w iskima n

I used the search function already, and I apparently failed.

I have a 1990 N/A Mazda RX-7 and I'm having some problems. I'm also starting to have somewhat of a buyers remorse even though I love how the car handles and feels.

I bought the car for $2500 off a friend who I thought knew what he was talking about. The car runs, just not well. It has poor acceleration and acceleration hesitation. I looked at the rx7 shop book I have and looking at the troumble shooting guide it said it could be one of a few things; fuel filter, fuel pump, fuel injectors... I changed the leading spark plugs (NGK R with NGK R's) and nothing changed, I changed out the fuel filter (which I could blow through but not as well as the new one) and nothing changed. It's also non-consistent. -- I can press on the gas and hold it and sometimes it will 'sputter' constantly til I let off the gas at 2500 rpms, another time it'll do it at 5500, or 3000 rpms.

I asked my friend cause he has an rx-7 for show and his is pretty nice but from all the information he's given me it doesn't seem like he knows what he's talking about. An exhaust leak? I don't know but he says it could be the problem. I tightened the 4 bolts that hold the exhaust to the header and nothing worked. The exhaust system is aftermarket, it basically has 3" straight pipes with a catalytic converter on it. The previous owner used it for Auto-X and had the engine bored and ported. I don't know to what degree he had this done (stage 1, 2,3?) but he didn't have any smog stuff on it. So then I asked my friend to throw it on the car and I haven't had any luck trying to get it smogged, and noone can run a diagnostic on it to see if there is an exhaust leak (I was told it might be because ports 4 and 5 aren't opening up) but they said it's because it's missing vacuum tubes and a few electrical wires to a sensor or two and won't bother to recommend any places who does them or fix it themselves.

SO... I type here, in despair needed some major help... what should I do? I can't spend a whole lot of money but I need prices and maybe some help. I live in Sacramento. Would it be easier to buy a new engine (N/A or T2 it doesn't matter to me) or to buy a whole N/A front clip? I'd rather go with the clip since, I was told, they are brand new (or re-manufactured) and I'm assuming everything would be hooked up and working properly.

Whatever the cheapest way to get my car running efficiently (for now) is what I'm looking at. The car runs fine just doesn't accelerate to my liking. I fear that could be a deathly end to my car at some point and I absolutely need a daily driver for my job.

Does anyone have any ideas? Or might know of someone who could sell me an N/A front clip and install it for me? Or should I just buy a newer engine (since I was told by a different rotary mechanic that I might not be able to get it smogged since the engine has been ported.)

I am begging for help and would appreciate any help what so ever. Many many thanks in advance guys and I hope I don't have to get rid of this car cause it has so many problems since I love it.

WonkoTheSane

iTrader: (2)

Relax, you're overreacting. The only people who change an engine because of a minor problem is Mazda Service Techs. We fix problems here.

1st) Realize that whoever "fixed" the engine probably had no clue what they were doing if they left sensors and stuff unplugged. So it's time to start crackin'.

Now that you realized that the other people who owned the car were incompetant fools, it gets easier. A bad idle/accelleration can be caused by a lot of things, but from the sounds of it, you have a vacuum leak you could suck a cat through. The first thing I'd do is replace/check all of the vacuum hoses on the engine (even take the throttlebody off to get at the ones underneath that). This will also help in your quest for emmissions. There's vacuum diagrams in both the Haynes manual (Buy at any auto parts store), and the Factory Service Manual (free to download, check the FAQs up at the top of this section). One good way to see if there's a problem area with vacuum lines is to spray starter fluid around the hoses when the engine is running. If the idle smooths out, there's a leak where you sprayed it.

The next thing I'd check is the throttle positioning sensor. That will give you irregular accelleration, and bad idle if its out of spec. Do a search for "throttle positioning sensor" or "TPS adjustment", you'llg et put on the right path. Both of those are cheap (vacuum hoses) or free (TPS adjustment). Start there, and let us know how it works out.

As far as I know, a lot of people have passed emissions with a ported engine. It's probably not too seriously ported if you're driving it around on the street.

