Hello everyone! I just joined this forum because I bought a 1989 Ford Festiva last week for my son. My neighbor was selling it and it was so cute and clean that I couldn't pass it up. For now I will be driving the Festiva to save gas until my son gets a job so he can pay for his insurance.
It's a dark charcoal gray with red stripe and gray interior, 176K miles, automatic transmission. I paid $800 for it.
I expected to have to have some work done on the car. The turn signals and gas gauge were not working. A half hour after I bought it, the car began to stall and when I stopped for gas, it wouldn't start again and had to be jumped.
Turns out there was an electrical short that shorted out the battery and the headlights drained the battery to the point where the fuel pump could not get power, which caused the stalling.
The mechanic went over the wiring and fixed that. He also found ungrounded wires and fixed those, replaced fuses, etc. When I left everything was working except the brake lights, which I didn't know. I was also told that the car needed new CV axles. That was no surprise because when I test drove the car I felt the popping underneath.
I took the car back to get the brake lights fixed (needed a new switch) and to have the CV axles changed. They were only able to get one of them, so I'll have the other one installed tomorrow.
Meanwhile, there has been another problem. The car ran perfectly yesterday until I turned on the headlights on my way home from work. The car stalled and I had to pull off the road. I turned off the headlights and it began to idle normally. It wasn't dark anyway, so I left them off and went home. When I got on my street I turned on the lights to see what happened. The engine began to stall immediately so I turned them off. When I got in my driveway and stopped, I turned on the lights again and the car died.
I did some Google searches since I don't know anything about cars, and from what I have found it sounds like the alternator is the problem. OR, I wonder if maybe the short wasn't completely fixed and the battery has shorted out again? Any ideas? Also - is it expensive to fix the air conditioning in a Festiva? I hope it isn't anything serious. I suppose I should ask somebody to test that.
There is something about this car that I love. It's like having a pet that I can drive! I am very attached to the car already. My friends of jealous of the gas I'm saving!
Here are some pictures of the little cutie.
Just got a 1989 Festiva 
Linear Mode
