supercanuck77

hi guys, all your posts are helpful and informative.
i recently bought an 88 RX7 and was just wondering what kind of simple things as far as maintenance and actual driving i should be concerned about to get a lot of life out of my car. it has 200, 000 KM's on it. i'm not a car buff or mechanic i just want to treat it good and keep it reliable cause i'm a poor college student.
also, the add coolant light and buzzer (very annoying!!!) comes on and i've been told different things as to which fluid it is connected with. Can you help me?
One more thing, what is the deal with shifting at a certain RPM to get better gas mileage? or what other things can i do to get better gas mileage? thanks for all your help in advance.

vaughnc

Well get the mazda 60K services done and a good fuel injector cleaning wouldn't hurt either. That should get her running right.

After that if you still have the OEM exhaust I'd replace the cats as I'm sure there getting clogged up.

Always check the oil and keep it topped off. Change the oil EVERY 3000 miles (km??) and use synthetic for the rear diff and transmission (but not the engine).

Shifting below 3500rpms helps with fuel economy, but you do want to revv the engine to the readline at least 2-3 times a week (these cars are ment to be revved).

Coolant buzzer could just be a loose wire or bad sensor. If your getting a check engine light I'd have someone pull the error codes off your car to confirm it's just the coolant one.

Hope this helps.

HAILERS

Is this your lucky day or what? Here is your free to download factory service manual for a 88 http://www.iluvmyrx7.com/Technical_I...ice_manual.htm and someone is going to tell you that the devive that causes the coolant lite and buzzard to go off is located in the middle of your radiator. Its that single wire device sitting right there in the top, middle. As you probably know by now the device is a thermistor. When covered with water, alls well. When it becomes uncovered you get a lite and buzzer. On your car there is a right way to fill the radiator up. If you look on the right hand side of the radiator you see a plug with a phillips slot. When you fill the radiator up at the cap, you need to have this plug removed. When water starts to pour out ot the plug hole, keep filling and put the plug in at the same time. Finish topping off. If you just fill at the cap, it will look full, but you will have trapped a large volume of air in the top of the radiator, where the thermistor is. Its all in the book at http://www.iluvmyrx7.com/Technical_I...ice_manual.htm and its sure free. Just download the sections you need at a given time if in a hurry. Electrical schematics there also. Bad heating panel(logicon), look in the manual for troubleshooting tips. WAnna set the tps. Its there in the fuel section.Have fun.

supercanuck77

thanks hailer, i appreciate it.

CosmicButtHairs

I'm not a mechanic buff either and I too am a poor college/university student.
My best advice is to find a reliable RX7 mechanic or performance shop.
If you really become good friends with them and they trust you, sometime they'll allow you to have 'tabs' and monthly payment plans and stuff. But remember to find references from friends or ppl on the forumn before you commit to a shop.
Also, love your car. Clean it, rustproof it, get yer oil change, do your tune up and learn how to drive a RWD under wet and snowy conditions.
You don't wanna smash yer baby up.
btw are you from Canada?

supercanuck77

yes i am from canada, and what specifically do you mean when you say, "learn how to drive in wet and snowy conditions"? tips, pointers?

HAILERS

The thanks gets you this: http://www.howstuffworks.com/fuel-injection.htm http://home.rmci.net/panther/ http://www.fc3s.org/ http://www.mazdatrix.com/index.htm http://www.rx7.com/cgi-local/2catalog.cgi http://www.johnr.com/tps.html http://autometer.com/hp/index.html http://home.rmci.net/panther/ecu_codes.htm http://www.jegs.com/ http://www.rotaryengineillustrated.com/ and the second best place to get parts http://racingbeat.com/

CosmicButtHairs

well when I first bought my 2nd gen. I had troubles controlling the car in the rain. I spun out a couple of times. its scary ****