xfillthy

I'm very on edge about the FC mostly because of the things
i hear about them. I love the body shape and how they look tuned
nd all but i want to know the truth.

Some people tell me

The rotary FC engine is known for being unreliable and tends to
break down alot and have alot of problems that are hard to fix
or cost alot to fix because rotary engines are kinda rare now

and others tell me

The fc's only have problems because younger teenagers who dont
know how to handle the car, redline it everytime and damage the engine
so you dont find alot of "mint" FCs unless you purchase from someone who
didnt drive it to drift or w/e

please help
thanks

cdaleracer669

iTrader: (1)

3. most people buy a high mileage fc in which the engine is wearing out, so it runs like crap,starts like crap, and other problems that are non fc/rotary related occur (like brakes,electrical,clutch etc etc)

chun

It's on a case by case basis. It is like that for every car made. If it wasn't taken care of, it'll give you trouble. If it was, it'll go the extra distance for you. There's no solid rule on how cars will treat you reliability wise because of the fact that there are so many factors involved.

The bottom line, however, is that the rotary engine IS much more sensitive. It'll burn some oil naturally, and is a completely different system than the piston engine. As long as you take the right steps, there should be no problems. Remember that these rotary engines are still the outcome of many thousands (millions maybe?) of hours of R&D by world-class engineers. It's not some scraggly backyard project by a couple of 14-year olds. :p

KompressorLOgic

iTrader: (6)

id say they handle redlinging all the time quite well...
remember these are 20yr old cars with most over 150K miles,things are gonna break its a fact on a really old car....

stupid people not TUNING them corectly also kills the turbo cars real fast..

FC3S Murray

iTrader: (7)

Search this forum or read the FAQ thread. Your answers are there.

People say the same **** about Hondas(besided the reliability) and any other car that is popular with the younger crowd.

Valkyrie

When you're buying a 20 year-old car, there are SOOO many things that could be wrong with the car, depending on who owned it, because a lot of things can happen to a car in 20 years.

It could have been owned by a granny who drove it to pick up groceries (not nessicarily a good thing, a car needs to be driven to it's full potential every once in a while or certain things might stop working properly), or it could have been driven to death by the Granny From Hell, who had a serious need for speed.

Likewise, it could have been modified by an idiot, who made very poor tuning decisions, took out things the car would have been better off with, while driving the car to death, and ignoring basic maintenance issues.

Or it could have been modded carefully by someone who took great care of it, drove it hard, but didn't abuse it (and maybe rebuilt the engine as well).

If you're buying your first FC, it's basically the luck of the draw, because you don't have the experience nessicary to determine whether a car is in good condition or not (even if you follow certain "how to buy" guides)... so your best bet would be to have someone who has experience with FC's (look for a forum member near you) go with you and check out the car.

I came very close to buying several extremely IFFY FC's before I landed with mine (which although it had blown coolant seals, it was otherwise in fairly good mechanical shape)... I can recognize now different red flags about things on the FC, by combining what I've learned on the forum over nearly 2 years, and my own experience.

Also, anyone can rebuilt a rotary, if they can follow instructions, and are patient enough to make sure they do everything right... the lifespan of the engine basically depends on 1. whether it's an FD (doomed to a rock star-like death, for the most part), and 2. if it's a modded turbo car (the likelyness of a blown engine goes up proportionally with boost increases...). For that matter, a rotary that's been driven to death (ie, a race car) will almost always outlast a piston engine (it can't sling rods, for one thing... and revving it stresses it less than a piston engine), at least for a non-turbo engine.

DREYKO

lets face it theyre olod, but if you do a little preventitive maintnece (brakes, cooling, ect.) they are quite reliable, my 88 n/a always starts and nothing happens that i dont notice first, in the year and a half that ive owned it it left me stranded once and i was on the road again in about 15 minutes. just do your hw

DAVE

Well, I bought my 91 N/A in 1999 with 77,000 miles. It was my daily driver and still is. I modified it with headers, t2 tranny, rear, short shifter and HKS in take system. I went on road rallys, drove it hard and got divorced. I just had my motor rebuilt. Its still in great shape and I love it to death. Dont get me wrong, It's had it's share of problems. But, It's never left me stranded anywhere. Even when the motor was going. I have only red lined it maybe 10 times. With and N/A it's not reallly necessary. The power curve ends at about 7,000 RMPs. It's all about getting a good car when you buy it and knowing when to say when. Like everything in life. Dont beat the crap out of it, It will treat you well. If you really appreciate your ride you will know when to ease up. Otherwise you will break it.


