All knowing ones.......help me please =P After taking my friends FC out for a joy ride....i realize the power potential the rotary motor posesses. Well moving on.....im in the midst of purchasing a FD (i test drove one and loved it) But what im calling you all knowing ones on isss............when purchasing a 7.....im looking for a clean body......running motor.....making sure all recalls and regular maintenence was performed......and also =P 5 speed w/ twins Anyhow......if i find a Twin T with the nice body and interior (but its automatic) should i just go ahead and purchase her and then change out the trans. to a 5 speed (cause i know that crappy MPV tranny wasn't made for the 7) or would it be more cost effecient for me to just hold off purchasing one until i find the one i want ( ie. 5 speed; Twin turbo; and so on and so forth).... PLEASE HELP ME .....?????

 

save yourself the time and just buy a 5speed.

 

there are nice ones out there with 5 speeds just keep looking

 

 

Don't waste your money on anything less than what you trully want. There are more than enough 5 speed 7's out there, just keep your eye open. It took me almost a year to find the car I was looking for. Be patient, do the research, and take your time.

 

not sure you if knew but all FD's are twin turbo... so just hold out for the 5-speed. You will be happy to throw your money towards some basic mods. at first than towards a tranny swap .

 

okay, you will not find one in good shape. . . unless you get one from a guru on this forum. . . yeah right. . . like anybody's gonna sell theirs after this much $$$ has been poured in. if you get one with low mileage, then its gonna cost you an arm and a leg. so your best bet is to try to rip off the buyer. . . its a badboy tactic, but if you buy from a dealer you can cheat them easily. . . believe me, they deserve it. theyve been cheating FD owners for years. you have to act like you know everything about the car. find the car and test drive it. find out what the price is. check the car meticulously and run a carfax on it. make sure to check the cars start when it is cold and hot. . . this means, check to make sure the engine is cold before you testdrive and restart it after you let it sit for a while after the testdrive. dont give the key back till you do. when its cold youll wanna see how much it smokes/burns oil on startup. also check to see if the cold start is operable. when you restart it after driving/warming it up (let it sit for a bit. . . talk to the guy about the cars history and such) check for ease of start and white smoke. if it is hard to start and smoking then its definate that the engine has a bad coolant seal and/or low compression. DO NOT BUY THE CAR WITHOUT A COMPRESSION CHECK. this is where the trickery comes into play. mazda dealerships will do a scheduled compression check on the vehicle. it is widely known that mazdas compression standards are a little botched for the rotary. the FD compression is rated from the factory at 9.5:1, but even a brand new rotary engine from mazda itself will not test at that. you can be rest assured that the engine will test with low compression. as long as the engine has even compression across the rotor faces you are relatively okay, but dont tell the salesperson that. get mazda to do a comp. check and estimate the cost of the replacement after it is determined that the engine is bad. . . trust me. . . mazda will say its bad, unless the rotary tech knows his stuff. they will give you an outstanding bill. . . itll be unbearable. mine was quoted at $16.5k!!!!! ridiculous, huh? anyways, take that quote along with the test numbers back to the dealership and tell them the car is toast and that youll buy it if they drop the price down to a motor replacement price. if they dont like that, then ask them if theyve ever heard of the better business bureau.

okay, on to the test drive. haha. when driving you obviously want to check all the electronics to see if they all work properly. run though all the gears. . . softly and spirited. check for grinding and whether or not the shifter feels positive. make sure the lever isnt moving all over the place. if it has a boost gauge, youll need to check the boost pattern. i believe its like 10-8-10 or so. . . i havent been with sequential for a while. the first turbo will spool up to 10 psi. it takes 8 psi to transition to the second turbo so the needle will drop to that psi then raise again to its peak boost. someone else will have to give the numbers. i cant remember at the moment. just check all the obvious stuff that you would besides all the stuff that i just mentioned.

well, have fun man!!! happy hunting.

paul

oh yeah, dont get an auto. . . thats just a bad idea.

