DarkLikePoe

Of all the things I've learned in being an FD owner, I've REALLY come to appreciate automotive voodoo. My FD has been bitch slapping me lately, but it's been under such convenient circumstances that I think the FD knows we've got a safety word.

Case #1: After reading an unusually high knock reading on the PFC, I got off the gas to see that all was all right. All was not. The engine sputtered, barely idled, and would not hold vacuum. I thought for sure that the apex seals were toast. I called out a tow truck to get the car home, arranged to miss work the next day, and started evaluating my finances for a rebuild. I figured I'd first take the whole day to do some basic diagnostic work and see if I could avoid taking the car to a professional. I woke up bright and early with the sun barely over the hills and started wrenching. I pulled plugs, tested compression, checked exhaust, and by about 8:15 A.M., I discovered that my MAP sensor had come unplugged. I popped it back on and drove for the rest of my day off with a huge grin on my face.

Case #2: My friends and I go cruising through the local canyons on Saturday nights. I had just diagnosed a weeks-old boost problem and was loving the ride. At about 3 A.M., I came off the freeway with a friend - whose car was not working - in the car. We smelled what we thought was coolant. About 30 seconds later, and about a block from my house, the coolant light flicks on and the PFC reports that water temp in rising over 1*C/second. At 95C and about 500 feet from my driveway, I shutdown and get the fans rolling. Temp holds at 101C for a few minutes, then starts dropping. A coolant hose with a faulty clamp had popped off and had sprayed the engine bay down. Luckily, it happened with a friend in the car, on a street with no one driving by, the night before a day off. If it hadn't blown then, it would probably have been at speed on a freeway in the middle of the day.

What about you guys? When has your FD been conspicuously unreliable at exactly the right moment?

Marek

iTrader: (2)

Quite the opposite it always screws me when I need it. Yet I still throw money at her. I guess thats why they say the best mod for a FD is another daily driver.

Troux

iTrader: (6)

Maybe OT, but I remember when I left my Supra's MAP sensor unplugged (forgot to plug it back in when I was messing with it). It drove fine, but the car would shut off the second I got any positive boost.

DarkLikePoe

No question, and I'm not suggesting that the FD ALWAYS breaks down in convenient spots. Hell no. Once, during some of the aforementioned canyon driving, I dipped into the clutch too long and the engine couldn't recover the dropping revs. I stalled out and lost power brakes and steering approaching a downhill off-camber hairpin.

Ha ha, if the FD didn't break when I needed it to run, it's wouldn't be miraculous if things fell apart in a manageable way!

verbatim

was in old s1 with 13b s5turbo etc.

Went to the drags, mechanic wanted me to drag, didnt for whatever reason. The drive to the drags was ~1hr+.
On the way home the clutch was slipping and totally died IN MY DRIVEWAY.
How ******* lucky?

BADSVN2000

My first RX7 1985 series 4 13b turbo had it tuned and boost wound up by a rotary mechanic and had my mate test the 0-100 ( i had no licence at the time due to demerits) I told him not to redline it but he did, got to the lights and sounded like a 6 cyl gone wrong as it had dropped a seal. it had only been running for 10 mins after the tune.
Same car but with licence this time after rebuild, my flatmate asked me how fast it went so I showed her and I got to the lights on the way into town and my oil guage dropped then smoke whooshed out from under the car. I coasted to a servo and found the oil cooler line had been rubbing on a radiator mount and cut through. The ironic part was that I got it towed to the party we were going to and this party was full of V8 people, not too good turning up to a party full of V8 lovers with an RX7 on the back of a tow truck!!!!
FD: first motor blew blowing away a V8 in Wellington, I lived 45 mins away tow truck came into play again! 2nd engine blew 3 months later after we rebuilt it not knowing we shouldnt have re-surfaced the end plates and long story short it died. 3rd engine popped doing a 3rd gear standstill in this video clip:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=VAEMlkllqzU

My car starts getting shown 1.46sec into the clip

My new FD has a really good low km strong engine which I have taken very good care of! It wont be blowing up anytime soon.

dgeesaman

iTrader: (7)

Last year I stuffed fuel cell foam in my gas tank to take the place of the metal baffles. Aside from jamming the fuel level float, it seemed to work ok. Somewhere in the summer I started getting bucking from hard corners - felt like fuel slosh. It got worse, but whenever I topped off the tank it quit happening. I did a weekend autoX school in DC and it started cutting out on sat PM. That's when it occurred to me - clogging fuel filter. I called Malloy, and had just enough time to drive down and pick up a new filter. The car would buck any time I got hard on the throttle - I just needed to get back to Fedex Field where the rest of the folks were so I could borrow a couple of tools to change the filter. Within a mile of the field it got bad. It stalled as I reached the roundabout lanes around the field, and I coasted it down to the lot where I was able to replace the filter that evening. Another 1/2mile further and I would have been stuck along the road somewhere, 2 hrs from home. Not to mention that all that bucking could have leaned out and detonated the engine. Turns out the foam was rubbing on sharp edges in the tank and disintegrating and clogging the fuel system.

Dave

NTIMD8

iTrader: (1)

What? Come on? I call BS!? According to some people on this board who have worked on thousands of FDs this NEVER happens!! LOL

I have had the same luck with my FD as you have. It has been VERY good to me and very reliable so far. "knock on wood"