Opinions For Buying....
 

Hello,

I'm thinking about buying a 91 vert. Here are the details.:

The load down.
New top (2yrs old)
Clean interior.
Minimal Rust on the left fender.
Bad starter
Coolant peace missing
Few scrapes on bumper.
Cd player doesn't work.
Some sort of fuel issue
118k miles

OK hes asking 500 i want to jump on it, but I'm looking for some opinions and a second option just to be safe. Maybe some one will point out something i missed ect.. I don't mind spending money just not made of it.

Now, i think the fuel problem might be a rusted fuel hose or or just lack of pressure any other suggestions will be great. Also my budget is $1000, that's for the project. Feasible? I ask because the starter is no good and we cant start it.

I'm no pro at buying 7's, but the first thing I would do is give it a push start to see if it even runs.

How does it have a fuel issue if it doesn't run? And which coolant piece is missing?

If the body is in good shape and it rolls, I'd say buy it. It could be a pretty easy fix if it doesn't need much like a starter.

$1000 and you might get a running vert. But after that the maintenance will start to nickel and dime you because its a 15+ year old car.

It spend the 10 years in LA and 7 up here. Anyone think they know whats wrong with the fuel. When he had the ecu replaced he was told he had a fuel problem, he just never fixed it.

By no means do I mean any offense, I say save your money for something you feel is going to be actually worth it, and not just an impulse buy.

No-one can begin to guess what the fuel problem is without really getting in to fixing it.

My dad actually "liked it", he hates rotary and doesn't like foreign made cars. He sees potential witch is extremely rare for him to say that.

Yes it rolls. I know this because we would have to push it up the hill. Yes the body is in great shape, besides the very minor rust on left fender. I forgot to add it has a set of new tiers, new ecu, new exhaust system, new antenna motor ect.

For $500 go for it. If it turns out it's a waste, you can part it out and make a lot more than 500 back. You could probably get $200 for the hood if it's in great shape.

A $500 RX-7 is going to need a lot more than $500 worth of parts and labor to make it reliable. So no, a $1,000 budget is not feasible, and it is not realistic for any car for that matter.

Your dad is probably correct in that the car has potential, and it sounds like $500 is an excellent price for that car. However, I would plan on a $4,000 budget for a car that old.

You may want to consider buying the car and stripping it for parts. That way you could learn about the car and make a profit that you could put towards your next car purchase.

Looking at both of your point of views, it’s a win win. If it doesn’t work out, part it make some money and gain experience. If it works out then great I got a good running vert. The owner also has a FD, its nice clean, and has low low miles only
30k so he has been around rotaries. All maintenance was done to the car on a regular bases.

Just remember you get what you pay for.

I just bought a $500 RX7 myself, I have documaented my build/rebuild of it here:

https://www.rx7club.com/2nd-generation-specific-1986-1992-17/texas_aces-1987-na-%24500-rx7-build-up-thread-767159/

That might be a good read for you.

Overall i have spent a few months getting it running and about $500 on the parts i HAD to have and another $500 - $1000 on parts i changed out while i was in there to stem furture problems.

It is now running and looks to be ready for anything. Just need to finish my 5 lug swap.

Overall i am very happy with the purchase, the work i put into the car was well worth the learning i was able to get out of it.

Overall for $500 i would grab it and see what happens. If all else fails you can sell it for what you paid or part it out for more. If i find another $500 RX7 i will grab it i know that.

Ive started reading your Build up thread. I'm pretty much convinced to getting it now its just a matter of getting it LOL. Second best thing I bought so far has been a Complete teardown and rebuild book for 20 bucks, First thing was joining the Rx-7 Club.

I was looking at the problem you had listed above and be sure to read through that thread.

I also had to deal with fuel problems and ended up replacing my entire fuel system, i explain each step in the thread.

Go for it, I am very happy with my car since even with all the part i have bought i am still well ahead of a what the car is worth at this point now that it is running.

But i also got to put in better parts in a lot of places while replacing parts (such as performance shocks).

The best thing about my car though is that i did enough work that i know the car backwards now. I know exactly what has been done and what has not vs taking a PO word on it.

Whats do you think is a good budget for the car?

Thats a very big quesiton there.

Budget for the car+parts to get it running?

Budget for just the car?

Budget for the parts to fix it?

The car is worth the $500, just pay the price and run.

As far as parts go, i don't know what the problems are so it is hard to say. Though if you read my thread i had to fix quite a bit but by buying smart and doing all the work myself i spent ~$500 on parts i had to have.

But while i was in there is made no sense not to do some extras to get it fully drivable, full fluid chage is a must, bushings, brakes, FULL tune-up, shocks, springs (mine were gone your might not be) ect.

Total i have spent about $1000 - $1500 on parts for the car but i could have got away with $500 - $1000 in parts and it still have been perfectly drivable.

So around $500 for the car and $500 for the parts should at least get you a real good start on it but don't be surprised if it costs more.

Awesome!

I bought the today. It’s worth every penny.

We almost got it started but we got home late so we didn’t mess around with it too much.

It has had FULL tunes ups, shocks ect (ill be doing full tune up anyway). I got all the paper work and receipts from owner.

If you know anything I should just buy and thing that ill need like certain oil, spark plugs, tips ect.

Is there anything I should do before I try to pop starting it? I will start a build up thread but I am VERY BUZZY during the week so I wont be doing much work until wintertime (ill get it running but ill probably do the bad fender and interior stuff in the garage).

Any other tips would be greatly appeasing.:lol: :lol:

S5 with a 'fuel problem' and the ecu has been replaced...sounds like a limp mode/MOP failure possibly.

Pull the error codes:
http://www.1300cc.com/howto/how2/codes.html

If you have error codes that indicate MOP-20,26,27 and 37, you may have a diamond in the rough. See: https://www.rx7club.com/2nd-generation-specific-1986-1992-17/s5-mop-ecu-failure-diagnosis-710938/

Good Luck! Gotta love the vert!

Like said pull the codes and see what that tells you.

What is it doing when you try to start it?

As far as a tune up goes, get NGK plugs, new wires, good oil (i used AMSoil personally), flush the radiator, new air filter, Fuel filter, i would also replace ALL the vacume lines, just to stop propblems before they start.

And if you have to mess with the fuel system then replace those lines too.

Other then that is really depends on what is wrong with it and what yo uhave to get into. With mine i had to open up every part of the car for one thing or another so i replaced a lot of thing just because i was in there and it was easy while i had it apart.

But first you need to get it started.

Let us know what the problem is, i had a heck of a time getting mine started so i know a few tricks.

Here the link to the build up thread:

https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...32#post8546632