have had the light also, I have checked all grounds they are tight , I even hooked a extra to the trans , I have checked all the connections in the main and replaced the connectors on the ones that were questionable , sometimes the car just jerks while driving like you are turning the ign. key off and on while driving I am lost on it for now eventually it is going to get worse and it will surface !!

[Guest]

I had this happen before.. going down the freeway in 5th then almost all power goes away I mashed the pedal to no avail, then boom it's back.. I traced mine back to the connection on the airflow meter.. a couple of pins had intermittant contact.

[nonamekid]

I checked the connection on the air flow meter and it looked like all the pins were getting connected, I even replaced the air flow meter from my blue festiva that I hit the deer with it and it still is doing the same thing. Lately it has gotten worse. When I accelerate in 3rd gear it stumbles and doesn't have the get up and go it should have. I can't go past 60 in fifth unless I go above that in 4th and then shift into 5th. This happens all the time now and it doesn't go back to normal.

[Anonymous]

Ummm change your O2 sensor lately. I had problems that were similiar although mine would just die and not restart for a long time. I replaced alot of parts but after the O2 sensor it seem to go away :scratch:

[nonamekid]

It looked the O2 sensor was replaced by the previous owner. It is still shiny and everything so I haven't replaced it yet.

[the_big_1.3]

i had a simular problem i had installed a new coil and the wire wasnt making full contact and it was arking too the negitive wire on the on the coil

[TRUCKtiva]

When I first bought trucktiva It did the same exact thing! Fuel injector cleaner worked for me.. Could have been something different but all of a sudden it just started running full bore after doing it for like a day... weird

[miami man]

stumped

years ago my friends car did the same thing and after his relatives replaced this and that and it still did it he called me to help out. while i was connecting my meter to the distributor it died out. the cause of the problem was just a loose pigtail wire. after that i learned to shake wires to see if a loose wire is the problem.