Heavy Rain = In and out power loss

[mturner2003]

Lunch break drive: No problems.

I will follow up after tune up after this weekend.

[Movin]

In the safety of your driveway you might mist the cap and wires with the car running.
turn every thing on and mist the belt. If it slips it needs adjusted tighter or replaced.

Keep your eyes open for other clues, we could be derailed as well!

[mturner2003]

Honestly, I am not that concerned about it. It has only happened 3 times in last 30,000 miles. Each instance lasting only a few minutes, but thank you for you concern and input.

[bobstad]

Deluge last month, scary; etc.(VERY SCARY)

I've had similar problems with heaviest rains causing the car to run ragged; and found replacing plug & coil wires, cap & rotor worked to better that.

There is also a thin gasket on the base of the distributor cap between the cap and the distributor; which a person may not even know is supposed to be there. If that is missing, this probably makes water issues a lot more feasible. I got one of those for two dollars through Festiva Motor Sports. [http://www.festivamotorsport.com/index.html]

I was driving from Seattle around one in the morning on the I-5 freeway December 19th, and a very heavy cloudburst came out of nowhere; and the car behaved worse than ever before, misfiring, jerking and cutting out entirely I wasn't sure I could get off the freeway, and then this continued a little cruising around the gas stations next to the on and off ramps trying to find a good place to stop awhile.

I pulled into a parking area by a city park and sat there a few minutes well after the heavy rain; then followed a road north paralleling the freeway until the next chance to get on I-5. I got back here to Bellingham without further mishap. I'd just gotten new plug & coil wires, cap & rotor two days before I hadn't yet changed; since not quite as heavy rain at 35 mph around town had the car misfiring a little, so I figured I was probably due to replace those things again.

One time driving through standing water not even up to the axles, a long stretch of that without any rain where US 101 was flooded just north of downtown in Tillamook, OR and lots of trucks and cars were driving through; the Festiva's motor stopped while slowly creeping through the water in first gear, I thought was some sort of problem with water in the electronics. In fact, somehow water got in through the air cleaner; so that steam formed in a combustion chamber for an instant ENOUGH TO BEND A CONNECTING ROD!!!!!!

When the car was running so badly in that baddest of rains on the freeway last month; I was terrified something worse than my old wires, was the cause. I felt really lonely and scared; when just moments before I'd had entirely different thoughts in mind, from an enjoyable day with puppets in the afternoon and jazz that night, then a homeless woman where I'd gotten gas half an hour before, who was interesting I tried to help.

I slept in my car that night in Tillamook glad I always carry a sleeping bag, December 17th, 2001. The next day I was getting serious about buying enough tools to pull the starter and try drying that out in a nearby restaurant using the electric hot-air hand drier in the restroom. Then I decided to get towed instead to a shop; who diagnosed the problem.

Only fantastic luck saved me loosing my car after that; which I bought back about nine months later from someone in town who fixed the bent connecting rod. I doubt I'd be driving other than my ten-speed now or ever since then, otherwise; which would've sure been different, if maybe I'd be a better pianist even though now as then, entirely an amateur.

[bobstad]

seems hard to believe; often at FFdotCOM

Runs strong, with amazing fuel mileage. I average 48 mpg every tank.

Okay, there was a discussion a few years ago about amazing gas mileage; though without things like balanced fuel injectors or other blue-print type and/or after-market advantages, these cars are all pretty much the same. Type of oil, perhaps fuel additives, or octane could feasibly make differences, too.

That discussion yielded sort of an amorphous blob of opinions; within which a person could ferret out points to support almost any perspective.

Anyone running 12" rims will obviously get better mileage figures than the same car with 13" rims; if not factoring for the differences between the two. When I had 12" rims I got incredible mileage figures; though the speedometer seemed ridiculous keeping up with traffic, like everyone was breaking the speed limit by large amounts.

[denguy]

My 92 Festy runs great but if i follow too close behind another car in heavy rain it will sputter and even die out. I now carry a large fresh can of WD40 [water displacement] in the car just in case. When it happens all you have to do is hop out in the pouring rain and spray the ignition system and it will fire right back up and get you home. Never did isolate the problem. Just now thinking about starting it up at night, spraying water on the ignition parts and see if I can spot anything arcing.

[rollertoaster]

I was having the same problem and I'm 100% certain it was my crusty old spark plug wires. I opted for a complete ignition tune up instead though plugs, wires, cap, rotor for $50


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[91mcnasty]

I've also had the same problems some are describing, but my car would "sputter" while idling cold. After wires she purred like a kitten!!!

[jamesmc]

This happened to my bp car during Hurricane Irene. Never happened again, and I didn't change a thing. Although, I do have an issue with the belt needing to be retightened every few months, but I figure that's because the alternator pulley hits the frame when I turn left hard.

[mturner2003]

Sharp Festy jamesmc