james

A guy on campus is selling a 1987 RX-7 (non turbo) for $1800. I called him, and the car sounds to be in good shape, save one thing.

The guy said the car 'coughs' at 4000 RPM. He indicated it didn't affect him much because he kept the engine under that magic number. He also said, that he hadn't taken it to a mechanic. In my (admittedly limited) experience, that usually means they did take it to a mechanic, and it cost too much to fix.

I will probably go look at the car soon, so I wanted to get trouble shooting advice for the problem. The car has 96k, and he said he's never had trouble with it. Everything is supposed to work fine, except the engine. He's leaving the county, and that's why he has to sell.

So, onto the questions.

I know the 12A in the first gen was a very solid motor, capable of absurdly long life. Is this necessarily true of the 2nd gen? I know it was not the case with the third gen.

How much does a replacement motor cost?

If additional information could help narrow down the problem, then tell me what to look for, and what to ask about, and I will.

Is there anything in particular about the car I should check when I'm there? Especially something that would indicate a drive train problem? (I don't much care if the sunroof breaks, but if the motor stops working...)

Any other opinions about the car are welcome.

Thanks guys.
(BTW - If the car only lasts 20k, I will have gotten my money's worth out of the car, and not feel bad. If it lasts longer, great.)

J-Rat

iTrader: (2)

The 4000 hiccup is more like the 3800 RPM hesitation.. The bane of FC existance. If you do a search you will come up with literally THOUSANDS of threads on the same problem, which is easily fixed.

JArrett

yearrgh

how many miles are on the car?

SonicRaT

iTrader: (6)

Usually some decent injector cleaner can take car of that after driving through a tank or two (usually) If it's completely stubborn and you're not afraid to get your hands dirty, you can take the injectors out and get them cleaned professionally (about $120 or so for all 4), and if it *still* does it, then you can download the factory service manual (http://www.fc3s.org, How-To's, Manuals) and check and/or adjust your TPS (throttle position sensor) And if that doesn't fix it, add some ground straps to ground the engine better (search and you'll find a lot of info on grounding) If it's still got the issue, well then you're the 1 in 100,000 guy who just has bad luck