So I bought my FD about three weeks ago. Since my purchase, I have purchased many toys for it and reliability upgrades as well as the usual tune ups. On my first weekend working on it, I snapped the vacuum lines on the pressure tank like old candy canes. Ran to the store and got some cheapo vacuum hose until my silicone hose comes in. I was removing my charge relief valve hose and shattered the 90 degree elbow that goes to the valve. Got some heater hose and rigged that one up. While removing some harness connectors, the casings cracked. Not much I can do there. Removed damn near everything today in preparation for Azeknightz custom solenoid rack and a full vacuum hose replacement. While I was at it I installed new turbo coolant lines (what a nightmare btw) and of course, broke a nipple off the primary turbo inlet pipe. Got the part ordered through Ray. Seems like all the most expensive parts are the easiest to break -.-

Im no newbie mechanic. Ive been working on cars for years and ive learned to take careful accountability of both my tools and hardware from the car. I know work on multi million dollar fighter aircraft in the air force and maintenance discipline from work truly follows you home. My 7 has 40650 on the clock and I've concluded that everything that was at one point rubber under the hood has now become very brittle plastic. I cannot imagine the pain of working on a 7 with 80k on the clock @.@ I've still got much left to do but I'm awaiting parts

So here's the question. What's your most expensive mistake or time consuming screw up you've encountered while working on your 7?

 

Most expensive mistake was buying a FD =P

 

Quoted for truth lol!

 

Hahahaha! I think you're right. :P

 

I had 3thousand dollars , and I had 2 choices .. pay 2800 for a motor from japan2la with the 100PSI warranty , or purchase an ebay motor + a Power FC , and hope luck was on my side I figured I mean they cant REALLY ALL BE BLOWN up like everyone says ..

Well when it got here the motor was a series 7 so the harness and rats nest , and got knows what else was bad.. but still you know i bought an engine harness , waited for my spark plugs to come in ( it didn't come with plugs ) to test hte compression .. they came in .. 125 PSI! front ROTOR! ..

rear rotor 0 psi... hmm did I do something wrong >? did I leave something loose I re tightened everything and gave it antother go ... maxed out at 25 PSI ...

Luckily I had been talkking to them about htem sending me the wrong engine and I told them I didn't want it anymore becausei t ws the wrong series and they accepted it with a 20 % restocking fee.. shipping was not refunded.. basically lost almost 800 dollars on it ... and ended up buying a motor from japan2LA anyways ..

 

Ouch! Good thing you checked compression before just mindlessly tossing it into your car :P I'm hoping I don't break anything else over the next few days while I do these vacuum hoses.

 

1994 Mazda RX-7 and then 1993 Mazda RX-7

 

Cut vacuum hoses along the length and peel the hose off the nipple. I never break them.

 

Well the hose I broke today was the nipple on the primary inlet and I broke it trying to put the clamp for the lower turbo coolant line on. Dumb $100 mistake

 

Thanks for the tip though! I'll definitely apply that to the hoses I will be taking off for the job

 

my most expensive mistake happened when I was removing my M2 intake. Apparently I knocked my wastegate line loose and the next time I boosted I hit 23 psi. Blew 4 out six seals. fun times

 

Ouch! Did you do the rebuild yourself or did you have it done for you?

 

23 PSI?? You rock dude!!! Er....you rocked!

Would imagine at that boost level, there wasn`t anything on the planet short of a space shuttle solid rocket booster, that could have kept up with you!!

 

I literally laughed out loud, not because i think its funny, but the thought of me looking at my boost gauge and watching it hit 23 would make me **** my pants lol.

Most expensive mistake was buying the FD, other than that trying to take the TPS off and breaking the bitch in half, that was like 120$ mistake.

 

Seems like every exploded brittle plastic part is always at least $100. I think Mazda did that on purpose

 

Pretty sure I destroyed my gauge cluster last weekend. I removed it to do the hyperite mod. I glanced over the instructions and missed the part where I needed to mark my needles. I have been wanting to do a speedhut cluster for a while anyways. All in all, about a $700-800 mistake after I get the gauges I need.

