My Festiva tried to kill me... Pics

[93 FordFestiva93]

:shock: well i was driving down the road doing about 35 (nothing big) and all of a sudden i hear a huge "Clunk" and the front of the car just dropped to the ground, and began sliding toward the side road and into a ditch. i get out and look and the ball joint broke totally off and the only thing holding my front tire/brake assembly was my tie-rod the pics can be seen by clicking this link http://www.webshots.com/search?query...ch_results_top as i don't know how to post them here.[/img]

[Guest]

Festivas aren't deathtraps unless they aren't taken care of.. But like any small car they are no match for concrete walls or anything bigger than they are. Ball joints don't just fail.. it takes time and neglect..

But this isn't the first time I've seen photos like yours. Neglect the suspension and suffer the consequences.. It's pretty much the same with any car over 10 years old. Grease caps crack and dryrot, grease dries or gets washed away.. sooner or later the balljoint will fail.

[Safety Guy]

(It took me awhile to find what you were showing after that Grand Am. I clicked on the Grand Am and then went farther somehow. Finally found the two Festiva pics.)

I'm paranoid about ball joint failures, having seen a few (no Festivas yet) on the roads over the years. I also know about bad Festiva ball joints. I had one pull out of Muttstiva's control arm when I did the suspension swap a few years back. Since the replacement was from a 'yard and I seem to ruin boots when I take off the knuckle (I think I've solved that problem), the Mutt got new ones last year and Lux just got her pair a few days ago.

This is also something you should learn to check yourself. When the Mutt was having weird handling problems I took her in to several places and one of the things I told them to check was the ball joints. They told me everything was "tight." When I finally lifted the front end, took a crowbar and checked myself, I found one was really bad and the other one was questionable.

"If you want it done right, do it yourself."

Karl

[HappyMom]

Something similar happened to my car too :roll: Fortunately my husband's friend who was driving it at the time, noticed it was acting weird and making perculiar noise, so it was beign driven real slow to the shop. And I just recently had the steering rack tie-rod ends and other steering stuff changed...

I've also seen an Aspire like this in the middle of a downtown street.

[93 FordFestiva93]

...

yea, "xpnsyd", it wasn't anything against Festiva's, i myself have 2 and i love them both, i had it on the lift at my school when i got it and checked everything, even the ball joints, i prayed at it w/ a big screwdriver to check them, and the instructor said they look a little old, so i bought 2 replacement control arms, but i just kept putting off the job of installing them, and it finally gave out, and this particular Festiva's is a deathtrap, (its a winter beater) my other one has 1983 Mazda RX7 wheels, wide tires, and offset plates so it looks even better, i painted it viper red last spring and we are contemplating a 1.8L engine swap as a winter project, i just cant find a decent engine. anyways Thanks for the replies, ill post pics of my other Festiva soon.

[93 FordFestiva93]

grand am

Oh, and i know you all were probably think my grand am was pretty stupid looking and thinking its junk, well your right lol, it was my first car, and i just went spray-paint happy

[Gforcefd]

91 92 grand am

Okay I hate my 98 grand am, but the 91/92 model like yours I love, they had this unbreakable little iron block engine in the base models (the sportyer ones sucked though).

I was driving a 91 when I met my girl friend, and she says that is the car she wants me to mod out for her, to bad by the time I can get her one they will have gone the way of most festivas in NY rusty beyond repair, thats what happend to my first one. That and a truck hit it, and I ripped off the rear end in a blizzard on the highway:-)

I know punctuation sucks today:-)

Logan

MERRY FLUCKING CHRIST-MAS everyone!