Jewel

[freshtiva]

The wife bought her second festiva "Jewel " back in 2001 when it had 72,000 miles on it. Her first one had 175,000 on it when we sold it to a friend. This week Jewel turned over 172,000 miles and is our main daily driver still. Since it was a milestone it got a good cleaning and waxing today. As far as I know the car it still on original bearings, struts, control arms, half shafts, clutch, etc. It has been a real "Jewel". Its going to get retrofitted for R-134A Monday. It just passed inspection last week. Id fix something on the car if it was bad but there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with it. Its just keeps going and going trouble free everyday. We are keeping an eye on the front end but its seems good for now. Its amazing !

See slide show click on picture

[Festiva GTX]

Re: Jewel

The wife bought her second festiva "Jewel " back in 2001 when it had 72,000 miles on it. Her first one had 175,000 on it when we sold it to a friend. This week Jewel turned over 172,000 miles and is our main daily driver still. Since it was a milestone it got a good cleaning and waxing today. As far as I know the car it still on original bearings, struts, control arms, clutch, etc. It has been a real "Jewel". Its going to get retrofitted for R-134A Monday. Id fix something on the car if it was bad but there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with it. Its just keeps going and going trouble free everyday. We are keeping an eye on the front end but its seems good for now. Its amazing !

See slideshow click on picture

That's cool you have many festiva in there!

I wont recommend R-134a charged in your car with old system R-12 since if you are using same old system R-12 like drier cylinder, compressor, hoses are not design for R-134a which you will reduced the life by 70% to 90+%!

Unless you have got new aftermarket that were designed for R-134a which it's good.

[freshtiva]

Ive heard that a lot lately, that changing over to R-134A will ruin your system. Id like to know the truth about that. I changed my car over 9/8/2000 and it still works fine. I did a different car about two years ago, and its still fine. Someone said the problem is in the oil. I think the old systems had a mineral oil, maybe ?? The oil that came with the retrofit says its good for both R-12 and R-134A, but it also says not to mix oils. Ive heard a lot of conflicting views. I wish I knew the truth. The retrofits have always worked for me. :scratch:

[Festiva GTX]

Let me try find paper with full details for compare with R-12 and R-134a chart.

So far what I do know about Ester and PAG oil they are highly corrosive, very aggressive eating on O-ring, leaking out the hose clamp, if small water moisture still in your A/C system more likely it will become acid and ruin anything inside of A/C system. it also create high pressure on compressor valve when outside very hot more likely it will premature compressor failure much faster.

So let's see what I can find the useful information papers.

[b3 madness]

Jewel is a cutie!! :lol: :lol:

She does however look "Naked" without centercaps on the wheels.... :wink:

[neanderpaul]

Holy cow Marcus! Did you just say you sold a festiva!! :shock: You!?!

[freshtiva]

I still regret selling Lil Bertha. It was the wife's car and her decision. She regrets selling it too. The guy we sold it to turned into an ex friend later on. He abused the car. I had done schedule A maintenance on it for 175,000 miles only to turn it over to him so he could run it into the ground. I heard it finally bit the dirt earlier this year. It held tough for a lot of abuse though. I learned several lessons from that deal.

Picture of Freshtiva and Lil Bertha 8/94. 13 years ago. New garage then too .

[Burnrate]

Marcus,

That's a great car. Nice to see maintenance being being done like it should be. Inspect it well only fix it if its out of specs. These things amaze me with their toughness. So many vehicles you see could last along time If they had just not cut corners on something like metal in a suspension piece being hard enough. A lot of cars are engineered well and then the corner cutting begins. Instead they should keep it simple cut back on the frills and let the owners have the fun of customizing them later. But I gess we wouldn't need to by anew on every five years cause the old one fell apart. I love it when a 14+ year old car is the most reliable daily driver around! I am hard on my car I live on a rough road. Experience has been that once I straighten out something that was asbused by the past owner I dont have to think about it much after that. It takes me 50 miles everyday wide open and it doesn't even notice. I take it out in the evenings just to burn some gas on the curvy roads. I can't wait to have 6 or so sitting in my driveway.

Eric