Howdy!

I read through the FAQ, followed all the links and learned a ton of stuff about my FC that I didn't know (like it's called an FC :) So, my problem is that I don't know that much about cars, but I have an RX-7 as my daily driver anyway (it was my Dad's..). I'm not adverse to learing about the internals of my auto, but I'm a computer geek from the city, so this (at 27) is my first car so I've just never had a car to tinker and learn with till recently.

So, I was wondering if anyone could give me a some advice about what's happening with my car, I think it might be dead, but I'm not experinced enough to really make that evaluation and would like to understand the problems so I don't feel totally stupid when I talk to my mechanic (it's much easier to look stuipid online than in person :).

The Problem:
Monday I was driving to work and the car was running well, I gently hit the brakes to stop for a light and the car stalled and refused to start again. In the fluster of being a small non-mobile car on a road full of semi's going way to fast I probably flooded it trying to get it started again. I did manage to get it fired up for a brief moment, it sputtered, revv'ed from 500 to 3000 RPM's a few times and then died again, with the "Engine" light illuminated on the Christmas Tree. Had car towed to shop, waiting for verdict. Did I mention the dispair?

Backstory:
The car is a '91 FC Vert Auto, with ~65K miles on it. Before I had it it was my Dad's Sunday driver and before that My sister-in-law's daily driver. Always taken fairly good care of, the past year or so I've probably been slacker than I should of in changing the oil regularly (I drive it about 10 miles a day and I've been dirt poor) In January the alternator died and I had it replaced, the day I brought it back from the shop it totally lost compression and I had to have it towed back to the shop. They squirted some oil in the plug holes to try getting the compression back up and changed the "cooling sensor" to effect the mixture (I think that's why the sesnor was swapped - again, until Moday I was 100% ignorant aboput how my car worked, now I'm like 95% so I may be forgetting something :) When I left, they said the compression was about 100psi, which seems normal, but I don't know if they did the thing to the compression meter to make it resigister the 3 "bumps" for the revolution of the rotor.

It's been doing well (expect for the fact the my wiper switch is flakey.. bad wiring + humid climate I guess) since then but I've noticed that since then at a cold start there's a bit of white smoke being emitted from the exaust during the 3,000RPM warm up cycle. It stops after that, even when running at higer RPMS. I though that this was a "feature" of the new sensor, but now maybe I think that it's the seals ("O-Rings?") that seperate the cooling system from the combustion chamber.

About 3 weeks ago I took the car for a lube/oil and coolant flush (when checking the oil I noticed the collant was low in the overflow bottle and figured it probably could use a flush anyway, since it's been a while..) after that it's actually been running better than before the compression loss. Until Monday...

Questions:
So does anyone have any advice about how to diagnose the car, or at lest have a suspicion about what might be wrong? In reading stuff this week, I feel like a rebuild (which I can't really afford) may be in my future, but I'm hoping it's like, the CPU just fried it's little brain or something.

Also, does anyone know a good rotary shop in the Athens, GA area? I like my shop just fine, but I don't think they'd really want to do a rebuild if it came to that (it'd also be pricey) and the Mazda dealer/shop here is also primarily a Ford shop who I don't trust after several bad expeirnces.

Thanks for any advice y'all can provide.

 

I local mentor could get you going on the DIY tricks.
The SE forum has some active members in the Athens area.
Maybe copy & paste this post on the SE forum.

 

Thanks! I will try that.

 

Check your Oil metering pump, or metering oil pump. Its the same thing. it sounds to me like your engine is not egtting proper oil delivery, and the seals are going bad. Have it checked.