Advice on buying RX7 S5
 

Hi everyone,

My partner and I have just started looking around for a RX7 S5 turbo2. We do not know much about the car. We saw it, we loved it, and after that we felt we must have it. Its a great looking car. Guess we were also influence to some extent by Initial D.

Some of the questions I have are:

1. What are the usual problems you have with this car?
2. Is maintenance expensive?
3. Is fuel consumption execptionally high?
4. What are the things I should consider other than price when choosing a car?
5. What area the things I should look out for when choosing a car?

Cheers

JF

Hey, congrats on wanting a 7 :) they are a lot of fun

I have an 87 TII S4

As for your questions:


1. from personal experience as of right now I have had no problems. Just have to check your fluid levels alittle more than a piston engine. Vaccum leakes are a killer, always keep good hoses or plastic plugs as one vaccum leak in the wrong spot and car wont run.

2. It can be, most people on here will say to own a 7 there will be plenty of main. costs. They just need attention but what car wouldn't have 13+ years. For example, I went from a camaro to the 7. Alternator went out...on the Camaro it was only like $40 but on the 7 it ended up running $108.

3. Fuel consumption is alittle high. I have found if you keep your foot out of the gas its not to bad but for me thats hard to do when there is a turbo envolved.

4. Main thing I would consider is condition of drive train. I have found everything else to be an easy fix but if your new to the rotary then a good engine and tranny would be good to have.

5. I have seen alot of people get burned by people saying an engine is good and it really not being because lack of knowledge of the motor. Compression needs to be there along with all the right fluids going to the right spots in the engine. Don't need coolant trying to lub up your rotor. Some of that is hard for me as I got mine for $500 with a locked up engine due to sitting to long so I just got a jspec engine/tranny and dropped it in. Still running strong.

I am not the most knowledgable here just some personal experiance advice on your questions. I am sure you will get some more technical answers soon.

Mike

alright mine are a little different from his but this is my experiences to

1. the usual problems for mine were probably start up problems such as to much gas going in flooding the engine.vacuum leaks are that guy said above is a really big killer. mostly thats the usual problems.

2. haha well my experience with my car is actually maintenance is really high because of little problems here and there. so id say its a little bit on the expensive side. rx7s are like girls very high maintenance ;) haha

3. ya fuel consumption is higher than most cars for myself i can only get like 14-15 MPG on street i dont drive fast either i take care of my baby

4. hmm.. personally i wouldnt consider any other car for this kind of price.. if it was a little more id say a FD would do nicely but im more of a rx7 person so any other car just wont due for me

5. compression, if idlings a bit rough see if theres vacuum leaks. see if it starts up well.. thats about it from my experiences. but good luck i hope you get wat you want

Please read the FAQ for FC sticky thread at the top of this section before posting. It has most of teh commonly asked questions (like the ones in this thread) already answered.

The short version:
The RX-7 is a medium high performance, medium high maintence, medium high fuel consumption true sports car.

It's best if you can do most of your own maintenance.
Aftermarket new, used, and performance parts are easily available.

Going to a shop for every little thing will get expensive.
Good experienced rotary mechanics are scarce.

The FAQ has way more information.
The complete factory manuals are available on-line.

Thanks for all the advice everyone. My main worry is that some problems may be chronic and worst still if the problem cannot be isolated or fixed. Anyway, the hunt continues ...........

The problem is that there are not many RX7 FCs on sale in Australia. I might have to be patient and wait for a good buy. I was advised to consider a engine rebuild. I got a quote for about $5K for a AUS5 engine rebuild. Can enyone please tell me what is involved in an engine rebuild? Will that solve some of the problems you guys mentioned such as, gas flooding the engine and vacuum leaks?

Thanks,

JF

Then again the FAQ for FC has this:

2 things that I realized ever since I got my first 91 NA Coupe. 1. You have to learn to be somewhat of a Rotary Mechanic or else you will spend a lot of money. Also don't take a Rx-7 to a regular mechanic because you probably know jus as much as him. 2. This engine f*cks up pretty easy (especially if its not being modified correctly), so expect to rebuild it a few times. Most people give up on Rx-7s because of the work required and the stress it causes you from the time, work, money, and etc. Its a big gas eater and overheating can make a bad water seal and lead to rebuilding. For me, I had a bad water seal in my 91 NA. then I tried a TII Swap and failed wit a bad jdm engine. I sold everything. But now, I miss it so much. So I plan to get a S5 TII and rebuild it. I recommend buying a TII with a remanufactured engine with low miles, or getting one that has a bad water seal and rebuild it which is much cheaper. Thats what Im going to do. Well, good luck on your search.

I don't think that my partner and I will give up on the a RX7, its a joint effort so I think that the cost won't be too bad. Will learn from your mistake to sell the 91NA. Do all versions of RX7s have problems with over heating...... is it also a probelm in the FDs or is it just the FCs? Couldn't we use a bigger inter-cooler to keep the engine temperature down?

Cheers,
JF

Thanks for that Icemark, I will check out thte FAQs..........

JF