TheSTIguy

ok ive been looking around for a dailydriver/project car and i came across this nice black 1989 rx7 nonturbo for like 1800-2000 bux only problem is the steering fluid is leaking would this be a good reliable car i can fix up?

duno1818

ill i can say is once you go rotory you cant go back.

duno1818

ive got an 86 n/a. ive had it for about 2 years. i bought it for cheap cause the trnny was bad. i got 1 for $250. put that in no problem. since then the only thing that has gone bad was my starter.

TheSTIguy

would it be easy to turbo? and where can i get the turbo maifold etc.

gingenhagen

do you consider this easy...

https://www.rx7club.com/2nd-gen-archive-72/how-coverting-n-tii-26647/

WrongWay

Reliable... Depends on the condition of the vehical and if the parts are in good working order... but mostly no.

Money... You'll need lots of it...

Fun... VERY

I'd go for a turbo though...

Marcus_F

Very reliable if maintained. 435,000+ miles on this one and it runs strong with NO SMOKE.



Change the PS hose and you're good to go. You're in Glendale, there's a 1991 NA about to go on the market in Sunland. It's one that doesn't need a PS hose.

Come to the Southern California Rx-Club Beach BBQ and see some real daily drivers

Sideways7

iTrader: (7)

But how many rebuilds?
To answer your question, they can be quite reliable if properly maintained. The only problem I have had in the 2 years since I rebuilt the engine (it had 215,000 original miles on it) was an exhaust leak due to a cheap exhaust pipe that was already on the car when I bought it.
An RX-7 is the perfect daily driver/project car. Just so you know, make sure you have another car unless the 7 decides to crap out. Most problems are easily fixable, but you at least need another car until you can find time to work on it.

WrongWay

[QUOTE=
Money... You'll need lots of it...
QUOTE]

Marcus_F

Man, you should know better than to ask me that.

The first and only time the engine was rebuilt was at 367,000 miles. No, it didn't smoke and no it wasn't down on power - it lost a coolant seal.
The original OMP lasted over 400,000 miles, the original altenator over 400,000 miles, it still has the original transmission, the original AC compressor lasted over 375,000 miles, the original FPD over 367,000 miles, the TPS was never changed, ditto the fuel pump, ditto the injectors, I'd better stop here because there is a LONG list of original parts and parts that lasted way over 300,000 miles.

Like I said, if an NA is maintained it will last a phenominal amount of time.


The Southern California Rx-Club Beach BBQ is August 20th.
The last biggie B4 SevenStock.

Sideways7

iTrader: (7)

Very impressive. My engine lasted 215k until it succombed to a coolant seal. It would have kept going longer except I overheated it and warped the housing. The more amazing thing is that the last 40k miles were mostly track miles, as the previous owner took it to the track quite frequently. Also, despite what some people say, I would stick with an NA car it you are on at all of a limited budget. Turbos can be more fun and are faster, but NA's are much easier and much cheaper to maintain.

TheSTIguy

hows the handeling on these can i drift it =)

gingenhagen

excellent handling. And because it has excellent handling, it's harder to drift than say a 240sx.
http://www.fc3spro.com/TECH/DRIFT/dori.html

Sideways7

iTrader: (7)

If you get the right suspention setup, they can be at least as good as anything out there. There was a video of Carx7 and Jrat drifting on the forums a while back, and they did quite well. As for the track, they are amazing. The previous owner of my car used to take his car out to the porsche track days in Corpus. He would commonly smear trailered-in 944's.

RETed

No.
What Mazda was ever reliable???


-Ted

Syonyk

A NA can be quite reliable. A turbo can be as well, but due to the additional stresses on the engine/drivetrain, it will never be quite as solid as a NA. Plus, there's a lot more to maintain.

Search for threads by WAYNE88N/A (or something like that) on item replacement. He owns a S4 NA, commutes some absurd number of miles to work on a daily basis (IIRC it's over 100/day round trip), and almost never has problems. He also makes a living working on aircraft, and maintains his car like a plane - things get replaced at fixed mileages, even if they still work fine.

You'll want to, at the very least, replace all the fluids, do a full tuneup, replace all the radiator hoses & the thermostat, and do a compression test. Accept that you'll need to rebuild the motor in the near future (if you don't, great. If you don't plan on it and the motor blows due to previous owner neglect, you're not going to be happy), and learn to work on the car yourself. Once you do that, it should be pretty darn solid.

-=Russ=-

uRizen

iTrader: (2)

My '87 GXL has been very reliable. The only things I've had to replace are the starter, I replaced all the exhaust because it was leaking in a couple of places and that's about it.

It get's 20-25mpg depending on how hard I ride on it (usually pretty hard ) and the only things that have been headaches are things I fucked up myself.

kiyoshi

I don't say it's not reliable but think about like this; because of the age, you can expect anything can be broken anytime. And because it's a sport car there is many chances that the car has been abused (by good or bad means) by prev owners. So if you can keep fixing broken parts, your car will be reliable - of course. Rotaries are fun to drive!

kick7ca

Plenty of Mazdas have been reliable I think. Perhaps less so relative to a Honda, but they've always been a very good manufacturer.

My issue with rotary reliablity is the turbo motors run hot and all the wiring gets f'd over time.