Headlight problem, now battery dies??? Help PLEASE.

[suctoes]

Hi, I'm glad I found you great site, I hope you can help me.... My father has a 1992 ford festiva gl 2 door with auto and air. His problems are the rear wheel bearings are going bad.... I need to know how big a job it is to change them. Also He has a headlight problem, His headlights just quit working one day. car runs fine just no lights... He said he could hear a buzzing noise coming from what he thinks is a relay but it has since stopped. Now his battery is being drained by something, could it be related to the headlamp problem? Please be patient with him and I, we live in different states and he is disabled by cancer, so him or I being able to troubleshoot things could take a while.

[miami man]

where does he live? maybe somebody lives near him to help him

[25Horseplay]

The rear wheel bearings are pretty simple, just get a manual and it tells hw to do it step by step. As for the headlights it could be a relay or a bad switch. I assume he checked to make sure the bulbs are good. And yes if we knew his location there might be someone that could help him.

[suctoes]

Thanks for the help!!! He lives in New Haven, Indiana. Just outside Fort Wayne. I live in NW Ohio. I know he would gladly pay someone a little money to help him get it fixed. He don't have much from being disabled but him and I would be VERY VERY grateful....Please let me know.

[FestYboy]

check the fuseable link marked 'HEAD'. clean any and all dirt/corrosion off the battery.

All the tools you need to do wheel bearings are: hammer, flathead screwdriver, and cresent wrench. the outer bearing will fall out and the inner bearing is held in w/ a seal that can be removed w/ screwdriver. carefuly pry seal out by placing driver between bearing and seal and TWISTING the head of the driver to lift the seal. do this in small sections and the seal will come out and can be reused. Be sure to pack new bearings w/ grease BEFORE reinstalling and clean out old grease from the hub (replace w/ new). if the races are in good shape (and they usually are), don't worry about installing new ones.

one last thing, festivas have both a righthand and lefthand thread spindle, so one of the nuts will come off and go back on BACKWARDS.

[suctoes]

OK I need more help with the headlights PLEASE. I checked the fuse-able link marked Head it's good. We replaced the battery. Any other advice on the headlamps??

[Dave G]

if the races are in good shape (and they usually are), don't worry about installing new ones.

I beg to differ - if one part of a bearing is bad, the whole thing is shot; always replace the outer races!

Also, do both the inner and outer while you're in there, even if only one of them seems bad. We're talking less than ten bucks...