Considering Buying FC3C
 

I've always liked the RX-7s. MY current ride is actually an XR-7... a 1970 Cougar XR-7... that the lady who I bought it from kept calling an RX-7... in fact, my insurance company INSISTED it was called a Cougar RX-7. But that's another story.

I went and looked at an RX-7 for sale locally. I know the guy selling it, but not very well.

I had some questions about it... the oil pressure... I searched and searched and finally found someone that had a 10 per 1000 RPM rule... which seems like it would starve the engine of oil, especially at lower RPMs. This one started up cold without a problem and idled above 1000 RPM for a second before dropping down just below 1000. The oil pressure sat right at about 30.

Another issue was at idle there was a slight miss that was not consistently timed. Plugs maybe? Cap, rotor? Or am I looking at a fuel related problem like a partially clogged injector or something?

The top had a few rips in all the wrong places, and the interior was apparently 15 years old, slightly neglected. But that stuff is pretty straightforward, and I've already done some research on the cost to fix that. The DOOR AJAR light seemed to be stuck on. The clock was dead.

My only other major concern was the transmission. Went into each gear fine. The shifter felt a little bit sloppy... do these have linkage shifters or are they direct into the transmission? It reminded me of the worn out cable linkage shifter on my '90 SHO. It didn't grind into any gear when I shifted it, but in lower RPMs in second gear it would sort of rattle and make this noise that sounded almost like a bad gear whine. Maybe throwout bearing, or a pilot bearing/bushing? I'm trying to tell myself the transmission isn't shot.

So yeah, I'm in pretty much new territory. I've done a pretty good amount of work on a variety of piston engines, mostly on Ford 5.0's, my Ford 351 Cleveland, My SHO 3.0 V6 (made by Yamaha, and a pain to work on), and a little bit of work on Chevy 350's. So someone mind helping me out a little on getting into the Rotary world?

I'll tell you what I know, in the order you asked, and leave the rest for more knowledgabel people to answer = )

oil pressure at 30 at idle is good. most people (including me) will tell you they range form 30 at idle to 60 at full acceleration.

the slight miss at idle, I can't help you figure out what causes it but almost EVERYBODY will report the same type of idle in their FC (including me). a stable idle just below 1000 with a slight miss is considered by many to be ideal.

If the clock is dead, check the A/C too and the power mirrrors. All three dead? check the 10A CIGAR fuse in the interior fuse box by your left foot.

Sloppy shifter could often be caused by worn out bushings. A new bushing set is $20-30 from www.mazdatrix.com and installation is a piece of cake.

good luck.

Welcome aboard. From the sound of what you've described the shifter issue can be fixed by replacing the shifter bushings. (easy, cheap) I believe it's a direct link shifter. The oil pressure should be a bit over 60psi when you're cruising along at a decent RPM or doing more than that.

i would get an series 4 or 5 gxl. they seem to be most ideal. because of the options they have. most importantly being a LSD> 30psi was that same in my 88 gxl. and that miss you speak of might jsut be the missfire with is oh som common and loved by us. Lates matt22

Thought the GTU had the LSD? Correct me if I'm wrong of course.

I just realized I didn't give a specific year. It's a 1990.

Thanks for all of your responses... what about the transmission (I think) noise? That's a pretty major concern!

These cars don't have a cap & rotor, they use coil packs :)

So on the bright side you can rule those two things out!

GTU's have open diffs, S5 GXL's have open diffs, Vert's have open diffs. Only the GTUS and Tii's had LSD for 89 - 91's.

As long as th pressure doesn't drop too much. Take it for a spin and see what the gauge tells you. If it's sitting well below 60 at 3000 rpm, the o-ring or thermo pellet could be bad( easy fix).


A slight miss could be anything from bad plugs, wires, etc.



Interior parts are everywhere. People are always parting out their cars.
The logicon could be bad if lights are on or some are stuck on.
Is the clock, a/c and power mirrors working? If not to all, check the "cig" fuse at the drivers kick panel.


