I work at a Nissan dealer
There is a ex-mazda rotary specialist at my work, he worked there from 88-95 and got his hands on a lot of rx-7s, he doesnt seem like a rotorhead at all, he'll BS a little with me but never very excited about it. Also knows only factory stuff, no little tricks or stuff found out later like rotorheads might know.
Anwyways there was this nice 94 base in for service (god only knows why since its a nissan dealership) and he was working on it, i asked whats wrong and he said that the idle was low, especially when the A/C was on, then says it needs a new engine, as this is a tell tale sign.

good god and now i will never ever look at the mazda service entrance without wanting to throw bricks at it.
Part of the reason for RX-7s being so unreliable is all of the false diagnosis's causing engine replacements.
He didn't even take a freaking compression test.

ack.

 

Another reason why I work on my own car.

 

what's his address? so i can go to his house and shoot him...

 

What was it IN for? Not low idle, right? Sounds like a bad EL switch.

 

was there to pass emissions, or thats all i know it was in for.
note this was a NISSAN dealership, he's just an ex-mazda rotary specialist.
i thought it was a tradein at first
clean car, silver 94 base w/ clotch, bone ****** stock

 

I know the local mazda dealer in Atlanta told a 2 guys that he needed a new engine...only thing wrong with the map sensor line. Both of these were in the year 1998 and also 2000, which I would think they would have learned about the map sensor line by now. I wonder how many were wrongly diagnosed when they first came out as well.

Tim

 

damn, I butchered the english language with that paragraph. jist of it, 2 guys, wrong diagnosis both times...it was only the map sensor line had came off.

Tim

 

i fear for RX-8 owners,

 

I've always maintained this is why Mazda lost a small fortune on warranty claims on the FD. Service departments the world over seem to do this with both the engine and the turbos.

I've met so many people that had their turbos replaced, only to find that it "didn't seem to fix the boost problem"....

 

in defense of some of the good techs that are out there part of the problem was mazda gave very little support for the car info wise. no schooling for it. just a fsm for the dealer. also the waranty times they pay the techs is sad and they would almost never pay the tech any diagnosis time. the flat rate pay system is a problem in it's own right. also dont forget that the guy who finishes last in his med dept is called doctor also!

 

it is usually true that an engine with low or uneven compression cant run the a/c without stalling though

 

Perhaps that explains the "ex-mazda rotary specialist" title!!

 

lol, I was getting ready to post that as well.

Guys, he's not doing anything different than 90% of the people on this forum that say "check the map sensor" to almost all the post.

He's taking one symptom and making a diagnosis without actually investigating it. That's what just about everyone does here.

 

I highly doubt that anyone on the fourm would jump out and say you needed a new motor because of a low idle with the A/C on. We would at the very least, tell you to do a compression test first. Face it, mazda dealers suck with the RX-7.

When I first bought my car way back when I too made the mistake of taking my car to the dealer, for the FPD. Anywho, it came back with a fucked up boost patern. According to them I needed new turbos. According to the mazda vaccuum hose diagram, they were a bunch of jackass'. Several of the hoses were hooked up wrong. Thank god for Rob Robinette, had I not stumbled on to his site I probably would have trusted the dealers word.

 

Dealerships are just places for mechanics to work. There are good ones and there are bad ones, regardless of the building they work in....

The engine and turbos that are in my car were installed by a dealership year ago. No problems. However, there are dealerships near me that did diagnose my car incorrectly way back then.

Just as there are dealerships that are bad, there are regular shops that are bad. It's the mechanics that make the shop.

 

When I got my car about 6 years ago with about 4k on the ODO I took it in to Mazda for a tune up and they told me that my turbos were blown and that I needed to get new ones. Well 50K miles later the turbos are still making great boost. What ********. They also spilled about a quart of oil on the engine and left a three foot grease streak along the side of my car.

Matthew Walsh

 

 

actually, those good mechanics will set up their own shop to fix cars instead of just working in the dealership. That's also one of the reason why i never bring my car to the dealership for service as firstly they'll try to rip you off and they don't really do a good job on your car.

 

Thanks not true. It takes more than "mechanical know-how" to run a shop. A lot of good mechanics wouldn't even attempt it. That doesn't mean they aren't good mechanics, just means they aren't looking to add the overhead of running a business as well as fixing cars.

 

well i agree with you on that when it comes to the overhead, is really costly to run a shop fixing up car. But if they're really good and well known i'm sure they'll attract private investor to provide the funds.

 

I bought my 93 FD from a guy who was told that his engine had to be pulled to fix his AC. This was to my advantage, however, I do not think he would have sold it to me for such a low price had he knnown any better. I am happy to be a member so that I can see that the dealer BS is everywhere. Finding a good FD mechanic is difficult, so you might as well plan on learning everything you can, because you can not trust some of those guys. If you know how to diagnose a problem you can determine the trust worthiness of your mechanic.