Bad news,

I went to mazda today to get the car checked out because it was running pretty rich, so I get a call from them and they said it has a mess of vacuum leaks and the car is idling weird, they said starting price for fixing it can go from 1k-4k, they have to fix the leaks they know of, then go on and find others and proceed from there. Now I just spent 500 bucks at a different mazda getting my intake manifold hoses and all my coolant leak replaced, could I possibly ask for a refund or something from them? I'm going up to mazda tommorow and getting the "current" list of what's wrong on it. Pissed like a **** I am.

-Andrew

 

I think I'd have the service manager of one dealership call the one that already worked on it, and let THEM be the ones to tell the other dealer that they did a poor job.

Why are you paying a dealership to work on the car anyway? s4 NA engines are among the simplest...

 

LOL!!!!

HOLY **** DUDE!!!

I just did what mazda did for a total of 75 dollars!!!!

Get your car out of the dealer's shot NOW!!!!

More than likely, they don't know **** about your engine, and are going to RAPE you on the prices.

All I'd have them do is a compression test. If you're getting better than 85 psi, get the ******* car out of there now.

I bought a full gasket set on ebay (genuine mazda OEM) for 75 bucks shipped. Then went and bought some silicone vac hoses (cant give you a price, as some I got free from work), and a tube of black RTV silicone. took me a total of about 5 hours, and that included tearing everything down (took radiator out as well and flushed, new belts installed, and other work as well) and put all new gaskets on, as well as checking EVERY vac source/possibilty of a leak (why my car wouldn't run).

If you don't know how to work on your car, download the FSM and LEARN! You will thank yourself, trust me.

 

Um compression is like mid 8's in the front high 9's in the rear. I let mazda do the work because my mom basically made me take it to them, I do basic things to my car but I dunno about a major thing, tommorow i'll show you guys the list. Meh just makes me want to see what I can sell and buy an ae86. Tommorow we'll see. If its that bad I might be giving you a call kevin.

-Andrew

 

Mazda said my engine was dying and needed to be replaced immediately. That was almost 50,ooo miles ago and its still running. Go someplace else or do the work yourself. Its tedious but not difficult to remove the manifold and check all the hoses. Mother knows best doesn't apply to cars.

 

Yeah, I think i'll bring it home and see what needs to be done to it, The mazda guy that did the work mainly does 3rd gen work. I'm going to replace all the hoses and things that are on the list, then see how bad the car is from there. How do i check for vacuum leaks anyway? And they said my idle is wack but its actually solid IMO, starts up at 3k, drops to 1.5, then warms up and is a little under 1k, might bounce 1 dash or so but is it really that bad?

-Andrew

 

The only thing I let mazda do to my car is a compression check. And that I do with hesitiation, and not often.

Get your car to a real rotary mechanic if you are not skilled enough to do the work yourself.

how old are you? My quess is that your mom has no clue about your car, tell her that there are thousands+ ppl on the forum that will tell you to stay away from the dealer.
-a

 

16 years old, i pay for all my stuff, so getting f'd out of 500 bucks rapes me hard, I only have 600 bucks on hand, and I have someone going to buy my illumina/tanabe setup for 500 installed most likely soon, i see its a good deal.

-Andrew

 

Your first mistake was taking it to the dealer, its really not that hard to do yourself. I dont let anyone touch my car but me,..ESPECIALLY a mazda dealer. Either do it yourself or take it to a rotary speacailist.

 

1k-4k?!? What a joke!!! Just apply yourself to finding a good rotary mechanic. The dealership is not the place to go.

 

Lil update, I called them today, and they said that there are leaks on the lower and upper intake manifolds, and my thermovalve, I think I broke the cap and replaced it with a hose with a plug on it. How hard is it to replace all the hoses on the lower and upper intake manifold? What would need to be done, and last could these leaks cause it to run rich?
Thanks alot guys
-Andrew

btw how do I know what sizes I need for the manifolds and its silicone, where do i buy them?

*Edit* they also said they have to fix all this before they find more problems or if there are more, there can be more?!

 

get new gaskets, a service manual and a afternoon..
total cost for you will be like 20 bucks.. and I bet when you get the engine apart you probably wont find any leaks, because they are probably lieng to you.

 

So what I need: Gaskets for the lower & upper intake manifolds, manual (is haynes good enough, i got that), and silicone hoses. about the hoses, do I need to buy pre-bent hoses? or just buy the ones they sell by a foot?

And what I need to do: Take off upper & lower intake manifolds and change out all vacuum hoses.

