Diagnose this RX-7!
 

So I'm looking around online classifieds for rx-7's and I see this description:

"Runs very rough and poorly. It has been sitting for about a year."
The car is an '88 N/A, 109k miles, good condition.

The thing is....the car is very cheap. What does that problem sound like to you? Does it need a new engine? Can it even be diagnosed based purely on its symptoms or would a mechanic need to see what was causing the problem?

Thanks a lot guys.

lots of things could be wrong w/ the car if it's been sitting for awhile. Ask the guy how many miles are on the car. I believe if it's sitting for a long time it's usually the coolant seals. All i know is what's been posted on the board. I'd say, use the search, do a compression test and a coolant seal test and just get more info on the car.

I'd say you'd need to see it run. After a year of sitting it would be a good idea to change fluids + battery et cetera.

The thing is......he's asking 500 dollars. I figure that could be haggled down to 400 without much trouble. Is there anything that could be wrong that would cost so much to make that a bad deal? Even a rebuilt engine is less than 2 grand all told.

just do a full tune up. replace belts, fluids, gas, spark plugs, wires. maybe do a flush. and check compression.

So I should look into this car further then? Can a compression test be done before all that other tune up related stuff is taken care of?

For $500 its hard to go wrong. Just make sure that everything besides the engine is in good shape (ie underbody, brakes , suspension , etc ,etc) , and when in doubt take the car to a mechanic or someone knowledgeable about the car. Worst case scenario is you get the car for $500 and it needs a rebuild, you get a nice rebuild for $1500-$2000 and youve got yourself one hell of a car for $2000-$2500

i would change all of the fluids and then i would check to compression and then at that point you will know if you need to get a rebuild. i would also just do the rebuild your self. lots of info about it on this site.




also i would get the engine ported at the same time as you are doing the rebuild. just my 2 cents.

I think I'm gonna hold off on this car, since it's too far away to be convenient. I don't want to take the risk of buying a car that I haven't checked out first.

If anyone is interested, here is the ad:
http://www.thepartstrader.com/Single...=101&C2ID=1000

My car was $400..... and alot of problems.....

But worth it none the less :D