DL

Valkyrie

The thing about preventative mainenance is true... but what a potential buyer has to know is how to check these things so they'll know what they're getting in to.

Also, there IS a reason to redline an engine, even if it redlines above the torque band.

You want the RPM's to be as high as possible in the next gear, after shifting up. So there's no need to put an engine's ability to rev to waste, just because the power band ends 1000 rpm's before redline. If you drop 2000 RPMs when you shift up, you're now at 5000 RPM's after shifting at 7000, instead of 6000, if you had shifted at 8000. I'd take 6000 over 5000, thank you :p

There is no reason to rev any higher than redline, of course...

DAVE

Hence, the short shifter and lighten fly wheel. I lose nothing at 7000 rpm because i get to the next gear faster.

Flem-Ball

If you're easily swayed by opinion, an RX-7 might not be the car for you.

Valkyrie

A short shifter and a lightened flywheel don't change your gear spacing :p

Black91n/a

If you buy a cheap car in normal to bad condition, expect it to be unreliable and a general pain in the ***. If you buy a really nice car in top notch shape, expect to pay a premium, and expect it to be pretty reliable. ALL used cars are this way, the good ones are hard to find, who sells a perfectly good car? Lots of people say screw it, it can be an SEP (Someone Else's Problem) and sell it.

I bought my car over 3 years ago and have put about 40 000 km's on it and it's been nearly completely trouble free. It did have a rebuilt engine though, and I certainly paid more than I would have for any other FC I'd seen, but it was in nearly perfect shape.

Buy the car in the absolute best condition you can afford, you'll save yourself time, money and aggrevation. It's a much better experiance all around that way. If at all possible, get one with a recently rebuilt engine. Be prepared to act fast, the good ones sell quickly, mine was on and off the lot in only a few days, I was very lucky to be shopping when it came up for sale.

DAVE

No it dosen't. But Ive owned it forever and I know when to shift at the optimum power curve.

sniperstevedave

I paid ~$4,500 for my '89 n/a GTU. The extra price was due to it having an engine rebuilt six years ago, a new clutch, and a freshly rebuilt transmission. Plus it was a California and Arizona car, so there was very little rust. I couldn't believe my luck at finding one is such great condition. Up here in the north they salt the roads in the winter and it rusts all to hell so it is hard to find someone selling a good FC. If you are in CA, you shouldn't have too many problems. Stay away from ones that have been heavily modified unless you know what you are doing.

Keep in mind that all RX-7s are sports cars. Sports cars require extra care and attention, and that is true if it is a Porsche, Benz, Supra, 350Z, etc. But a rotary engine and the rest of the car is perfectly reliable if properly maintained. In 'Engineer to Win' Carrol said something like "Mechanical failures are always the result of human error. Either the engineer didn't design it correctly for its intended purpose, the manufacturer failed to meet the engineer's specifications, the user used it for something it wasn't designed for, or the mechanic maintaining it failed to do his job." Note that this is probably missquoted, but the meaning is accurate.

ForsakenRX7

My S5 Turbo had 200,000 miles on it when I got rid of it. It ran just fine when I got rid of it. The guy who took it ripped the motor apart to give it a streetport. He was stunned. All the prevententive maintenence I put into that car paid off big. The motor was in perfect condition on the inside. No scorching, no carbon build up or anything. I found this out cause he came back to me to ask how long ago I rebuilt the motor. Yall should have seen the look on his face when I told him I didnt.

KhanArtisT

iTrader: (2)

OMFG dude, that has to be the most ignorant **** I've read in a WHILE. I don't even know what to ******* say, all I know is that the person that said that should be shot. The first one is so retarded it almost makes me chuckle when I read it. Now, since you're actually retarded enough to make a thread about these statements let me educate you. The first stentence makes 0 sense, it needs to be more specific on what actually breaks on the cars...