 

Ouch. Well at least you have a plan b :P my friends were hanging out with me and I broke that nipple off the turbo inlet and they just looked at each other and said, "well that's why you don't buy an 18 year old car!" and "well i guess Its time to go single!" They're sarcastic ********. Hahaha. One drives an 04 s2k and the other has an 04 RX8. I laugh at my friend with the 8 cause my 7 has 10k less miles than him. :P

 

My most expensive mistake was the relationship breakup with my ex, wich lead to me not touching the car for 1 year, and when i finally got the house back and she was out, i started taring the 7 down to atoms and rebuilding/replacing/repainting pretty much EVERYTHING that was worn out or about to be worn out. Rebuilding my life, and my car at the same time. Soon, i have an engine coming over from the U.S, and we are complete once again.

Btw, something good DID come out of it economically. I bought out my ex for an evaluation of the house worth she had gotten when she tried to pull a neat little "scam" to get me to walk from the house and give it to her, but i called her bluff and we got locked in a stale mate for a year until she gave up. So, i bought her out of the mortage for peanuts, and got the house re-evaluated after doing some small but right touch-ups on it + the general market increase... And i made 120 000 dollars from it, HAHAHA

(ps. income, taxes, house prices, all different in norway, just F.Y.I. Still made a small fortune from her trying to scam me though )

 

buying a used auto tranny from craigslist, had it shipped,and installed it myself, for one reason or another the input shaft nub on the tq converter was longer than it should have been which stacked the pump, after about 400 miles the tranny ended itself, taking the tq converter, the front pump, and the front drum along with it.
then got a trans from the junk yard from a mazda van which fit. it lasted about 500 miles then smoked itself.
then had the original trans professionally rebuilt, a year later it smoked the clutches, had it replaced under warranty. that one didnt work at all, had it replaced again under warranty. had it installed for about 2 months then got rear ended. car is now sitting at autobody shop waiting for a claims adjuster.

second most expencive mistake was not keeping a fire extinguisher in the car. after a 3 hour drive in 110deg weather, the engine ignited into a ball of flame taking the engine, all wiring, the hood, the fender the front bumper and all accessorys with it. took all summer to rebuild.
as stated earlier car was then rear ended.

third expencive mistake was buying a pfc purple box ecu from other member for 85 dollars, recieved it with no hand held tuner, box is now worthless and sitting in a box.

4th expencive mistake, buying an rx8 diff with the hopes of installing it for a shorter gear ratio. the rx8 diff does not fit, only the ring and pinion which cost over 280 bucks to swap. returned it for a 75 dollar restocking fee after removing and reinstalling my diff. *sigh*
im pretty sure this car is cursed.

 

Expensive, no "c" in it.

My most expensive mistake was doing exhaust and intake upgrades without a tune and overboosting in 20° weather. Boom!

 

Rebuilding countless motors only to have them blow up again...Then i got smart.

-Austin

 

what is smart for us less smart people?

 

according to his sign, it means LS1 time.
Purists would say he turned his rx7 into a Ls7, but lets not get into that discussion now

 

I've made a few mistakes with the car, but luckily for me, none that have been too costly. I credit that to this online community and the wealth of knowledge that can be found by simply hitting the "search" button. If this car had come out in the late 70s or 80s before the age of the internet, I most certainly would have broken TONS more **** and been TOTALLY frustrated! Thanks to the experience, and sometimes misfortune, of others, many of us have benefitted greatly!

 

Ouch. If my auto tranny blew. It would definitely be five speed time.

I've considered wrecking the soul of the car and putting an Ls series in it if I ever blew the rotary. But after looking up the price of rebuild kits, it's not worth it. If you think about it. A rotary is pretty cheap to rebuild and is in my inexperienced (with rotaries) opinion easier. I checked out Aaroncakes video on him rebuilding it and the hardest part is grinding the side seals. A full rebuild kit with new housing is like >$3000. I'd say that's reasonable. Piston motors are more expensive and require more clearancing and machining. But I digress.

Seems like a fire extinguisher in the 7 isn't too bad of an idea. It's sad that engine fires are not uncommon. Do you know what caused it?