Ford Aspire

it should have a line eched into on side of the stick that says MAX above it. stop at that line, or just below.

Yes it is. I am having trouble with alternators on my 95 Aspire. They keep going out and I cannot find the problem.

under the distributor cap there is a pipe bolted to the engine. the radiator hose is attached to it. take those 2 bolts out of that pipe and the thermostat is under it.

Most of the 99 or later ones don't have a dipstick. There is a red plastic plug where you add fluid. I have a 99 & a 2000 that are that way.

on the 94 aspire the speed cable connects to the speedometer and goes through the firewall and to the wheel

On my 95 aspire the fuel pump went out and I had to take out the back seat and the fuel tank is there along with the fuel pump.

First you will have to pull the instrumentation. Its an easy few Phillips screws and its out. In the back of the cluster there is a white clip that holds the cable to the cluster. You must squeeze 2 plastic parts to allow it to release.

Cable goes through the firewall and down to the tranny. At the transmission it is held in by a 10mm bolt. The cable sometimes have a split in the middle. The split is easily opened. It is a large knurled nut if I remember. Once this nut is loosened then it is easier to pull the 2 parts out.

Good luck!

Jeff.L.Ontario, Canada

When you're looking at the engine, it's all the way to the left near the front of the car. It's a black square cover. You have to open the five or so metal clips and then remove the wingnut to the left and you should be able to gently lift the plastic housing. The air filter is inside.

i have a 95 ford aspire automatic..rebuilt the trans but high gear and reverse does not work when wheels are on the ground...no power..what can i do

I have the answer to both questions email me at elccabron@hotmail.com

and I will send the diagram and the service prcedure to fix the no reverse and 3rd gear problem

Well, I'll try to remember the tools first... get a comprehensive metric socket set, get metric box-end wrenches (at LEAST a 14mm for the exhaust bracket) and the stuff to drain the oil, which you do first, obviously. The one-piece oil pan gaskets seem to be extinct for this engine, so you most likely will end up with a FelPro kit, which is two molded pieces that hug the crank bosses on either end, and two tubes of black RTV. Installing those end pieces requires your best work! Get a service manual and a torque wrench that will go down to about 6 foot-pounds. Too much torque on the pan bolts, too much RTV on the seal surfaces, too little time letting the RTV tack up, an unclean mating surface, all of this and more will result in re-doing the job. Do it slowly and follow the directions (you HAVE to have a service manual) and you should be fine.

The exhaust downpipe has to be removed (we tried to avoid that, but there's no way around it), so I'd say the most important thing is to get a good penetrant on the header-to-downpipe nuts on the underside of the header flange. We broke two of the three and spent 2 days drilling the bolts out, and that didn't even work- we ended up managing to get one broken bolt out, but the other ended up being a jury-rigged disaster. If any of those nuts gives you trouble coming off, work it back and forth like you were tapping a hole. We burned it on off of there with an impact, and that was a stupid mistake.

Anyway, there are 18 10mm bolts holding the pan on, and we got the pan to turn loose by using a hammer to tap box-cutter blades between the pan and the engine block. The blades slide nicely between the two, severing the old gasket material and making it a snap to remove the pan. Even if a blade goes too far in, once the pan is off, the blade is right there for you to pick up! So get a box of 20 to 30 box cutter blades, too. The O2 sensor doesn't have to be removed, so don't sweat that. Uh... what else?

I guess just make sure that you clean the crap out of the pan really well. Ours was a 95 Aspire and it had 3/4" of gook in the pan that was so thick it was like dried clay. Also clean the pan surface and the engine block surface are as clean as you can possibly get them, then, like I said, follow the manual directions regarding the order of operations and tightening torques on those bolts. Tighten the pan bolts on the inside first, working your way out to the crank ends, finger tight. We let it tack up for 6 hours, but I guess you can go faster than that. Tighten them in stages until you hit the final torque, which is only like 8 to 10 foot-pounds- it's not much at all, but too little and it will leak, and too tight will cause the end seals to squeeze out! I keep all of my service manuals at the shop, so I can't remember the torques for that car off-hand.

All of this stuff can be bought at AutoZone, Advance Auto, O'Reilly, whatever big chain auto parts store you happen to have in your area. Cheap, too- we did inner and outer tie rod ends, control arms, valve cover gasket, PCV valve, air and oil filters, fuel filter, oil pan gasket, front crank seal, rear main seal, struts all around, clutch, timing belt and tensioner, new tires all around and welded up a hole in the exhaust resonator for less than $800. Thing literally drives like a brand new car.

The spec on it was 9 or 10 gallons, but I have never, ever been able to force more than 8.1 gallons into it. I even ran out of gas once and and that's how I got the 8.1 in .

