1997 Festiva GLi

[glenpinn]

Hi everyone, my 16y/o daughter has been offered a late 1997 Ford Festiva GLi from a deceased estate, she is still learning to drive, and can go for her P plates next June.

This car currently has 49,600km on the clock, the owner was 60 when she bought it brand new from Tilford motors in Hobart, it has been driven about 10 times in the past 5 years since she got sick, the interior is like new, it has aircon, 3 speed auto, body is 80% good as it has a shallow dent on the rear passenger side door, and a few scuff marks here and there, and it had its last full service in August this year, 1 month before the owner passed away.

The owners daughter went thru all her mums papers in the car 4 weeks ago, and found a list of other repairs that the mechanic gave to the owner when it was serviced in August, all of which totals $1260, so rather than the daughter spend that money on the car herself, she has offered the car to us as it is, and we pay for that work to be done instead.

The list of major repairs that are needed are indicated in one of the attachments, but the 2 new tyres have already been put on the car 3 days ago by my mechanic at a cost of $160, because the old ones were perished and we could not drive the car until they were fitted, but as yet no wheel alignment has been done.

I took the car for a drive yesterday, and it runs very nicely, no shakes or rattles or squeaks, but the auto transmission is a bit odd, in that when you take off it doesn't seem to change to 2nd when it should, and when it does it has a slight jolt to it, and then as soon as it gets into 2nd it seems to go into Drive almost straight away, so it seems to be very iffy to me, or is this the way it is meant to work.

Finally, is there anything about this car that i should be looking out for when we finally get it signed over to my daughter.

Cheers

[.:4:.]

Not to sure about mechanical issues, but 50 thousand on the clock sounds almost too good for a 19 year old car. My sister in law had a 1.3l trio 2 door back in the day that had racked up 300 and something thousand without any major dramas. Well, there was one that was a worn out imput shaft on the 5 speed which meant it would jump out of gear if you weren't holding the stick, but that was caused by her a hole boyfriend driving like a tool. Its not a problem with autos though. They are rediculously easy to park, and to be fair, a dent or 2 doesn't matter because I'm pretty sure the majority have put atleast a dent or scratch on a car when on their reds.

[glenpinn]

Originally Posted by .:4:.

Not to sure about mechanical issues, but 50 thousand on the clock sounds almost too good for a 19 year old car.

Yeah i know it is hard to believe, but it is true, this lady was 80 when she died, she bough the car when she retired at age 60, and you can see the mileage written in that service report attachment, which was under 49,000k at that time, it is now 49,600k because the owners daughter drove it a lot while she was here from Perth for 3 weeks after the death of her mum.

It goes back to my own mechanic on November 24th for a complete roadworthy check, and he will write out a list of everything that he finds wrong with it, and will price each item, so we can have the lot fixed immediately, or do them as we go.

He will also check out the transmission for me, because that is my main concern right now, because it just doesn't feel right with the way it keeps jumping from one gear to another, although i figure with a small engine like that, it may well be normal.

It certainly doesn't pay to keep a car sitting idle in a carport for 5 years.

[.:4:.]

Going off the lack of use, maybe a fluid change to the motor and transaxle may be the ticket to making the thing drive like it's only 3 years old. Things like door rubbers may be an issue if the car has sat for a while, but that's nothing that can't be rectified. It may not be my cup of tea, but for some reason girls jump on the cute little cars.

[glenpinn]

Hi again, we now have possession of the Festiva, which was given to my Daughter as long as we pay for any mechanical work ourselves, and it turned out that half of the mechanical work that the owners mechanic said needed doing was already done (new tyres and timing belt) so my mechanic only needs to do the rear wheel cylinders, the cooling system flush, and sway bar bushes.

I also took it to an automatic transmission mechanic because i was concerned that the gears were not changing right, and the engine seemed to be a bit flat under acceleration, and he did a full check of the transmission, and gave me a quote for the following work.

Service Kit = $34.95
Spark Plug GR-1 = $27.52
Onboard Injector clean & purge = $ 195.00
Vacuum Modulator = $318.00 (he claimed this was not working properly)
Freight & Handling = $22.00
Labor 3.7 hours @ $123.20p/h = $455.84
Transmission Flushing Additive = $ 16.50
Trans Oil = $ 85.89
Trans Conditioner = $16.50

TOTAL $1172.20

It is being checked by my own mechanic today, but i was concerned about the rediculous cost of the Vacuum Modulator, as i found a new one in ebay for $49.95 out of Melbourne.

Does anyone know if the transmission needs to be pulled out to replace the Modulator.

Cheers

[glenpinn]

What i also meant to ask was can someone point me to the correct Vacuum Modulator for my Festiva, the one i found in Ebay is all brass, and my mechanic told me today that the one for my car is made from plastic, but the transmission doesn't need to be dropped to replace it, they just need to remove a diagonal cross member directly under the transmission to undo the 3 bolts that hold the modulator in place.

Cheers

[commodorenutt]

The fault with the 'box sounds exactly like what happens to the old Holden trimatics when the vac modulators fail on them, so he's on the right track there. Probably perished the diaphragm from lack of use.

Can't help on Festiva specifics with it though - you're at the mercy of someone with a workshop manual & parts book there.

This is one of the concerns with a low km car - it can often require a lot more $$ spent on mechanical issues causes by lack of use. The trade off is of course the amazing condition of the items that wear out purely through use - like the interior trim. Don't be surprised if it starts leaking engine oil soon after she starts using it regularly, likewise other rubber things like vacuum lines, CV boots etc.

Even things you don't think about - like rust forming on shock absorber shafts from lack of use, can destroy the seals.

It's better to have a car that's done a 5km trip each weekday (100km/month - 1200km/yr), than a car that's only done 2x 600km trips in a year.
Regular use, even if they are short trips, is better for their upkeep than long periods of rest.