1990 Festiva Oil in Water

[scotlandcobra]

I have a 1990 Festiva Automatic that is getting oil in the radiator, but the head is not blown.. WHY?!?.. I also need to find a super cheep ECM for that thing too.. Lost fire a few days ago, and it's the ECM but I cant find one under $200.00... I live near Rockwell, NC.. Any ideas?

[Green Bean]

Welcome to the forum. First off since your car is an automatic the milky substance in the radiator could be transmission fluid which would mean the cooler inside the radiator is leaking . You could flush the radiator out an put an after market transmission cooler on the car or buy a new radiator. And secondly since you lost spark it does not mean its the ecm . I lost spark an actually got it back by simply tapping on the ignition module which is mounted near the drivers side strut an also i tapped on the coil which is in the same place an by tapped i mean i gently tapped on them. And its still a mystery on how i got it back but i did . Also know the distributors can go out on them .

[1990new]

I have a 1990 Festiva Automatic that is getting oil in the radiator, but the head is not blown.. WHY?!?.. I also need to find a super cheep ECM for that thing too.. Lost fire a few days ago, and it's the ECM but I cant find one under $200.00... I live near Rockwell, NC.. Any ideas?

Here is one on ebay for $80
http://www.ebay.com/itm/131794947190?rmvSB=true

If you don't want to get that one I have one for a 93 that I will sell you for $80 shipped.

But Green Bean is right. Lack of spark is rarely the fault of the ECM.

Usually if you have oil in the cooling system, the problem is either a blown head gasket, a cracked head or a cracked block.
The transmission oil pressue is lower than either the oil or water (when hot) so this is a remote possibility.

[scotlandcobra]

Thank you for the reply. I feel like it's the ECM because the thing started fluctuating idle speed, and the gauges started going haywire before it lost all fire, and died.. Now there is no signal to the coil. And I didn't even think of the inter-cooler being a possible suspect for oil in my radiator. I'll look into that.. I may just end up selling that thing.

[scotlandcobra]

Ok.. Thank you.. That's a lot better than $200.00... Soon as I get paid, I'll get that one from you if it's still available.

[TominMO]

The ignition coil can get corrosion inside it, where the disty wire plugs in. Pull the wire and check for corrosion, and clean it out if you find any. Maybe a piece of sandpaper rolled up to get in there. The ECMs generally don't go out. I've been on here 10 years and can't really recall anyone having that problem. Super rare if it does happen.

The ignition coil and modules are available on Rock Auto, and at JYs. If you navigate to your car on Rock Auto, under Ignition, click on Ignition Coil, then click the blue "F511" part # for AC Delco. It will list 8 Mazda and Ford cars that use the same coil. No doubt you could find one at a JY. The Motorcraft DGE448 shows it to be the same for Festiva and Aspire, and <$11. The ignition modules are also used by a bunch of Mazda-related cars.

I never thought of the auto tranny cooler. I didn't know they could leak between the engine coolant area and tranny fluid area. If that is possble, then it's worth checking. My thought was that even though you don't have a blown HG, it could have deteriorated between a coolant passage and an oil passage.

These are small issues; don't sell the car just for this reason. Festivas are very reliable and easy to work on, and will generally have less problems than most cars, IMO. Any car will have parts that need replacing. Better to have a car with issues you know than buy someone else's problem.

[william]

Icm going out will give low and ruff idle.
Don't swap the ecu check everything over first!

[1990new]

Ok.. Thank you.. That's a lot better than $200.00... Soon as I get paid, I'll get that one from you if it's still available.

I could not in good conscience sell you my ECM, and you should not buy one until you have eliminated the other possible causes of the no spark problem.
You mention the high idle problem. That was one of the first symptoms that showed up on Rosie (the 93 automatic that I bough last year). In the end the problem was a blown head gasket and and warped head. In her case oil was not getting in the water, but water was getting into the combustion chamber, white smoke was coming form the exhaust and water had to be continually added to the radiator. She also had other problems.. bad rings and exhaust valves and one chipped piston head so I ended up replacing the engine.
How many miles on your engine? Was your transmission performing well? Even if you should have to replace the engine and head, you could get a new short block for $499 and a rebuilt head for about $300 and look forward to many many trouble free miles in your Festiva.

[ryanprins13]

Loss of spark like that could be a bad ground somewhere too.

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