Welcome to the club. We'll get you up to speed before too long

w iskima n

Alright I'll take a look at those things... I'm just down in the dumps cause I've had 4 cars (this being my fourth) and every single one has given me car trouble, and even though this is the first that I absolutely love to work on, I swear to god I have horrible luck with cars. I don't treat them bad at all either.

I'll check the TPS thing out though.. I take it the book will say whether or not it's good or how to adjust it?

And as for the throttle body, what/where is that? And how would I go about doing it? I'll look it up for good measure but maybe you know a trick or something if it's a pain to take apart.

As for the idle; the idling is fine, only sometimes will it (whats the word?) it'll fluctuate bewteen 700-1200 rpms

WonkoTheSane

iTrader: (2)

RoadRaceJosh - WTF?

w iskima n - Ah, sorry, I think I mis-read it.. I'd definatly go towards the TPS then, for an accelleration problem. The throttlebody is that "squareish" part that the intake tube connects to.. you'll see some cables and such running to it, that's what your throttle is.. the large cast metal tubes underneath it are refered to as the intake manifold (it's divided into two parts, upper and lower intake manifolds). There's a bunch of vacuum tubes underneath it, on the emmissions equipment rack that is bolted underneath the throttlebody. That is, assuming you HAVE the emissions rack IT may have been removed by the previous owner for racing purposes. If you need some help, take a pic of your engine bay, especially looking down by the throttlebody area, and I can clarify some things.

Don't dispair. I can understand being down about it, though.. my last car was an eclipse.. I had a love/hate relationship, until the relationship turned into about 95% of the time being hate.. at which point I had to have a divorce My Rx-7 has never left me with even near the same feeling..

RETed

Wow, I never set foot in this thread until now, and I still managed to say something???

Seriously though, NO OWNER with a 1989 - 1991 should be posting in here until they do an error code scan on the ECU.
The damn things are so smart that they can detect *one* unplugged fuel injector!

My recommendation to you is to scan for error codes...
If you have no clue what they mean, just dump them in here, and we can help you out decode them.

Your problems is just too broad to start offering possible fixes; in the end, you might end up spending a lot of money replacing stuff that wasn't broken in the first place.


-Ted

HAILERS

Get rid of the car and cut your losses.

GnawD87

iTrader: (1)

i will bet money that it is a bad tps! mine did the exact same thing..

w iskima n

Alright, how do I go about testing the ECU for error codes?

And I'm not going to spend any more money for the moment. The only thing I bought was a fuel filter and decided to replace it anyway cause it was a little clogged.

RandomHero

iTrader: (2)

In front of the driver side strut tower, there is a single one-pin, green connector that is not hooked up to anything. Take a piece of wire and strip it at both ends. Plug one end into the connector and the other one to a chassis ground (a bolt that goes into the chassis that is not painted). I think the key needs to be in the on position. Then the check engine light will flash in correspondance with the numbered trouble code(s). I'll try and link somewhere that better explains how to read the codes from the flashing of the light.

RandomHero

iTrader: (2)

http://www.johnr.com/cpucodes.html
awww hell, this explains it all.

w iskima n

Bags! You guys are the ****. I'll do this **** once my engine cools down. (Its like 100+ in Sacramento and being around a 400F+ engine is even worse. (Or however hot it gets.)

I'll look this up and try to 'decipher' the codes or at least get the repitition down and bring them here for more info or find someone in the area (I think I know a guy I can trust he's been the most helpful and seems to know what he's talking about) and read the guide some more.

Thanks to everyone for all of yours help!! I'll be back with some more info I'm sure.


EDIT: I spoke to soon. This has got to be one of the coolest things I've ever seen in a car. Lmao... it's funny cause I asked my other 'much-knowing' rotary friends and they said they didn't know what that green plug was when I asked them a while back. I specifically remember it cause of where it was positioned near the battery. They said it was probably for abs... rofl..

w iskima n

Well, I did as the guide said.

I had the key removed and off, then I located the green -SINGLE- connecter next to the battery on the drivers side. I took a piece of speaker wire (pretty thick with a lot of strands too, it would have have more than been sufficient) and connected it to the inside of the connector, then attached it to the battery (negative terminal) and nothing.

But I did **** up, I accidentally removed the ground cable from the battery to secure the wire, and then re did the procedure after driving it around for a few minutes.

