mmmm I dont know about this .. is the rotary really so unreliable . it doesn't accept mistakes like a piston engine does . and its more strict with its maintenance But when its working right . keeping it that way is not really rocket science . just meticulous.

like its been stated above . FD is a car that takes better to someone who tinkers and tinkers RIGHT not just careless tinkering . but learning to tinket correctly is an expensive and timely process . lol

 

I'm confused, is the FD more unreliable than the FC? I've been raping the same engine on my TII since 2006 and compression hasn't dropped more than 5 psi tops. I kid you not, I overheated this car so many times in high school not knowing how bad that was, ran it out of gas in the middle of a race (lean), and was running it around 13's AFR full boost before I knew better for about a year. The car is in my garage now and I have no doubt that if I jumped in it and would fire up quicker than my Saturn hot or cold like it always does...it will smell like sh*t and get horrible gas mileage but, don't care. What makes the FD worse or am I just lucky?

EDIT: I only used 87 octane from 2006-2008...and raced every week like I was in a Fast and Furious movie. This forum makes me so paranoid to drive my car even with it's excellent track record.

 

There are always anomalies, Exceptions that prove the rule .

the NA FC's are very reliable . but the Turbo cars well are supposed to be a bit less reliable .. Due to finer tolerances and heat from the turbo .

 

As far as I know the FD has a stronger trans, diff and engine.

You are just a lucky bastard

Seriously though in my experience these are tough little sports cars

 

Why do you put words in my mouth about me claiming a specific manufacturers is junk? I never said such a thing. Do I dislike the quirky experience ive had with my particular M5? Yes! Did I have a similar quirky experience with my fd or previous Rx7's? No I didn't. Now does that mean I think the BMW brand as a whole is junk and Mazda superior? Nope! I love the quality of my m5's interior. It's solidly build, doesn't squeak and rattle, and has the most comfortable highway seats I've sat in. Plus the climate system is great and heats fast in the winter. Every time I've made comparisons about failures, I specifically talked about my specific INDIVIDUAL experiences. Not once did I ever claim the fd Rx7 was more reliable. My fd was reliable and less problematic that my M5. Why is that so hard to comprehend?. I can't speak for everyone else's fd experience, but MINE was no where near as problematic as others.

Doesn't matter as I feel that a 75+k car should have basic components that last otherwise how do you justify the added cost of the much more expensive vehicle? I guess there's a reason these hi end luxury cars depreciate so fast. This reason is why I will never buy one brand new.

 

Ive never had an FD I built or was in close to factory shape leave me stranded. Your issues may speak more of your car and the owner than the FD itself. The only real issues/differences that separate the FD from every other car on the road is the Rotary Engine(over boost and blow a seal and you have a 50/50 shot of being stranded), the factory AST exploding purging all coolant requiring a tow, or the fuel pulsation dampner leaking(doesnt require a tow but that is kinda playing russian roullete).

The rest of the issues with the FD are not crippling to the car but just annoying. Once again Im not blind to the inherent issues of the FD, but the owners are often its biggest downfall.

 

To be fair, you have to compare the series versions. The series 6 fd is very problematic. Unfortunalty, this is the only version we got here in the state's. 94's are better with 95's being the superior US models in terms of build quality and refinement. Thing is, the majority of the reported problems are on the 93's (and those are the ones that flooded the market). There isn't a manufacturer out there that has an all new model without excessive problems its 1st couple years of production (Rx8 anyone). A lot of people forget how much Mazda improved the car over the years. My particular fd was an good example of some of those improvements.

 

So true! I wouldn't doubt that the fd rx7 is probably the most abused car Mazda built. Not too many cars are built to for you can drive the hell out of them without much upgrades. My rx7 was the 1st turbo car I owned. The 1st time I went to the drag strip, I tried to let the car idle to cool it down. Well I opened the hood and was like f+ck it's hot in their. So I jumped in and cruised 1 mile up the road and back. Popped the hood again and everything was nice a cool. I knew right then that I would never shut my car down again after hard run without driving it lightly to cool it down 1st. This is how I saved my engine components from heat problems and why I never bought a useless turbo trimmer. You would be surprised how much more reliable the twin turbo system is when it's not over heated and cooled down properly.

 

I wonder if the newer FD's in Japan have the same reliability issues we've experienced here in the states?

 

that has been my experience too.

i've driven nothing but Rx7's from 1994, up to today, except for a period in 2009-2012, where i had a piston DD. not sure on the number of different cars, its around 20, but i've had every year of Rx7, except 94 and 95. including a 3 rotor FC.

except for the 3 rotor, i've only been towed once. Node and I took my 79 to sevenstock (1000mile round trip, 24mpg), and the wire to the leading points died in the gym parking lot 10 miles from home. since it made it 990miles of the 1000, i was ok with that.

i used an E11 in the 3 rotor, and it would lock up and go into boot mode all the time, so that thing got towed home a LOT. in 2003 the E11 was just about all you could get...

 

The FD as a car has issues , but notall of them are because of the rotary..

Weak fuel pump . causing lean conditions quite a few rx7's blew up due to naive owners putting an exhaust on the car By itself .

the fuel pump rewire makes night and day difference .

just some of the small things that early owners did that made the cars go boom . and it wasn't really the rotary's fault just the car was built at the limit of its components .

