I've got a bit of a weird problem on my FD. First you can hear it in the door chime when the key is in the ignition, it is a shorter single note instead of the usual beeps. From there with the key in the second position or engine running there is a clicking under the dash that sounds similar to the turn signal/flasher relay. It's not that and when you activate those the flasher relay also makes its normal clicks in addition to this.

When the clicking is happening, if you try to use the power windows they start and stop with the clicks cutting out intermittently during travel. When the clicks happen, I can hear it from under the steering column and I can feel it in the black box pictured below. Any suggestions on what this might be?

Series 7 JDM RX-7, 1996. Thank you!

 

If your car RHD or LHD?

That looks like CPU#2 and is logical that would be the source of the clicking and what not. It's just mounted weird which is why I ask.

They are starting to show failures now, sometimes broken solder joints and sometimes bad capacitors. I think you can still get them new too.

Dale

 

Its the weather. My car has been doing this for years. If you pull that thing out and stick it in the fridge for a little while and plug it back in, it will do what you're describing.

Run a hair dryer over it and heat it up, it will stop. Whenever the temperature drops, it does it. Normally after driving around for a little bit and the cabin heats up, it will stop on its own. Ultimately, its just a quirk and I leave it alone

 

Great, thanks for the replies! This is a right hand drive JDM car.

So it generally won't be an issue and affect anything important? What exactly does this thing do?

Anyone know if they are the same between US or JDM cars?

 

It's a collective relay for a number of functions. Nothing to be concerned about. The worst it will be, your right turn signal wont flash and it will just remain illuminated when you flip the switch. If you still have the heater then turn it on and it will go away on it's own until it gets cold again.

No idea if they're the same between lhd and rhd. My car is also rhd.

 

I THINK there are some differences between US and JDM CPU's but I don't know if anyone documented what the differences are.

May be worth re-soldering the solder joints for the main connector pins. That was a super common problem on the FC and I think the FD can have that as well. That would explain why it acts up more when cold, the solder joint will shrink in cold and the gap will expand.

Dale

 

The F110 CPU pre and post dated S7s. I think the early V I cars had something different - and of course the autos.

I wouldn't like to buy a new one! https://www.amayama.com/en/part/mazda/f11067560 Vaguely remember one of the electronic bods on here finding the usual cap failures on the board, we replaced one with a second hand unit we had on hand when it went funky a few years back.

I'd expect the sheet metal mounting to vary between LHD and RHD at a minimum.....and more than likely the brain too....if you wanted to check, diagram 6630.

 

The black plastic box that the CPU's are in are the same. I have had a JDM CPU and it's identical. The circuit board inside may be different but the box is the same, actually it's identical to the FC's CPU box.

Dale

 

Thanks for the advice, definitely don't want to buy a new one at that price. It's been quite annoying in the cold weather but now my car is down for an unrelated reason so I feel this suddenly became a lower priority.

 

So I had this exact problem a few years ago, during the colder months the seatbelt light would flash constantly, I got single beeps, and other gremlins until the board heated up with the help of the floor heater. It turned out to be the caps, which a friend of mine who is great at building circuit boards replaced them all for me. I would just advise that the problem is likely to get worse over time as mine did, and if a cap is leaking on the circuit board it can eventually fry the board beyond repair. If you know someone who can do the job, the caps are dirt cheap.

 

Bump.

My car seems to developed this same issue since the last time I saw it.

I guess new capacitors or solder is in order?

 

lololol, using a hair dryer seemed to do the trick.
(or maybe it was cleaning the traces? a few of them were corroded)

turns out the reason my right hand window doesn't work at all (unless you manually activate the switch) is that the plastic lever was broken on the inside, like I initially expected.