DHermit

So long story short, I inherited an rx-7 with 30k original miles, that has been garage kept and literally just sat and was barely driven.

I brought the car back to life with a jump, and 7 jumps later finally got it all charged up and it runs perfectly.

There are a few issues with the car that I wanted to get some advice on where I should spend my dollars. I received a check for the estimate total, but it's made out to the dealership, so basically I have a "credit" of $1,600 at the dealership. Here is a list of what is wrong and what the dealer wants to charge. This is a local Mazda dealer in Orlando, Cory Fairbanks Mazda.

A note about the radio: So the radio works, most of the way. One of the speakers kind of comes in and out as the **** is wiggled. The speakers in the headrest do not work at all, I do not think they are even wired up at the moment.

I went and paid $117 to get the car diagnosed at the local Mazda dealership.

Here are the current issues and estimated costs:

• Airbag needs a control module and a fuse - $576.85 (air bag doesn't work, I tried replacing the 30A fuse first myself)
• A/C needs to be converted to the new type of Freon to even be diagnosed - $225.90 for the conversion. (They're saying just the conversion will cost this much, then it could be a lot more for the actual repairs)
• Shifter Lock Actuator needs to be replaced - $333.11 (Car cuts off the power when put into Park, turning off the radio, etc)
• Fuel Sending Unit Replaced - $297.78 (Seems to work fine, not sure what they're talking about?)
• Radio unit needs to be replaced along with speakers - Unknown cost, they don't seem to want to fix it and are just suggesting I put aftermarket stuff in, but I can't spend the money that way.

So, what do you guys think I should have done? Since I already have the "credit", I'm definitely going to do the airbag. The A/C conversion I guess I could also do, to know if it's working or not instead of just having a big question mark there. I also want to do the shift actuator since that's really, really annoying.

One other thing though, is that I don't think they checked out the car mechanically. I can see from my own inspection that there are belts that need to be replaced, who knows what else. I planned to do it myself, but now that I'm in this situation, I'm thinking to just have the 3 things fixed, and then whatever money is left over, to spend on mechanical?

Thanks for any advice!

DHermit

A note about the A/C that I left out: Right now it blows strong, but it's not cold. It's luke warm at best.

TomU

iTrader: (11)

Dealerships usually don't know what they are talking about. One tried to sell me a heater core when mine was fine.

Speakers are an easy DIY, unless they are Bose and you want to keep it Bose.

A/C is R12. All you probably need is a charge, but an R12 charge can get pricey.

How do they know the airbag is bad. Is a dummy light going off. Dont know why a control module would go bad

You may be better off having them replace all the vac hoses and FPD, which do go bad with age.

TomU

iTrader: (11)

But then, if they don't know what they are talking about, they may fdo more damage than good

satch

iTrader: (1)

Use the advanced search for A/C conversion and there is a complete write up that is just as efficient as R12 but costs a bunch less.

Akagis_white_comet

iTrader: (4)

Tomu and Satch are spot on. Avoid the dealers like the plague. The only exception being our good friend Ray Crowe at Malloy Mazda in Woodbridge, VA. The other exception is one of our sponsors, Mazdatrix MAZDATRIX for Mazda RX7, RX8, Rotary Engine Parts and Accessories.

Airbag is controlled by the BODY CPU, found near your left foot & clutch pedal. See Mazdatrix for IDing info

A/C: Lots of info here about R12 Replacements such as Freeze12, search is your friend.

Shifter Interlock: Bypass it, it gets tossed when doing an automatic to manual trans conversion. If your car stalls when put in park, I'd suspect your torque converter first.

Fuel Sender: If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Radio & speakers: go aftermarket, you'll be much happier with the results

I've had a couple talks with Cory Fairbanks Mazda before, during my search for 20B injector seals. They wanted to tell me there's no such thing as a 1990 Cosmo (donor car for my engine). Suffice to say, I was not impressed.

Overall, get that check made out to YOU and grab a FREE copy of the Factory Service Manual in the Second Gen FAQ. It is VERY useful.

DustinFC

Since you already have the credit at the dealership, I would go ahead and get that A/C taken care of, especially here in Florida. It can become a sauna real quick and everywhere you go, you're gonna have sweat stains where your seat belt was lol

I, personally, wouldn't worry about the radio at the moment.

As far as that shifter lock actuator, I would look for more info about that here on the forum. If you plan on keeping it automatic, I would definitely get that looked into with more depth. I know driving in stop-and-go-traffic like that can be annoying when you're having to keep your foot on the gas to keep it from dying.

If you still have credit left over, I would check out the cooling and oiling system. Especially if it sat for so long, and even more if it sat so long with fluids in it. Water pump, belts like you mentioned, transmission fluid, rear end fluids, etc.