I will soon be replacing my brake master cylinder. The car has been sitting for about 2 months with no brake fluid (it had a slow leak that I just kept refilling, then stopped, and it all leaked out, and here we are).

I plan to do the work myself, but just for ***** and giggles, I stopped in a local mechanic and asked 1) if he worked on RX-7s and 2) how much it would cost to change out the brake mastercylinder.

He said 85/hr, but you can never tell how many hours it will be because sometimes the distributor block (I had to ask what this is, it apparently is what distributes the fluid equally to the front and the back brakes) gets mis-aligned and the re-calibration can take a long time....but you never know until you get in there.

Is he yanking my chain? I could not find anything on line or in my Haynes book about a brake distributor block.

second question (unrelated to the first): the same mechanic also said that when I go to restart the car, I should make sure the batter is fully charged, otherwise there is a rush of fuel, fouling out the plugs. I know about the plugs fouling out when they need to be replaced, But is this correct about it happening because the battery is not fully charged??

 

The 'distribution block' is the Proportioning Valve and does what he says, balances the front and rear brakes. However I've never seen one that needed touched and there is no calibration that can be performed on one. On that point he's full of it. Regarding the battery, sort of. If the engine fails to start due to a weak battery or starting/charging systems, the engine can flood. There is no 'great rush of fuel' however.

If you're going to be doing your own work, download the FSM from the following link.

http://www.wankel.net/~krwright/cars/rx7/manuals.html

 

First off, Is that supposed to be 85 hours? or 8.5? 3 days + seems long.

Second, No one in my shop here knows what a "brake distributor block" is... most likely he's talking about somethink like the proportioning valve, and/or metering valve. Though it doesn't really distribute the brake pressure equally as you want the front to exert more stopping force than the rear due to inertia...

As for the spark plug fouling, I don't quite understand how the battery would affect plug fouling other than the initial spark.

Damn you trochoid! beat me to the punch (edit)

 

Great, thanks.
Is the proportioning valve located INSIDE the master cylinder? I just can't can't find anything on it-- of course, I will be downloading the manual from the link trochoid left....so i'm sure it's in there.

and it's 85dollars/hr

"As for the spark plug fouling, I don't quite understand how the battery would affect plug fouling other than the initial spark."-------Kind of what I thought tooo.

Thnaks

 

Your mechanic's lying to you. The brakes work just as the guys have said. If all else fails, you can either rebuild or replace the master cylinder, but the proportioning valve isn't anything that you need to service.

A low battery may mean that the engine cranks too slow to fire, which would cause you to foul the plugs, but even that isn't what the mechanic told you.

If I were you, I'd buy an Autozone reman master cylinder, throw a charger on the battery, and by the time you're done with the brakes, you'll be ready to go.

BTW, are you sure it's the master that's leaking (on the firewall) rather than having a leak at the brakes themselves?

 

You hit the nail on the head-- I already have the reman from Autozone! It's just really cold here, and I don't have a garage to work in! That's what I figured for the battery just charge while working and i'll be going no prob....

We did see fluid come out from between the master cylinder and where it butts up to the power brake unit (against the flange)...not next to the firewall. We figured the pistons inside were worn and fluid was leaking past them-- you would come to the same conclusion?

 

Yes. A leaky master would leak between the vacuum booster and the master cylinder body.

 

This, boys and girls, is why you should always do your own car maintenance if you can. This guy was both stupid and dishonest.

 

ok, first off, if I where you, I would march back to autozone and get my money back from autozone. Everything above brake pads, fluids or other odd small things like that, in my 10 years of mechanic experience is garbage coming from them. This is ranging from things such as brake calipers which leaked upon initial installation, hubs that where grindings within 20 miles, starters that started the car 5 times and never agian and other such parts with similar results. I worked for Belle Tire in white lake Michigan. They bought there parts from them for only a handful of months before regretting there decision and moving on to a better company. I would look for a more local garage/parts store and get your parts from them.
Ok, now moving on. This guy is a crock of sh&t. Doesn't even know what to call a proportioning valve? Come on. 85 dollars an hour? The ridiculous for labor. How many hours did he quote you for? He can only charge you so for so many hours for any given job. Seems like he's trying to take you for a ride.
So ya, get the manual (printing it out is well worth the ink, paper and time) read through the section a few times that you wanna work with. Grab some tools and have at it. Wrenching is easier then some people let on. Some people are just to afraid of getting dirty I guess. besides, you got the best crew on this site to help you out.

 

Personally, I've always had good luck with Autozone, though I prefer Advance (I try to support the little guy) but Autozone has the centralized system for warranty replacement, so if your battery craps out on a long trip, a local store will replace it. If you DO happen to have a few bad experiences and cross AutoZone off your list, at least you can replace the bad parts readily under warranty.

Plus, they loan out pilot bearing pullers, power steering pullers, pickle forks, etc. for free.

 

I can appreciate the anti-Autozone; but honestly, I do/have looked for local or RX mechanics around and have had less luck with them-- we replaced the clutch slave last summer, bought a used one from a local guy off of one of his "parts RX-7s" and the piston was seized in it, so I had to go to autozone anyway...I would be more than happy to find someone around here who I can TRUST and get parts from...'cause you're right- this guy (85$/hour) was just taking me for a ride...I had planned to do the work myself anyway..but I thought...if I could get it done quickly and easily (still too cold for me, and now there is snow..) then I would do it...I miss driving my car!!!!

 

...and that's why I joined. I appreciate all everybody's input and helpin me out.

 

I go to parts stores for parts, not for advice; cars as old as ours, you're likely to have to educate THEM.

For advice, I come here, or talk to one of the specialty vendors (Racing Beat, MazdaTrix, etc) and buy stuff from them when I can afford it, to keep them going.

Only in final desperation will I go to a dealer for an RX question... they see so few of them, they don't really know them any better than I do, and their prices are just extreme.

New and used-car prices are so competitive any more, dealerships make about 85% of their total profit from parts and service, sometimes more, so I can't really blame them... but I don't have to pay them.

 

Definitely never trust what someone at Autozone tells you. I should know, I worked there.

 

For rotary shops in NJ you have,

JPR Imports, http://jprimports.com/

or

IRP, https://www.rx7club.com/ne-rx-7-forum-30/irps-new-shop-765659/

 

This is great, thank you, I am only about 20 minutes from one of these! really appreciate this.

 

$85/hr labor, balancing proportioning valve, low battery rush of fuel.........typical New Jersey Mechanic........your car needs a tune up, how many cylinders does it have?

Gawd I hate that state!!

 

So I see you know NJ! There are definitely some not-so-nice things about this place...Funny thing-- 85/hr seems to be the going rate here. It's a 4 cylinder.