Take it for a spin and shift through the gears. If you hear a constant whine or have trouble going into gear maybe a pilot bearing. If it just grinds a bit on downshift or upshift
a fluid change may help to Redline MT-90 (good stuff).
The shifter does not have a cable linkage.

Their easy to work on when you get the hang of it. Change all the fluids and vacuum lines and it will treat you good.
Some people expect fluids and parts to last forever and expect the car to be trouble free. They forget these cars are 15+ years old. Most important on these rotary engines are oil changes. They inject oil into the combustion and the holes in the housing can get clogged if oil changes are neglected. Good luck

Oh ok, thanks for clearing that up for me.

I am surprised nobody corrected the mistake in the subject line...FC3C . It is actually FC3S.

If you get that convertible, it would be a good idea to get a hatchback diff, perferably from a gxl or better. The vert's have the 3.9 , hatchbacks have 4.1, it's good for an extra second 0-60 if you swap em, plus the lsd.

the 86-88 gxls have the LSD and i thought the 89-91 also had the LSD but i could be mistaken. only the 88 GTU had a lsd, and they are a good car to get. as well as the 89+90 GTUs but i would agian get a GXL or a Turbo2.

the only cars that didn't come with a lsd are gsl, and verts.

I'm going to try and get another look at the car either Saturday or Sunday. I'll be checking the AC, and asking the current owner some more aggressive questions about some of the noises it's making.

I got an idea at work today.... think maybe the transmission noise and feel could be a bad transmission mount?

I think I'm going to try and talk the guy down to $800, and buy it for up to $1000. He's currently asking $1200.

I think I'm going to have to get it regardless of what the transmission noise ends up being. It really does go into every gear smooth... with no grind. I'd be looking to just fix up alot of the little shit... broken switches, etc. It just seems like a hell of a deal, and seems to run descent. If worse comes to worse I'm sure I could sell it next spring without losing too much money.

Only other thing is the windshield is pretty badly cracked in a couple of different places. But I know I can probably get a pretty cheap windshield installed locally... for under $300 for sure.

Think of anything else I should check on my second visit?

Check the compression with a slightly modified conventional tester. Search on how to do this. 100+ on all rotor faces should be decent #'s.

i think the fc3c is the convertible model. hence c instead of s (coupe)

This is the impression I was under. I'm going to see if he'll let me do a compression test on it then, I can do a search on that.

Yea, forgot about that. :doh:

FC3C is indeed what the vert model gets referred to as on a frequent bases. And personally, I say screw all the people telling you to go for this or that couple model. :P They're just trying to keep you from getting the fun version of the car. :D

Alright guys, went and looked at the FC3C again today. :p:

All the interior lights mysteriously worked great this time. The DOOR AJAR light was not stuck on, and the clock was shining bright. But the factory stereo is apparently dead, he thinks it's not hooked up. He knows that guy who he initially sold it to (who he had to take it back from) put an aftermarket deck in there, and he thinks he didn't rewire the factory deck correctly.

The car starts up without smoking at all. The guy says he starts it up and lets it run every other day or everyday just to keep it loose. He says he lets it run or drives it for 15-20 minutes and shuts it off.

Today when he started it up we let it sit for awhile. One thing it did this time that it did not do last time was after it was sitting for awhile at idle, the car began to bog itself, and then recover. It would go lower and lower each time, but it didn't stall. I asked him not to save it to see if it would kill itself and once it stopped going lower and went about as low as it had the last time 3 times, I told him to give it gas.

The oil pressure is still up on my list of concerns. It sits about or jsut below 30 at idle, and goes up to around 60 while cruising. There was, however, no noise from the transmission this time. :bigthumb:

It had new apex seals about a year and a month ago, done by the last owner personally.

Now, I'm going to spill the price (i don't think I have yet?)
He wants 1200 for it.