 

WOW!!! thank you very much.......any other useful hints.....id greatly appreciate it

 

Why the heck did they make an FD auto anyways?!!?

 

Good Write up. I need ot save thsi when i go looking for one.

 

The things to be flexible on are the color and trim level, IMHO. The most important things are finding the cleanest body you can for the money you are looking to spend and find one in decent mechanical condition.

Here are some buyer guides:
http://www.scuderiaciriani.com/rx7/buying.html
http://rx7.voodoobox.net/infofaq/bguide3g/bguide3g.html
http://www.rx7turboturbo.com/robrobinette/buyaused.htm

-Max

 

repost

 

One correction: the factory compression specs are 8.5 kg/cm^2 (or 120psi). 9.0:1 is the COMPRESSION RATIO it has NOTHING to do with the compression test (within FDs, obviously cars with different compression ratios have different compression values, but a blown motor with 0 compression still has a 9.0:1 compression ratio). Let me repeat, ALL FDs regardless of engine condition have the SAME compression ratio, this value cannot change unless you get different rotors (or a different motor). Now, actual compression gives you an idea how well the engine seals. Basically look for 7.0 kg/cm^2 (100psi) or above on all faces, the more consistant the better.

 

talk to lance at lamotors i bought mine from him and you can get a warranty with it which is excellent. big help when motor blows and you get around 10k worth of performance done and you only have to pay 3500. way worth it but go to www.lamotorcars.com he always has fd's and they are usually of very high quality. he gets them serviced at rotary performance so you can imagine they get the treatment.

 

Good to Know!

 

Good luck finding a twin turbo FD, they're tough to find.

 

They are tough to find???? ok now im confused??

 

Yeah, agreed. I've been looking for mine for 10 years this April.

But what I have not found is you. I'll keep searching.

Are you taking your meds? You really need to stick with them, OK?

 

WHAT!?!?!? *confusion*

 

ALL FD3S's are twin turbo. Even if our lord thinks otherwise.

 

I don't think the dealer tactic will work. Why should they come down in price when they can sell it to some other sucker (and there WILL be another) for what they want?

 

 

ive seen it happen twice.. . . on FD's. it works on all cars. everyone knows that. if you scare the salesperson then they will go down. it was only a suggestion. . . not a freaking law. come on guys. . . as if its not worth trying.

nathan kwok, when i went to the mazda dealership they gave me a read-out of my compression test. they were all between 8.3 - 8.5. . . this was bad to them. so they wanted to redo everything. i, and everyone else here knows that my compression was okay. . . especially with 90k miles on the engine. the point was to use that to your buying advantage.

my bad on using the word "ratio". . . youre right. . . sorry about that technicality.

paul

oh yeah, id say the "scare tactic" works in certain regions. here, in tennessee, everybody is afraid of a rotary engine. its easy to scare someone. they are ignorant to the engine. the two instances that i know of were done in tennessee. that might explain some stuff. . . gotta love rednecks!!!

 

The thing about FD's is most dealers are scared of them because the popular perception of the car is that it is a p.o.s. due to the repair records. A lot of dealers give crappy trade in value for one so you may be able to find one for pretty cheap. I bought mine a year and a half ago from a dealership in St. Louis that is notorious for screwing people. I knew they were asking 11 for it because I know how to read the front window tags. Also, it had 72000 mi on it. The RO on the car said that it had cracked defrost vents (common), leaky oil seals at the base of the oil filter, and a broken driver's side window switch (common). I test drove it and found that the turbos weren't boosting properly. From there I worked them down to eight grand even. I put down six and put the balance on a credit card that was no interest for a year. I fixed the problems for pretty cheap and the car drove great. It has since developed o-ring problems and needs a rebuild, but even after that, I will still have a pristine seven that I have only spent about twelve or thirteen grand on. I am pretty sure I came out on top.

 

I'd agree