festiva starting help!

[hamburglar]

Ok, the car sat for a few months and my grandparents (they gave it to me) don't know anything about cars. I started teh car and drove it 3 hours to my home. Every once in awhile on the trip it would "shutter" or "chug" but after a few miles of doing that it would run like a champ again. Well, I get into it tonight and try to start it. The car turns over but it doesn't fire up. I tryed starting it alot, it just turned over and over. I'm assuming that its a clogged fuel filter or something. But i'm not sure. Any suggestions? To change a fuel filter do I need any special tools? For my escort I didn't but I don't even know where the filter is located in the festiva. This is only my 2nd day of ownership of the beast lol. The car is a 89 ATX

[htchbck]

fuel filter should be held in by a little bracket mounted to the firewall right behind the transmission. No special tools, just a socket (10mm I think) to take the bracket loose and a good pair of plier to release the clips that hold the inlet and outlet fuel hoses in place. I did it on my '91 (which had been sitting for 7 years before I got it) and it only took about 15 mins.

[Bowls]

I don't know if they have this where you live, but are you familiar with v-power gasoline? Its a high octane fuel that isn't all that expensive but it cleans your fuel assembly and your engine. Its worth a try if you are still having trouble with the injectors after you replace the fuel filter.

[htchbck]

^^^ if you're talking about Shell V-power then yes, we have it here in the states. However, I'd be really wary of running high octane in a festy. I was almost out of gas one day and all the station had was 93, so I bought a gallon of that just to get me to the next gas station so I could buy some regular. Less than 10 miles down the road I was having pinging and detonation problems, and ended up blowing a hole in one of my exhaust valves. Could have been just a coincidence and that would have happened anyway, but needlesst to say I will now walk five miles to keep from running high octane if necessary

[Bowls]

Really heh? thats funny and at the same time bad. Its not really HIGH octane fuel, but highER octane im pretty sure. Thanks for the warning though, i was going to run some of that through to see if one of my fuel injectors was clogged and causing my compression problem.

[hamburglar]

is seafoam a good idea?

[Bowls]

if you mean seafoam as in, foam from the sea, no that might not work.. besides that im not familiar with it

[htchbck]

seafoam is good stuff, I've never used it personally but I know someone who has used it on a festiva, and several others that have used it in other vehicles, and I've only heard good things about it.

[roycehof]

WELL,The first thing is to determine if you have a fuel or spark problem. Stick an old spark plug in one of the wires and hold the body of the spark plug to ground while somebody else cranks it. Yiou should see a spark jump the spark plug gap. If not then you have ignition problems. If you have spark then you could have a fuel problem. Check to see if you are getting fuel by hitting the pressure release on the fuel rail or by removing the hose on the fuel filter. If you loosen the hoese on the fuel filter, you should have gas squirting out of it when you turn the key on (so be ready to turn it off real quick - and NO SMOKING or sparks).
DO those things and I think we may be able to help you better diagnose your problem

[Damkid]

the only time i've ever had this problem was when the seal on the distributer cap was leaking and i got moisture in it, it would run like crap when it was raining out etc. and there was one time after driving it in the rain where it wouldn't start, (i killed the battery trying to start it) but after a while it did start

not sure if this is your problem but it may help

[yogaslackers]

I think 89' ar carb'ed!

[DuritzCrows17]

88's are carbed I believe either all 89's are fuel injected or atleast it is an option in 89.

[stefan]

^-- 89 autos were EFI

[elcamino1]

My 89 auto is EFI

[25Horseplay]

All 89's with EFI were auto trans.