How to handle the car? WTF. This is a ******* insult to all young people. So you have to be old to own an RX7 the right way? What an ignorant *** statement. To make it even more retarded, if you learn how to ******* read and go to howstuffworks.com and read about rotary engines you'll learn that they actually like to stay in high RPMs due to the natural design of the motor. I could go more into that if you don't believe me. Thats just what I read on howstuffworks, which is pretty much where I learned everything about cars. If you own an RX7 you need to DRIVE your ******* car, not granny it. Carbon buildup FTL. And "mint" doesn't only mean the mechanical condition. Drift it? Drifting is a form of racing, just like drag racing, or auto X ing. Damage the engine? Can you be more damn specific?




I'm ******* embarassed now that I actually replied to your dumbfuck post...

My5ABaby

iTrader: (7)

Damn, got a few rage issues?

He's asking legitimate questions to clarify hear-say. I see ABSOLUTELY nothing wrong with this. Would you rather have him clarify the statements and get information to confirm/dispute them or just believe the statements given to him by ignorant people?

blackhb

what i did was bought 2 of them the first one was the beater cause face its a sports car you want to have some fun but that one i got for $600 then my other one is a 87 all original with only 43k original miles bought from the original owner this way i can take care of my nice one and have fun with the other one

KhanArtisT

iTrader: (2)

Not really, thanks for the concern I guess

Its amazing to me that someone could actually take that **** seriously. If I heard someone say that to me in person I would be very tempted to shoot them. He shouldn't clarify or believe it. TOSS it aside.

My5ABaby

iTrader: (7)

Lol, you're a bit naive. Maybe you or I would be able to "toss it aside" because we know (somewhat) about rotaries, however, he doesn't. Sure, a lot of crap people say is untrue. But, a lot is also true. In this case... untrue. But, nobodies psychic and can tell if things are true or untrue without proper knowledge. Which, guess what, he's trying to get here.

Give him a break. At least he's getting the truth instead of embracing the false facts. If more people were like him, there'd be ALOT less problems in the world.

Warning: don't read the following if you're 6 years old.
When someone told you Santa wasn't real (gasp!), did you toss it aside or did you ask your parents if it was true?

Turbo II

iTrader: (1)

Go here, read, educate yourself.

http://www.aaroncake.net/RX-7/

ericgrau

iTrader: (1)

Neither opinion is true.

The rotary tends to be very reliable. I've heard of well maintained rotaries going for 350,000 miles plus. Those that see some bad-but-not-atypical neglect blow around 170,000 miles. Pretty good for a sports car engine that must be revved high from time to time (see next paragraph). And the rotary is far simpler than a piston engine, making it easy to work on when it does blow. The simplicity also contributes to its reliability.

The rotary handles redlining very well. Never revving it high will build up deposits and be bad for the engine, in fact. OTOH there are a lot of ways ricers can mod any car to make in unreliable. Like setting the boost super high on a turbo.

The rotary's poor reliability reputation comes from the FD ('92-'95). Basically Mazda delivered unbelievable performance while cutting a lot of corners on the FD. It's also quite a complicated machine, especially the twin turbocharging system.

I like this buyer's guide. http://www.rx7.voodoobox.net/infofaq/bguide/bguide.html
Any 20 year old car could be a lemon. This guide will help you find one in good shape.

Fumi

in the two plus years i have had my stock Fc i have put 40+ thousand miles on it and never had a big problem until the engine blew.
which was due to overheating.
and during that time it was incredibly reliable and fun.

KhanArtisT

iTrader: (2)

Damn, went in a little deep there. This is a really nice moment Sorry threadstarter guy. Honestly the reason I was outraged was because I remember seeing that avatar of that red FC on a daily basis leading me to assume that the threadstarter posted daily.

Edit: Cool fact of the day: Some aircraft manufacturers actually prefer rotary engines due to their reliability and ability to run without needing maintanence.

Something like that...