 

that reminds me of the E36 and how the windows would automatically open 1/2" and then close after the door was shut. it put a lot of stress on the window regulators which caused them to always shear the brittle plastic clutch gears inside the regulator... after a few failures i took the regulator apart and screwed the whole thing together so there was no rubber bushing or breakaway clutch mechanism. it's better to have the motor fail/break than continuously fix that stupid piece of broken plastic.

i think the most annoying part of this whole thing was how the door panel would basically fall apart into a dozen pieces everytime i would have to take it off, having to hot glue everything back together everytime.

and i only owned that car for a year!

not to mention the BMW forums are completely worthless, any hint of a cooling system problem and the answer was "replace the whole cooling system every 30k miles". i spent months going around in circles trying to figure out why the car registered as running hot, a previous shop already replaced the radiator, belts, thermostat, and water pump. after getting annoyed with it i compared the actual engine temps to the gauge and found the dummy gauge was bad, reading just off the red while the car was running 170F.

 

That car had lots of improvements and SHOULD be way more reliable than what we got here.

 

This reminds me about something. I did get stranded once in my 84 12a back in college. I was cruising along the interstate when all of a sudden my tach started fluttering. Shortly afterwards the engine died. I didnt have a cell phone back in 95 so I had to hike the 2 miles to class. Well class is over so I get my car and she starts right up. I'm like hmm? Well I start driving home and as soon as I get close to the house the tach starts fluttering again and she dies soon afterwards. Now I'm mad because that is a weird *** problem. Well after checking the electrical diagram, I found that the tach signal and fuel pump were on the same circuit and joined together on one of the ignition coils. So I check the lead and sure enough it was rusted. I cleaned the connector and never had the problem return.

 

well you should change the cooling system every 30k, its made from old newspapers and banana peels. there are a ton of threads where the OP replaced a whole system of parts (ignition, cooling) and still had the same problem, not a great way to diagnose things...

 

I don't know about anyone else but the GS F-Sport is ******* drop dead sexy in all aspects. Hell even the LS 460 F-Sport is sexy as hell too.

 

The FD with basic bolt ons is a ROCK!!!!

You either owned a lemon or a heavily modded car.

 

Lexus newer more aggressive styling is kick ***. Anyone see the new RC-F? This is something I would have no problems buying new. If anything, you know it's gonna be reliable.
http://www.caranddriver.com/news/201...-and-info-news

 

Don't like the big mouth or the bump in the hood relative to fenders and when are sedans going to get rid of that bimmer/bangle ***

I do like the middle section though

 

The bump on the hood is to make room for the v8. I guess v8s are getting taller now an days as I'm starting to see humps on a lot of other models. I don't think the regular RC's have it. I have never bought a new car before. The next Rx7 was suppose to be that 1st new car purchase. I was gonna have specific instructions for the dealer to inform me when my 7 hit the lot. I was then gonna rush to the dealer and watch the mechanic perform the PDI (Pre Delivery Inspection). Then I was gonna simply drive my new 7 home with all the shipping and plastic wrap still on it so I could unwrap and wash it myself. This would have given me the sense of opening a big *** present. Lol! Plus it prevents the other salesmen from joy riding my car. Now unfortunatly since I don't see Mazda making any moves on a 7 anytime soon, I may end up with something like that RC-F if I start having too much trouble with the Audi.

 

Perhaps v8's are moving to a more overhead style cams. I'm coming round to the thinking that it's just not necessary for v8's to have ohc. Also they are becoming strokier, but that's another story.

 

yep, i figured the guys who owned and worked on the cars should know the most probable places a problem would arise.

as in my previous post the problem was in the gauge, but of course i listened to everyone else who claimed everything else in the system was problematic. i guess it wasn't all bad, the car in fact runs cool even on a 110F+ day with the A/C on because i was so thorough with checking the flow through the engine. the gauge running up to the red though just tended to freak me out since the BMWs are as poor reliably as a rotary engine when overheated even once.

maybe it was the german in me working on a german car trying to reverse engineer everything when the answer was the simplest of all.

 

Hopefully my memory is correct here. ZoomZoom can correct me if I'm wrong.

Just to put things in perspective....

What ZoomZoom went through with his FD was obscene. I've never heard of a car failing the same parts as often as they did on his car w/o any real understanding of why. At the time, it seemed like the car was cursed and needed to be gutted and re-incarnated in a different configuration. And iirc it was - as Carlisi's 3 rotor project.

I owned too many German cars over the years. They have always sucked from a maintenance perspective. Many stupid, over priced parts failing for no apparently good reason and every repair required a $pecial tool. The latest failure was on my Mini. Ever see the ******* thermostat on a Mini? I just can't understand why you couldn't just use a normal thermostat and gasket that seals for longer than 50k miles at a time...

I swear the Germans engineer their car parts to fail prematurely and require overcomplicated parts and special tools made only be German companies so that they can keep the bulk of their economy employed.


Both of my FDs have been far more reliable than any German car I have ever owned.

 

i think the Germans do think about that when they build these things. it is as if they would like to protect the design and manufacturing industries in their country.

 

I worked for Bosch for 6 years. I learned Germans try very hard to support other German industries. I cannot say I fault them for that. It has made them strong. They are also pretty darn concerned with the world around them and bettering it.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Bosch_Stiftung