Festiva won't run without giving gas

[mintFestiva]

Well, this has been a periodic problem.....

Everyday, my commute includes about 10 miles of 60mph highway. Often, when I pull off of the highway and come to a stop, the car will barely run at an idle. Idles slow and rough. It keeps acting like this until I get to my destination about 1 mile later. It did it for me this morning again and I even had a full tank of gas.

This is an '89 carbed engine. I have replaced the fuel filter, air filter, spark plugs, wires, cap, and rotor within the last year and a half.

Has anyone else experienced these symptoms?
Early this year, it would lose power and flat out die while on the highway....in about the same exact location everyday! Then, if you shut it off and let it sit for about 5 minutes, it would start up and run like it never happened. That was fixed by a mechanic, but I never did get around to asking him exactly how he fixed it.
I have a hunch that whatever caused that might be starting to act up again.


I'm starting to get a little irritated with this car. I've already sunk about $700 into repairs and I still can't consider this car reliable.

[DriverOne]

Re: Festiva won't run without giving gas

When you start the car, does it idle well?

[jawbraeka]

i'd go back to the mechanic and simply asked what he did.. it sounds like the problem was "bandaided" and not fixed properly..

Is the "power" your referring to electrical or fuel related?

if it's fuel related, i would assume you have a blockage in the line somewhere or possibly an airlock that is causing you to lose fuel.. if however it is an electrical issue, try tightening the terminals on the battery as i had issues with battery "power loss" and a fix like that was all i needed.

if it's fuel related, i would try flushing your fuel lines and carby with a product i will recommend that i have used on mine and fixed my problem completely and no visit to the mechanic at all.

the product i used was called seafoam.. it's an engine cleaning formula that is petroleum based and it has many uses.

the way i used it was i ran 1/2 a bottle down the PVC valve and 1/2 into the petrol tank. it was amazing how quickly the problem disappeared too. the car even felt more smoother as well and now the car is running again like it's old self again.

[mintFestiva]

When you start the car, does it idle well?

The car does idle well when it starts. However, The RPMs do fluctuate when the transmission is in neutral and the clutch is not depressed.

Another issue I have observed is that after pulling off of the highway, the RPMs are kind of high (not obnoxiously high, but higher than normal), the engine is a little noisier, and I feel a little more vibration.

Could it be that my distributor is not advancing/retarding the timing properly? The mechanic who fixed it last did smoke the system and replace any lines that were leaking.

[Movin]

Smoke will find the bad one but not the ones almost bad. If you don't look at and feel
all the vacuum and coolant hoses you will not know if there condition is also poor and should be replaced as well. Nothing beats digging in and actually checking.

Vacuum diaphrams such as disty advance need to have vacuum applied to check for
leaks, and visually check that the actuator moves properly when vacuum is applied.

I had to fire my last smoke machine he was overly medicated before he could figure
it out!

[bravekozak]

There is so much spaghetti vacuum hose, if one gets cracked and leaks vacuum, it can be a nightmare to find. Do you have a vacuum gage? Check to see what the reading is at idle.

[Movin]

Pull up the over head creeper, lay down over the engine, coffee at hand in necessary
and spend an hour or so checking and replacing each one. Have a couple spools of
vacuum hose handy too, if its cold run the engine. It takes a while, it is a good idea
to check the routing against the vacuum diagram because prior owners love to switch
hoses around before they sell them!! When you get done you have confidence in your spaghetti ! I know this takes time and patience but it is very costly as shown above for
a mechanic to do just a partial repair. Do it yourself, have good hoses and save!!

[mintFestiva]

Thanks for the input. I'll probably do what Movin says and check/replace all of the vacuum hoses. I might just go ahead and replace them all just to make sure. I'll probably dig into it this weekend. Thankfully, the car is still driveable for now.

I'll give that mechanic a call here soon too.

So do you guys think this sporadic problem really could be due to vacuum hose issues?

[KingFish]

Be VERY careful replacing those hoses. Get them wrong and you could end up with a nasty rich run condition.

[bravekozak]

Personally, i wouldn't bother wasting my time if any vacuum leak isn't evident in about two minutes of searching. mintFestiva is another perfect candidate for an Escort carb swap. Get rid of that feedback carb and throw out all those hoses. Use the search engine to find threads by other members who have done it.

Is your fuel pump pumping O.K.? Have you looked in your fuel tank to make sure the strainer on the pickup tube isn't plugged? Use a flashlight and not a match, when you remove the fuel tank sender and look inside. It should be crystal clear with no debris or cloudiness.

[mintFestiva]

Personally, i wouldn't bother wasting my time if any vacuum leak isn't evident in about two minutes of searching. mintFestiva is another perfect candidate for an Escort carb swap. Get rid of that feedback carb and throw out all those hoses. Use the search engine to find threads by other members who have done it.

Is your fuel pump pumping O.K.? Have you looked in your fuel tank to make sure the strainer on the pickup tube isn't plugged? Use a flashlight and not a match, when you remove the fuel tank sender and look inside. It should be crystal clear with no debris or cloudiness.

That sounds awesome! I would love to get rid of this worthless feedback system! I guess it has its advantages, but like anything complicated, you start to hate it when things don't work. I will definitely look into that.

[Twistiva]

Well, this has been a periodic problem.....

Has anyone else experienced these symptoms?
Early this year, it would lose power and flat out die while on the highway....in about the same exact location everyday! Then, if you shut it off and let it sit for about 5 minutes, it would start up and run like it never happened.

Yep, I had those exact same problems about 2 years ago....

Car would idle fine, but die if ran the engine above idle unless I repeatedly goosed the gas pedal. Then when I got it to run fine above idle, I'd be cruising down the road and then it would die, just like you said. Let it sit for 5-10 minutes and it would crank just fine. Mechanic looked for vacuum leaks but didn't find any. Mechanic really couldn't repeat it so he didn't know what to fix. Then one day I got lucky and it did it again....though, this time instead of it just flat out dying I was able to keep the engine running by pumping the gas pedal/goosing the engine really high and gimped it into the Ford dealer here in town. (Previous mechanic was a local mom/pop mechanic shop.)

Anyhow....the Ford mechanic tore into the carb and said he found some junk/foreign particles in the carb and it ran like a top from then on. Before these problems my Festy had sat a lot for almost the whole year I was overseas/wife didn't drive it near as much as I told her to. Did the previous owner not drive it much?

This problem was maddening. Good luck.

[mintFestiva]

Yep, I had those exact same problems about 2 years ago....

Anyhow....the Ford mechanic tore into the carb and said he found some junk/foreign particles in the carb and it ran like a top from then on. Before these problems my Festy had sat a lot for almost the whole year I was overseas/wife didn't drive it near as much as I told her to. Did the previous owner not drive it much?

This problem was maddening. Good luck.

Actually, the car had been pretty much sitting for about 10 years. Bought it from a retired couple that said they didn't use it as much as they thought they were going to. They said that they started it every once in a while and let it run. It ran just fine today on my daily commute. Thanks for the suggestion!