Think it's worth it? I'm really thinking it is at this point.

The idle issue reminds me of what my SHO was doing when the MAF started to go on it. Also, it STILL misses at idle... and while revving when the car is still (e.g. holding it at 2000). It's an inconsistent but minor miss. Someone ripped off the stock airbox assembly, and there's just an port on the air pump with no hose on it. Think this has something to do with the miss, or the idle fluctating? I cannot hear or feel it miss while I drive it, accelerating or decellerating.


Worth the investment?
What do you think these problems are?

Thanks.

Might wanna check to see if it has a cat on the exaust. If its gone that would explain the airpump thing. I dont run a cat currently, and my airpump hose is clamped pointing at the ground. I have a s4 though, you are looking at a s5. The s5's 5th adn 6th ports are controlled by the air pump i belive, so u might have a problem with your 5th adn 6th ports not openeing 4000K. The s4 5th and 6th ports are controlled by the backpressure of the exaust.

The factory cat was replaced by a Catco cat from summit. He has the factory cat. The unused tube on the airpump is the one on the very top of the pump that comes out and turns toward the passenger side of the car.

Since I've had my fc, I've never been disappointed with it.

Make no mistake, I love the car, but what about things like the oil pressure???

my oil pressure is lower than that and my compression is great and i drive hard, may not mean it's ideal i really don't know i just know that i think if my pressure were dangerously low i would have worn my angine alot as hard as i drive. as far as the clock and other lights (door ajar) the solder points at the back can be loose or bad my clock takes a few hits to get it workin. i'd put new plugs in it when you get it rotaries eat plugs. I say when you get it cause i know you will cause you'll hate yourself if you don't

edit: how many miles on it?

IT's up there, I believe it has somewhere over 150k. There's about 10k on the new Apex seals.

What about the car trying to kill itself at idle like that? TPS, maybe? Are they adjustable or do you just trash them every 60k miles like on my other car?

I'm thinking of tossing him a low offer pretty soon.

I love my 'vert. I highly reccomend it :)

Okay, about the idle thing, I've had this issue with mine lately. There's two things I can think of right off the top of my head that may be causing it.

1.TPS-Could quite possibly need readjusted...these things are screwy sometimes. XD
2.Backed up cat- It may be an aftermarket, but how long has it been on there? What about the rest of the exhaust system? I'd been having that problem with mine for a good long while now, and just within the past week or so found out that my cats are clogged all to hell (glowing red ones will give ya a good clue on that one. XD) and when we took the exhaust off and fired her up, no problems with the idle, other than it being a bit high from my TPS being adjusted wrong. Other than that, I don't see too many problems with it. 1200 seems like a damned reasonable offer to me. I paid 3000 for mine from a dealership, with 159K miles on it and no rebuilds that I'm aware of, and it's been a damned good car for what it's worth.

strangely enough, sometimes the oil filters makes a difference in oil pressure? what was he using? when i first got my car and took it to a firestone; they used a crappy filter, which only gave me 10psi of oil... i changed it and now im at 30; somtimes a little lower; but it runs fine and strong.

Ok as a vert owner, I can tell you they are lovely cars... and if you decide to go TII then youll love it even more... First thing is first about these cars... I had an s5 coupe and I have an s4 vert... The electrical is a nightmare... so if certain lights or switches dont work, dont worry its very common but can be fixed with minimal ammount of money... I have never heard of a vert that doesnt leak. I have read reviews in were they leaked right out of the dealership.. the shifter as was said is easily fixed with new bushings and springs.. It is referred to as fc3c for cabriolet..
oil pressure seems fine.. and the verts came with lsd... I dont think the s5 verts came with it... and the verts share most, if not all of the suspension parts from the tII's. If I were you I wouldnt miss the opportunity to own an s5 vert for that ammount of money... just letting you know that parts for a vert are hard to come by especially exterior and door pieces. If have any further questions just hit me up by PM