groovin_rx7

i might be picking up a FD this week but the car is basically going to be daily driven. i have read about the upgrades to make the car reliable and last but i couldnt find a search for those who daily drove their FD's. my last car was also twin turbo (1JZ-GTE) and with this hot weather...should i be worried of the FD overheating? i did read about the upgrading of an aluminum radiator but even with that upgrade. how safe? the thing is i do NOT want to buy a car then something right away goes wrong. im really really new to this. im reading as much as possible but with this being my first post i didnt want to upset anyone and have someone flame on me and telling me to search. also with this post, i wanted to intro myself to everyone also because i really do want to own a 3rd gen like you guys. thank you in advance.

KaiFD3S

iTrader: (37)

Not to mess your grove up but the FD is a 10+ year old car things will go wrong not many people use the FD as a daily driver but some do, if you buy an FD make sure you have backup funds and a backup car.

Also there is a lot of threads that you can read about this topic it has been asked more than a hundred times

groovin_rx7

nah u didnt mess up my groove. lol i just wanted to post so i could intro myself. i know i have a lot to learn. i've been searching and reading so much right now my head hurts so i thought i'd just post real quick and maybe someone had a link that i didnt catch. hehe thanks for the reply

FDNewbie

iTrader: (10)

Kai makes an important point. Long story short, if you're buying this car specifically to daily driver it, my first inclination would be to say don't do it. With the FD, in my book, I EXPECT something to go wrong. Always. From small stuff like flooding, losing a clutch switch, losing a starter, to blowing the clutch, the engine, the turbos, (and you can even blow the engine and lose the turbos as a result...), etc. So I would recommend AGAINST you buying a 10+ year old FD to daily drive. Even if it's low mileage, the parts are old, and age w/ time.

My FB (first gen) is my daily driver, and it only had 74K on it when I bought it less than a year ago. And it's an '84. I've dropped about two grand in it already, simply due to age-related stuff, and it's still not 100%. When the starter died, the new starter was so strong, it broke the flywheel...so sometimes when you come to start the car, it'll just grind, until the starter catches the flywheel at another (unbroken) position. Point being, even mileage will only get you so far. These cars have a rep for a reason. Think SMART, not think WANT. Buy a Honda civic or accord for $3K, and have it as your daily beater. Cheap, quick, reliable, easy to fix, everyone knows how to repair them. Leave the FD for the sunny days. Otherwise, you better have at least $2K - $3K laying around at any given moment, and a rotary specialist very close to you...and even then, the frequent down-time will be an inconvenience...

dohc-vtec_eg

i got my FD like about 2 months ago. i knew a lil about FD's since 2 of my friends had one and we worked on it a lil 2gether. well i use mine as a DD but problems been comin up. i read alot about DDing a FD and the key thing is have money because when there is a Lil problem with it fix it right away or it will hurt ur pockets. keep it well maintained so i hear, oil changes, sparkplugs every 3-4 oil changes lil thigns like that. get a alu. radiator,thermostats, fire extinguisher, coolent/water (about 2gallons), oil, flash light, tools, money and a cell phone.

dohc-vtec_eg

all those things have have in my car except the fire extinguisher. my friends car caught on fire so imma get one. if hte compression is bad u might want to do a rebiult. imma street port my motor soon so everything will be fresh again. o yea get gauges for things like temp gauges, oil,boost and air/fuel. the stock ones dont work very well, known to give u wrong reads

jeffrored92

I bought my FD last october as a daily driver. I lasted almost a year before I bought a cheap daily (picked it up last week)

I got sick of being forced to take the FD to the shops, out at night in bad weather etc.

BUT I never had any real problems, was probably off the road for 2 days in the year for a LIM gasket job. Cost some serious $$$ to have a LIM gasket done by someone else though, lots of labour cost.

rynberg

Great advice.....not.


You can daily drive an FD, but it is obviously not the best choice of vehicle for that purpose. I have been daily driving mine for over 3-1/2 years, not counting the 3-1/2 months it has been down at the moment for my rebuild project.

Keep the car close to stock with only the "reliability mods" done to it -- downpipe, water temp and boost gauges, FC thermosensor. That's a good start to keeping the car running well. Keep up on maintenance religiously.

Even with the above, you should expect that the car may be down a week or two per year, barring a major event like a blown engine. Obviously some of this will depend on whether you do the work or someone else does, your luck, and the initial condition of the car.

Please keep reading and learn to use the search function better. There have been literally dozens of threads on daily driving and reliability.

groovin_rx7

[yea. im always on time when it comes to maintaining a car. as long as i take care of the "reliability mods" then hopefully it'll last. i just have a great deal right now on a FD so thats why im looking up on this car. thanks to everyone thats taken their time to answer some simple questions.

dohc-vtec_eg

okie.. whats teh differences between our posting? i am sayin fd's get problems but u should it quick, u say "
Keep up on maintenance religiously."
i told him what to have in teh car and i am pretty sure majority of FD drivers have more the half of teh things i put down. i told him to get the "reliability mods" like u said... so wahts wrong with my post?

rynberg

Other than your deplorable typing/English skills...

Sounds like a lot of oil changes....

You don't need to be changing spark plugs every 3-4k miles (assuming that's what you meant) with a nearly stock car, or even a mildly modded one. You also don't NEED an aluminum radiator or "thermostats" (whatever that is supposed to mean). Two GALLONS of coolant/water? The whole cooling system is 9 quarts....if you need to refill the entire cooling system on the road, I wouldn't even be attempting to drive it at that point....

What does the compression being bad have to do with daily driving the car? What does you getting a streetport have to do with this guy daily driving a car? The stock gauges work just fine on my car, with the exception of how the water temp gauge is calibrated from the factory. An aftermarket a/f gauge is a worthless light show.

Your posts had a lot of misinformation or paranoia in them. Let's try to stick to FACTS here....

CantGoStraight

That LIM gasket is a real pain to replace, have toremove everything on the passenger side of the engine to do it. Not that expensive if you do it yourself.

dohc-vtec_eg

4 quarts= 1 gallon. u said 9. u dont have to get a alu radiator but i would i am pretty sure mroe then have the people on this forum did. i ment change the sparkplugs every 3-4 oil changes so, thats about every 12k or so miles.