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I went to perform the second oil change on the car since I purchased the car. I checked the dipstick before I drained the oil. It read full. I drained the oil and about 1.5 quarts came out. I waited until the oil stopped dripping out and checked the dipstick. It did not have oil registering on the dipstick. I added a quart and half of oil. The dipstick registered at the full mark. Am I missing something here?
Backstory:
I purchased a 1990 RX7 from the original owner in October of 2018. The car came with every maintenance record from day one. Inside the glove box there was a book of every fill up (date/cost of fuel/gallons/miles). There were also tire receipts, oil changes, tune ups for the last 28 years. I also found paperwork on the complete engine overhaul done by Mazdatrix at ~215,000 miles.
I flew out to Los Angeles, then took an Uber to Hermosa Beach and purchased the car from a retired CBS employee that drove the car back and forth to work for 22 years before parking the car (Beach to downtown Los Angeles and back).
When I got there the car needed a new battery which was deducted from the purchase price. The next day I had the engine oil, trans oil, rear diff oil and air filter replaced before driving it back halfway across the country. While getting the oil changed I can remember the tech explaining that the car was low on oil. I didn't think much of it at the time and figured it had been a while since the oil was changed.
In the two years that I've owned the car I've put about 4500 miles on it. Aside from replacing a leaky power steering hose and the leaky brake master cylinder its been a pretty good car. I've checked the oil religiously since I've bought it and every time Its been full on the dipstick (or so I thought). About a year ago or less than 1000 miles ago I started getting an oil light on the dash along with a wonderful buzzing sound behind the cluster. I checked the oil and it registered as full on the dipstick so I figured the oil level sensor in the oil pan was starting to fail. I decided to pull the cluster out and disable the buzzer until I fixed the sensor in the pan. Then the car started running really sluggish about a week ago.
Last Weekend 10/24/20:
I decided I was going to change the oil for the second time since I purchased the car in Los Angeles. I drained the oil and watched about a quart and half dribble into the oil pan. What the hell? I decided to jack the car up a watched a couple drips come out. At this point I'm scratching my head. Where is the rest of the oil? I reinstalled the drain plug bolt and lowered the car back down on level ground. I then added 1.5 quarts of oil and checked the dipstick. It read full!
I reinstalled the dipstick and wiggled it back and forth. It sounded like it was hitting the bottom of the oil pan. I inserted a thin metal rod to the bottom of the oil pan from the base of the dipstick. It was 1.5-2" from the bottom of the oil pan. Looking at the base of the dipstick hole on the block and it looks like there is a bracket missing. Is there supposed to be a dipstick bracket there where the bolt hole is? It seems like the dip stick sits too low on the block. Did Mazdatrix forget to install a bracket that lifts the dipstick up? I added 5 quarts of oil and now the oil level light is off and the car runs 1,000,000,000 times better. Go figure 🙄
yikes that is scary! you probably ran it basicly out of oil then!
you may want to consider driving a few 100 miles, and draining all the oil into a very clean pan, and check for bearing material, if hte oil is a copper sheen then the damage has been done, and u may be looking at a new engine in very short order.
Yes, the car is missing the dipstick pipe but that's not going to solve your problem. If you put the tube in, than you're not going to get a reading on your dipstick because it'll be too short. The tube adds about another 4" in length. Apparently. someone removed the tube and also changed the dipstick. You'll need the correct length dipstick too. The Mazda p/n for the NA dipstick is N326-10-450B, but unfortunately it's NLA from Mazda. The TII dipstick is still available (https://www.atkinsrotary.com/store/8...2-10-450A.html), but I don't know how much it differs from the NA dipstick. I think all the stock FC dipsticks all had yellow handles. My '90 GXL dipstick has a yellow handle and the TII dipstick pictured in the Atkins ad also has a yellow handle.
Yes, the car is missing the dipstick pipe but that's not going to solve your problem. If you put the tube in, than you're not going to get a reading on your dipstick because it'll be too short. The tube adds about another 4" in length. Apparently. someone removed the tube and also changed the dipstick. You'll need the correct length dipstick too. The Mazda p/n for the NA dipstick is N326-10-450B, but unfortunately it's NLA from Mazda. The TII dipstick is still available (https://www.atkinsrotary.com/store/8...2-10-450A.html), but I don't know how much it differs from the NA dipstick. I think all the stock FC dipsticks all had yellow handles. My '90 GXL dipstick has a yellow handle and the TII dipstick pictured in the Atkins ad also has a yellow handle.
I have a TII dipstick somewhere. I'll try to find it and see if there's any length difference.
From this post (#3), the length of the NA dipstick from where the rubber stopper meets the engine to the full mark is given as 12.5" and the low mark 13-1/8".
The tube length is different for the NA and TII (see post #4). It looks like the TII tube is shorter than the NA tube. So, the TII dipstick would be too short with the NA tube. The TII and NA oil pans are physically the same (same Mazda p/n). So, if you use a TII tube and TII dipstick (which is still available), than that combination would most likely give you the correct oil level reading. Alternatively, you can try picking up a used NA dipstick from a used parts dealer.
Worse case scenario, i would suspect oil level relative to the bottom of the engine to be the same across all mazda rotary engines. Just a matter of determining that height and put new marks on whatever dipstick you have?
Sorry if this muddies the waters. Since the N/A tube is available and it says it's also for the '04 to '06 Rx8. Will the Rx8 dipstick work? it is still available. Anyone know the length of it compared to the n/a Rx7?
Alternately you could buy the turbo dipstick and the n/a tube. If someone knows the difference in length between the turbo and n/a tubes you could shorten the n/a tube and problem solved.
P.S. I found a dipstick but don't know which engine it goes to but since that questions already been answered I didn't look anymore into it.
Worse case scenario, i would suspect oil level relative to the bottom of the engine to be the same across all mazda rotary engines. Just a matter of determining that height and put new marks on whatever dipstick you have?
Cheapest solution right there. FSM says 4.4 quarts for the pan and .17qt for the filter. So 4.57 for an oil and filter change. So do an oil and filter change using 3.5qts,run the car and check the oil. this is your low mark. Mark this on the dipstick. Add 1 quart and check. This is your full mark. Mark this on your dipstick. Done.
Though I personally think I prefer cutting down the n/a tube and using a turbo dipstick, I think the above method would be ok.
