Well after 30 something years of wanting an Rx7, I finally am pulling the trigger and buying one. Its an internet purchase from across the country so unfortunately I haven't been able to inspect it. It's low mileage, all original, no rust and spent part of its life outside baking in the sun. I don't have any records of the work done on it, so its going to be tough to know what has been done, but assuming much of it is original. The owner says everything works perfect (I trust him, but for how long?) Are there anything tips, advice I should do immediately upon taking ownership of it?

 

Not too different from any other 30 year old car without flawless maintenance records. Change everything.
Coolant
oil/filter
fuel filter
plugs/wires
brake fluid
air filter
trans fluid
diff fluid
etc.

Along the way you'll get a feel for how this car was maintained and might find other things that need fixing here or there. It's kind of satisfying going over the whole car and fixing and maintaining things, in my opinion.

What year car did you buy?

 

Replace the rubber hoses for coolant, fuel lines, and brake lines.

 

Be nice to know if the cars has been on the road lately or in storage. Even if everything is working, things can and do fail out of nowhere after 35-40 years. Check / change fluids, inspect hoses / belts. Take it easy / slow at first, problems will find you.

 

Correct answer is; ALL of it.

Unless you live next door to a rotary specific shop like Mazdatrix or Atkins, DO NOT TRUST ANYBODY to work on this car unless they pull up driving an Rx7 of their own. Seriously, enough time has passed that these cars are just not well understood by modern mechanics (*aka Part Swappers), and they will make whatever you're trying to fix much worse.

There's plenty of talent on these boards and through search to maintain everything on your car, so start here. Good luck, and welcome aboard,

 

The real trick here is: are you going to drive the car back HOME?! Not the time to be discovering 'issues' - esp since even all but the most common service parts (filters) will need to be sourced from Mazda or a Mazda supplier like Mazdatrix. Meaning a failure in Po-dunk, AK will mean a hotel and either a no-nothing mechanic, or yourself.
Beware out of date TIRES! These are date-coded (10yrs, Indoor storage seems to be max). Google how to read off sidewall- and, yeah, Does The Spare Have Air !
Ideally the car shows up at you place, undriven, so you can drain the gas tank of old fuel (!!) [note here that 78-80 RX7s have NO drain plug...] and swap in a new fuel filter!!!!!!! This can save a LOT of start-up and driving headaches. Filter is external, located behind driver side rear axle. Part is Cheep @ $4-ish and most Napa-style shops have it.

Let also recommend NEW BATTERY CABLES. Likely originals in car, and these will be well past due-date. These can look 'fine' - and yet be thoroughly corroded inside, creating all sorts of electric misery. Easy swap, overdue.

Please keep us informed how the Buy and First Drive goes. And let us all know Yr and model. Pics always enjoyed here too-
Welcome!

Stu A
80GS (since 2001)
AZ

 

New battery, brake pads and check thickness of rotors since it hasn't been mentioned yet. Check gas tank for rust.
Premix oil for the fuel. I get the TC-W3 oil or you can splurge for idemitsu premix designed specifically for rotary engines. Add some of the oil to the gas tank before filling up with gas to mix it in the tank so it will lubricate the internals when combusting to prolong the life of the rotor housings and seals.
Bleed the clutch lines too with new brake fluid

 

You should definitely go pre-mix, it keeps your engine from blowing up so often

 

For what it's worth, pre-mixing is not something that if you do or don't do it you're going to notice much of a difference, if any, particularly on a street car. It's not a magical cure to "keep your engine from blowing up so often" (referring to mostly stock cars here).

In response to JBR, first off, welcome to the club.
Second, it's important to realize that the internet loves to worship pre-mixing as a do or die rotary thing (just like "every problem is an apex seal") and it's not. An operational OMP on these cars is sufficient and they are plenty reliable. Pre-mixing won't hurt, especially for until you know the OMP is working, but it's not something to stress over. The mechanical OMPs rarely fail suddenly or catastrophically in normal use, and usually when they do start to go all they do is begin leaking externally. There is very little to go wrong in an OMP.

My apologies if that at all came off as demeaning. Seeing things to the tone of "the OMP is terrible and you must pre-mix to save your engine" is just something that irks me. It's simply not a good blanket statement. Anywho, cheers.

 

Just newbie doing newbie stuff. I doubt he'll be back to even see your reply, but thanks for being polite about it! OMPs work fine, and have worked fine for the vast majority of us over the past 40+ years. Pre-mix is voodoo with a similar following. Me? I just drive.

 

If your OMP works, then no need (at all) to pre-mix. Removing the OMP and pre-mixing instead is a whole different can of worms.