Good thing tho, is I can put 350+ miles on that one tank :) yahoo! (I drive slow)

Find the lower intercooler hose the one that comes from the turbo to the intercooler. about half way to the cooler underneath a large group of wires is the dipstick. you will probably have to take the hose off and move the wiring harness to even get close. plus it has a latch on it so it won't just pull out you have to unlatch it first. Then be really careful putting it back in....I broke mine and it fell in the transmission :( I have a 2003 I hope this helps

well you have to put the clutch fluid down the tube that leads to the water tank! however dont add to much!!!my dad's a mechanic!

On a (1996 ) Ford Aspire , 1.3 liter four cylinder engine :

With engine oil filter change :

( 3.6 U.S. quarts , 5W-30 is PREFERRED according to the Owner Guide )

you take a coat hanger bend two peices into a u shape stick them in the holes on the stero and it should slide right out And if that doesn't work go and get a stereo install kit for like $10.00

1.3 liter ( 81 cubic inch ) 4 cylinder

One of the few that I can answer for sure. The firing order for the Ford Aspire 1.3L is 1-3-4-2 with the distributor rotation counterclockwise.

Defective brakes, or wheel bearing.

Also some times the E-brake can stick on these cars, my rear wheels were locked up and i discovered this was the problem, i replaced the cable and i have not had any trouble since

A lot of times the rear wheel cylinder goes bad and either freezes up or starts to leak fluid onto the pads causing the brakes to lock up on that wheel.

if your vehicle is using drum brakes on the rear sometimes the friction material attached the the brake shoe can break off if they haven't been serviced in a long time and get wedged causing the wheel to lock up, rotating the wheel backwards may free the loose material but you will need to disassemble the rear drum and inspect and replace and defective parts

It would really help to know what vehicle is involved---and what action caused the wheel to lock up---on rear wheel drive vehicles with a differential the oil from the diff can leak out the end of the axel housing onto the brake shoes --then the brake dust and oil mix and turn into an extremelly tacky compound virtually eliminating the clearance between the linings and the drum so the slightest brake application causes the wheel to lock up. On all vehicles the emergency brake hanging up can cause the extra pressure of the service brake to cause premature lock up. Brake fluid leaks are not a common cause because fluid is very thin and water soluable so puddles wash it off easily. Neither is the pressure differantial valve likley. Seized wheel cylinders cause excessisve wear not a typical lock up problem.

If a vehicle, manual or automatic, does not shift into a certain gear, there may be a problem with that gear. Gears get worn and need replacing in a vehicle's lifetime.

the fuel pump inertia switch is located in the rear hatch on the drivers side behind a small plastic cover in the side panel.

According to the ( 1996 ) Ford Aspire Owner Guide :

It came from the factory with a 50 / 50 mix of distilled water and GREEN color antifreeze ( meeting Ford specification ESE-M97B44-A )

The engine cooling system capacity is 6.3 U.S. quarts

( so for a 50 / 50 mix it would take 3.15 quarts of antifreeze and 3.15 quarts of preferrably distilled water )

Ford states not to exceed 60 % antifreeze ( which would be 3.78 quarts /almost 1 U.S. gallon )

mercon dexron3 atf

Loosen the 3 water pump pulley bolts.

Take off the drivebelt by loosening the alternator adjusting bolt and the alternator bolt on the bottom of the alternator under the intake manifold.

Take the upper and lower timing covers off.

Put the camshaft at TDC by making sure the alignment marks are at 12:00 and 3:00.

Make sure the crankshaft is also at TDC by removing the 4 small bolts on the crankshaft pulley and removing the two pulleys. You will then need an impact gun to remove the main crankshaft bolt which will let you remove the piece that covers the crank timing gear, so you can see the alignment mark line up in the notch at 12:00.

Mark the timing belt at the two spots on the camshaft timing gear and one spot on the crankshaft timing gear so you will know where to put the belt back in exactly the same spot. If you are replacing the belt at the same time just transfer those same marks the exact same number of teeth on the new belt so there is no problem with the mechanical timing when you put it back on.

Now loosen the timing belt by loosening the bolt the holds the tensioner pulley with a spring attached to it, then using your hand or a prybar, safely push that pulley all the way back and tighten it there so it stays in the loosened position so you can easily remove the timing belt.

Now use a couple small screws that will fit or a pry bar to pop that bottom crank gear off so you can see the seal. Dont' forget to keep track of where the metal dowl pin holder goes in the correct way so it keeps that gear lined up when you put it back together.

Use a small screwdriver or some kind of hook / seal puller to get the old seal out and clean everything up without damaging/scratching anything. Lube the new seal up real well with new engine oil and put it back on the same direction it came off, make sure that the lip does not fold back and allow the spring to pop off or make the seal lip sit in there wrong where it won't seal properly.

You take it to a machine shop. This is a job that requires serious numbers of special tools. If you want to mess with it, the most you can do is remove the steering knuckle.