Didn't think it was possible... 26 MPG in a Festiva...

[91mcnasty]

Officially the greatest car in the world!!!!!

[TominMO]

Oh boy..Festiva $20 every two weeks
Truck with swampers $200 every two weeks
Festiva daily driver for 10 years now..Math makes
my head hurt!
Gotta luv these little machines

Sounds like you saved enough to buy a typical Festy every two months or so. You should therefore have about 60 Festys. Am I correct?

[Movin]

Oh boy..Festiva $20 every two weeks
Truck with swampers $200 every two weeks
Festiva daily driver for 10 years now..Math makes
my head hurt!
Gotta luv these little machines

[200KGPGTP]

True that. I may fix it yet. It just hurts to dump another grand into a car that I bought for $350 and is rusty as hell.

But it has saved me untold grands in gas.....

The brakes weren't dragging. I coast down a very slight hill that is like a half mile long and don't loose any speed at 50mph(every morning), but the brakes DO need attention, that's no doubt. I'll get these rotors and pads replaced, clean the calipers very well, grease them, and flush the nasty brake fluid.

[Movin]

The amount of brake drag you had to break that rotor must have been extreme...
Don't you think maybe that would pull your mileage down ??

Do a little brake job with brake grease at all mounting points, wire wheel the rust off so those calipers can slide back and forth like they need to.

You probably do not have a computer problem. Test it a bit then get tires, at least they are fairly cheap compared to other cars

Don't give up to easy, sometimes the next car hides a lot..You know what you have here...

[Safety Guy]

I'm assuming you have kept up with your tire pressures? Could be multiple little things, or, yes, time to think about a rebuild or getting a new shell (depending on rust/integrity issues).

Best not to give up yet...

Karl

[Damkid]

Hows the body on it?

[200KGPGTP]

This coupled with the rust coupled with the now broken rotor and BALD tires, I think I'm going to cut my losses................................

[Movin]

If you get the wrong computer the check engine light will come on, in almost all cases.
California may have a few extra parts and the "normal" window will be a little smaller.
A computer from dissimilar cars such as a 91 mt5 festiva could be swapped into an automatic festiva to see if the engine will start, as long as they are both fuel injected.
It is highly recommended to just follow diagnostic strategy provided by ford, perhaps modified by experience.

[WmWatt]

Is Festiva2 same year and model? They might change the computer software for different years and models.

Computers come with factory settings dervied from a test car on a factory dynamo. Every car sold collects numbers to optimize the settings for itself. The computer just accepts the current from the sensors so it shouldn't be able to damage them. I can't see swapping the computer harming any sensors. Maybe a wire got damaged? The computer sends singals to the actuators. That may have changed in some way.

[Movin]

Any sensor has a window it can operate in and be accepted by the computer.
The fun part is using logic and voltage tests to find the faulty part.
If its your car, your only car, and you need to get out of dodge it might
not be so fun.....
The o2 is one of the most common sensors to fail. A new one can double as a tool, you
can hook a digital voltmeter to the sensor and read the voltage with the meter on your dash. The sensor should be hooked up normally and a little pigtail added to hook your meter to. Average voltage for a stock sensor should be .450 and it should move quite quickly between .2 and .6 volts. Any voltage staying above .8 would be the rich condition
you are looking for. It is quite possible you would see normal readings and your mileage back to normal as well !!

[Damkid]

:lol: thanks movin

And I agree with Arty, if an O2 sensor is faulty it can send a false reading to the ECU without throwing a CEL, would be a good place to start checking

[FestYboy]

a faulty O2 sensor may not produce a check engine light... run the engine to 2000 rpm and test the O2 sensor output with a multi-meter (positive to the wire, negative to ground).

[Movin]

The best I can get in my Festiva is ~30mpg and I wander why :lol:

Like mileage was first priority when you built it! This next go around its all going to depend on what kind of grin you got slapped on your face ! :eeeeeek:
Seriously, if a chart was factored with lbs of street legal car divided by HP you are in esteemed company damkid !!

[Damkid]

:lol: