Hello all,

I am finally proud to say that I PURCHASED A 1985 MAZDA RX-7!! Yaaaahhh!! I have attached a picture so that everyone can see. It has ~90,000 miles, and is suprisingly clean inside and underneath. It seems to be pretty strong mechanically except for a few small things here and there. The main problem is that is needs a coat of paint.

Anyway, when i start the car and let it warm up it always dies at idle. Even after it warms up, and I've driven it, the car WILL NOT run without the choke on. It smells like it's running a little rich, but I"m not sure. I'm going to change the fuel filter, and the water pump is also bad. It also needs a whole new exhaust, so If anyone knows where to get one cheap please let me know.

But my main question is, what are the main causes of the car dying at an idle? Any help is appreciated. It's great to be here....

 

Here is a picture of the car... I only paid 500 for it...

 

Here is a picture of the car... I only paid 500 for it...

 

My first guess would be a vacuum leak. check your hoses. lotsa hoses to check. welcome and good luck. I just bought an 85 gsl too. Well, still have to find a radiator for it and pay the guy but its consider bought

 

You might want to start with a tune up.

It's hard to tell from what you are describing - could be a lot of things but I'd start with plugs/cap/routor/timing. Pull the plugs and have a look at them - if they are fouled, replace them or clean them up. If they are wet, I would go to the cap, wires, or coils and timing - I hate to suggest that you start replacing everything but wet plugs usually means poor spark and the cap and wires are where I would start. Besides, the thing is probably in dire need of a tune up. If that doesn't fix it, move on to the carb - from this point, there are a few carb guys on the forum that can give you much better advice than I will even attempt. Good luck

 

i dont mean to alarm you, but that what my car was doing just before it blew....good luck, hope it turns out.

 

 

The car already has a brand new cap, rotor, and wires. So I've pretty much ruled that stuff out. The plugs could probably stand to be changed though. Also, I've tried messing with the adjusting screws on the carburetor but I've only been able to find one of them. Where's the other adjuster screw at??

 

Just Drive it with 2 feet. When you get to an intersection just give it a little gas to keep the idle speed up.

That way you can at least drive it a bit.

I had a pick up that you had to drive this way. Worked great...

Good luck

anthrax

 

Your choke is opening the carb a bit to get more air....the other screw you can play with is at the carb base in the area under the throttle cable bracket. It will mechanically do what you are doing when you pull on the choke or use your foot resting on the gas pedal. Get a Haynes manual post-haste and do the tune-up. Simply slapping on new parts is not a tune-up...

 

Huh? Depends on what you rdefenition of a tune up is...

My old shop, a tune up was simply new spark plugs.

For me a tune up is:

Plugs, plug wires, distributor cap and rotor (If equipped), Timing adjustment (Again, if equipped)

Air, fuel, and crank case breather filters... PCV valve,

Adjust valve clearance (On applicable cars only). Carb or Fuel injector cleaning chemicals dumped into gas tank. Adjust Idle and mixture if applicable. And finally an oil change...

So yeah.. On the RX-7... No valves to adjust, the only real thing you need other than slapping new parts on is adjusting the timing and idle and possibly mixture.