leaking oil
 

Hey all,

I just picked up a 1993 RX-7 Touring yesterday. Unfortunately its leaking oil, pretty bad. Im pretty new to these cars and im wondering where it could be comming from and how bad of an issue this is. Right now im trying my hardest not to drive this car at all. (though thats hard being a brand new car :P) Im planning on getting it checked out by the closest rotary expert around here, if I can find one around here, anyone who knows one please help!

Also, I did a few searches of the forum trying to find posts about oil leaks but couldnt find anything at all which i thought was weird. Maybe i just cant search good :(.

Any help is greatly appreciated i wanna get this car on the road ASAP!

Im gonna take pictures of the car tomorrow to show it off, but ill take a few of the exact location where it is leaking.

oil pan, omp lines, turbos, rear main seal, just to name a few areas. post pics of the leaking areas for more help. but be ready to start spending a lot of money. you may want to pull the motor and do a rebuild. in the long run it may save you money and you will start of new. just my 2 cents worth

Jeff

The engine only has 1500 miles on it and was a rebuild from Mazda is what i was told. I hope it doesnt need a rebuild.

^ Then I would suspect a bad pan gasket or a turbocharger oil line to be leaking.
Take pics and come back.

The turbo's are pretty new from a 98. If it was a bad pan gasket, how difficult is that to fix?

Oil pan removal: http://www.fd3s.net/oil_pan_removal.html

As far as the turbos, the age of the turbos have nothing to do with the gaskets. If they reused gaskets when installing the turbos, that can create a leak on the turbo oil return lines.

Took my car to a mechanic today that knows a bit about rotarys. He took a look at it and says its the oil return lines. He wants 725$ roughly to fix it. Thats a shitload of money! Is this something someone with a bit on knowledge and a lot of time can do themselves?

It's not hard, but it can take some time. You really should remove the turbos to replace all 4 gaskets. The gaskets themselves are probably less than $20.

Is there a write-up on the removal process of the turbos? I looked for one but couldnt find it.

Not an in depth write-up, but here's about the gist of it:

https://www.rx7club.com/showpost.php...&postcount=557

a fairly common place that very hard to realize is the front plate....

huh?

He's suggesting that another place for a potential oil leak is the front cover. However, you've already had someone look at the car and say that its the turbo oil lines so I would start there.

Yeah, well i talked to the mechanic and he says that the gasket is not bolted on and is sticking out. So im gonna jack the car up and take a look myself. Anyone know where i should be looking for this gasket?

Their are two return lines with twins. One in the front and one in the back of the block. They are both to the bottom left when facing the cars engine. You will most liekly have to pull the turbos to get to them.

NOTE!!!! Carefull with those bolts because they tend to get worn out and chewed up so make sure you use the proper size wrench when taking them on or you will have a much larger issue later trying to drill them out.

Suggestion: Get new gaskets before you start. No reason to reuse the old gaskets on any part of your FD. Go to Mazda and order them if they don't have them in stock. You will save yourself hours/days in the future.


GL to you brother

Look at the picture in this thread:

https://www.rx7club.com/3rd-generation-specific-1993-2002-16/stock-twin-turbo-nuts-bolts-locations-485829/

You'll see the two turbo hard lines going diagonal down on the left and right sides. There are gaskets on each end for each line (i.e. 2 gaskets per line).

Update: I hooked a boost guage up as a temp check of what my turbo's are boosting at and i wouldnt go up past 4 or 5. What could be causing that?

Any of a number of causes. Read this to gain more insight.

Leaking solenoids or vacuum lines. Sticking actuator (IIRC - haven't messed with twins for awhile).

I keep looking at that picture but i still dont see the oil return lines.

The 2 larger red circles near the bottom of the photo are around the bottom (in the photos) ends of each of them.

If those were leaking oil is it possible in any way to be only boosting at 4psi or do you think thats another problem all together?

Totally separate problem...

So if im having both these issues with the turbo's do you think i should pull them out of the car and work on them that way or do you think i can fix both issues with them inside the car?

It's much more likely that your boost issue is some vacuum line or solenoid problem, not a turbo problem.

I don't know about the oil leak - that is an issue that may require some disassembly to get at.