Clutch life and costs
 

Hi guys I just bought my first sports car, a 94 RX-7 with only 43k miles on it! I just began learning to drive stick, and I'm worried how much damage I'll do to the clutch. I practiced only a few hours on my friend's Miata before buying the car. Do you guys think I can learn well enough before my clutch wears out? If not, how much would it cost to replace parts + labor? One other newbie question, How much is it typically for labor + parts on rebuilding the engine?

So far I really love this car and I may keep it beyond 100k miles.


Andrew

First off, prepare to be flamed out the ass. If you use the handy search function your questions can be answered alot easyer, but i'll try to help anyways since im such a nice guy... :) First off, nice car to start with, especally if you dont know stick! I doubt youll kill your clutch from learning, so dont worry too much about it. If you want to get a new clutch you should just get a clutch and flywheel combo for around $850, it makes a big differance in accel. Rebuilds varey depending who you go to, or you could be a true diehard and do it yourself(the fun and frustrating way!). And you better take VERY good care of it if you think you can get it over 100k miles, you should look into investing in a radiator, maybe a intercooler, dp, just some things to help your engine life. Also check to see if you still have your stock AST or not, if you do, either get an elimination kit or get a aftermarket one. Stock AST's are prone to crack after awhile, and you dont want that...Good luck to you my son, and please dont crash!

Kyle

Thanks Kyle. I have good reasoning behind getting an RX-7 to learn. It's my reward for learning to drive stick! If I went out and bought an old beater what kind of reward would that be?

Also how often do you guys change your oil? One guy at http://www.scuderiaciriani.com says he changes it every 1000 miles??? Seems a little extreme to me.



Andrew

Nice reasoning if I say so. I got mine when I was 16, now im 17 so I know where your commin from, heh. Yea change your oil about every 1k, rotaries are maintanince heavy, plus its better to be safe than sorry! ;)

Kyle

I think every 1000 is overkill, unless you drive the hell out of your car 3k oil change in fine....just use a good quality oil.

17 here!

Yea youngin pride! And stop being cheap! change your oil more! =P

i change my oil every 1k.

dude i think the clutch will be fine unless your killing it really bad and it smells. i had stock clutch with a mazdacomp pressure plate. it was the same clutch that the first owner had and then yanni learned to drive and raced on. and then i learned to drive on it and then it died. the new clutch was like $480.

43k miles is amazing how much was it? go to the newbie things and do all the reliability mods. even then this car will just have problems all the time. but at least they wont be as major.

I paid 18k from a family friend. It seems to be in really good overall condition. I'll probably do the downpipe and exhaust but that might be it. I dont really need more power anyway and definitely not at the cost of longevity. The only problem with getting this car is I'll never really want to drive the old Integra again lol.

I change my oil every 1K or so, oil and filter every 2K or so. While it does seem extreme, the oil takes a beating cooling the turbos.

One of the best things you can do, is when you start it, blip the throttle to about 3K, that will disable the EWS (Electronic Warmup System). The EWS is there to get the oil warmed up quicker, but it it much better to drive the car with no boost until the oil warms up by itself. Also, stay off the turbos the last mile to let them cool down before shutting down the car.

The 1st thing you should do is get a downpipe and have it installed to remove the stock precat.

so far as the clutch is concerned. unless it is already on the way out you should be ok while you learn.

you guys have to be kidding me every 1000 miles. what leads you to think that you need to change it that often? an oil change every 3000 should do the trick.

to find out about what your initial mods should be, do a search with the words "reliability mods." you will find about a half million threads.

oh and welcome to the forum and to the world of FDs.