-Andrew

 

it's really not that hard to do anything, like people said, look up on the FSM, and take your time.

 

Hey dude, all you need to remove is your upper intake manifold. That'll give you access to any-all the vacumn lines that might need replacing.Replace your fuel and coolant lines at the same time, make sure to use new clamps rather than trying to reuse the mazda origionals. If you've got a camera take pictures to remind yourself what goes where. Don't bother getting any gaskets unless you mess one up. Them things are reusable as long as they dont bust when you take something apart. Pressure test your fuel system after you put things back together, you don't want to turn your FC into a BBQ. To test, jumper the the yellow two wire connector at the passenger side strut tower and just turn the ignition key to "on" without starting it. The fuel pump will keep running till you pull the jumper.
Have fun
Gerrard

 

Ok back from mazda with the FC this is what it says:

Has a vacuum leak at thermal valve for butterflys

Throttle plates & linkage causing high idle

has vacuum leaks at plenum & lower intake

Timing looks like it has been change

Wax thermal valve sticking in bypass air control valve

Secondary injection leaking vacuum at gasket

Ergh, and driving home, after paying $$$ to get the car fixed, it hits 1/3rd on my temperature guage, its never at 1/3rd before the problem, only when i'm beating its ***, but it was pretty hot today, maybe i'm just paranoid. So thats that, should I just get a diff motor thats rebuilt and freshly done for new beginnings, I've had EVERY problem so far with rotary's: diff mount, alternator, speedo cable, exhaust manifold, cooling problems, running rich, vacuum leak, and probably other various things, so tiring.

-Andrew

 

New TB, hoses all around the manifolds, and what's the plenum? and "Secondary injection leaking vacuum at gasket"

 

bump, help anyone? and how much do you think it'll sell for in its state?

 

FWIW, rebuilding your block will have nothing to do with these "control system" issues you're having. It's still someone's responsibility to be sure all the intake and injection system gets reinstalled properly, or you can have the same problems. The block is the only thing getting rebuilt. A rebuild is not the answer all the time, it will not automatically make your car run like a new car.

What you have in front of you is a standard intake job...strip off all the manifolds and the wiring, clean all gasket mating surfaces to bare metal using gasket scrapers, razor blades, and if possible a rotary wire brush (drill or diegrinder) and then reassemble everthing with new gaskets and a light amount of rtv sealant on each side.

Timing can be set with a timing light if you can get her to idle below about 1200. Timing lights cost around 30 bucks, and are good enough for a one time use.

 

your gonna sell your RX and buy an AE86 y?? lol too much Initial-D

 

Actually, no, I've been to drift day 17 & 18, i'm not a fan kid, i've drifted before and i've driven and drifted an ae86 gt-s, its a fun reliable car that'll take crap, and still get 30mpg, i love my rx but if it continues to do this i'll move on. I'm going to start fixing the problem, I already have a tb and a cap coming on friday, i'm going to change that and change my clutch out on saturday, I still have yet to know what this means: Secondary injection leaking vacuum at gasket, I sprayed the rex with some wd40 and i found a few leaks here and there, does anyone have a diagram of all the vacuum hoses? Also I remembered the 88 rx7's had different injectors, meaning the ecu was different, my car is a 88 with a 88 ecu and 87 motor, could this be another cause?

 

Haha, I love dealership stories, the Mazda dealership is such a rip... well all dealerships are. Do the work yourself, it will be so cheap. Don't know how to do it? Read the FSM and learn, it's not hard.

 

didn't read the other posts but if you're car is hitting 8's and 9's on the mazda pressure checker then your engine is fine. That's good healthy compression. You're looking at $5 worth of vacuum lines to fix this problem.

 

The diagram of the vaccum lines is availible at http://www.teamfc3s.org among other places. I believe house techniques sells the right lengths and sizes of hoses as a kit, but it's close to $100 in silicone. Secondary injection leaking at gasket doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, a secondary injector could potentially cause a vaccum leak if it wasn't properly seated, other than that I'm not really clear on what that means, go back down and ask the mechanic for an explanation, under the BAR association he's required to give you one. Other than that, I'd replace all the intake manifold gaskets and vaccum lines. It's standard fair on a car of an FC's age, the heat and time has a tendency to take out gaskets and vaccum lines. It's nothing more than your car in need of a somewhat major tune up because of it's age, a rebuild is definitely not neccesary.

 

Oh, the diagram is in the FSM (Factory Service Manual) available at that link, sorry that wasn't really clear in my above post.