Nothing happened... all my lights came on (overheated exhaust system/fuel/battery/brake/hatch/etc) but the engine light would come on and then go out after a few seconds, only to never light up again after that.

Should I have driven it around some more?

It is late so I am retiring to my bed.

theantirotor

iTrader: (1)

throw a v8 in that bitch and be done with it!

BklynRX7

Your new to the forum so please note:
Note that people like this guy occasionally wander outside of their section of the site and spout these kinds of sick twisted comments. Just ignore them and they will go away.
Shoo, get out of here, go , gooo!!

w iskima n

LOL ... why would I throw a V8 in an RX-7 anyway? If I threw a cylinder engine in an RX-7 it'd be a lot bigger than a V8.

Besides, I've heard tales about Turbo II's with 100k+ something miles on them and still able to squash corvettes! -And there's no way (am I wrong about this?) that it'd have full compression like a new T2 would.

w iskima n

k so i've been unable to check the trouble codes but I called up a Rotary Specialist mechanic shop in Long Beach and the 1 guy i talked to said to go ahead and check my catalytic converter... to see if you can still see through it or to see if you can even see through it at all.

The cars springs have been cut, and I've held a cat in my hand and looked through one before; but does this seem like a longical explanation?

I threw the 'cut springs' excuse out there cause it might have gotten damaged over a speed bump or something...

staticguitar313

iTrader: (2)

cut springs? man after you get the acceleration thing taken care of, get some real springs/struts in that thing. cut springs can be a nightmare

w iskima n

Lol well as soon as I can get this ******* problem fixed my next step will be the springs.

Know any awesome brands for cheap? :P Most bang for my buck? I was told there was a good brand that was awesome for like $400 but ... some good it does me to not remember..

Jager

iTrader: (10)

$400 for a set of Ground Control Coilovers.

Otherwise search:

Http://www.corksport.com
http://www.ebay.com
http://www.racingbeat.com
http://www.nopionline.com

For struts and springs of your choice.

Madrx7racer

I DID NOT READ ANYONE'S RESPONSES BUT:

you said it has a 3" pipes except for the cat...........well does it have a hose running to the cat??? if not then your 5th and 6th ports aren't opening......

Mombodogs

Dude, listen to ME for a minute. I'm 4 months old to this excellent site and have one thing to say to you now: Check your f- ing codes like advised. I have a 1990 FC3C n/a vert, and that simple test gives you the solution. I've read, searched, researched, memorized, almost literally, the manual , and this is better than that. Like I said, I'm new, but I have solved all my problems by posting, reading, and most importantly, not giving up, thanks to everyone here. I live 1 hour away in Vallejo, want some help, or someone to just help throw **** at the car, let me know. CHECK THE CODES AND LET US KNOW.

PEACE RUF RUF RUF RUF RUF RUF RUF RUF

Taylor2nd

yea its the sensors and things related to that. on my old 240 we were messin around with the ecu wires noticing that if we had cut a certain 1 it wouldnt top out at 115 anymore *in america we have that anoying limiter* and it would go above 115 but it would sputter like hell an the accel was horrible, put the wire back in place an it was fine and other times when it wasnt related to that it was just the bad wire job i fixed from the previous owner on the sensors. its nothing to major and can be fixed if you or you have someone know what thier doing do it up.

w iskima n

hmmm I guess I will.. Trouble is... I tried doing what that one recommended site said... aaaaaaaand nothing happened. So I guess I am going to take it to a trouble code place... or find a place that checks them and go from there.

Mombodogs

Don't take it to anyone to check the codes. Its easy as my second wife. If a dog can do it, anyone can. PM me and I will give you a hand. Interstate 80 to Sac in my car is about a hop, skip, and a jump, 50 miles max. Gonna be there Monday, let me know. Keep reading on bro, these guys really do know their shi t. Computer equipment has its definite problems, but in this case, its a Godsend. And by the way, gotta files papers for divorce there from 3 wife. Need a break. Any good kennels up there a dog could find another bitch at? PEACE RUF RUF RUF RUF

w iskima n

Yeah I know of a shelter in the area, it's about 20 minutes from my house. I also live like 5-10 minutes from I-80