Rufio

Alright so i am farely new to rotorys and such. Iv talked to many people and everyones always saying there unreliable and they break down alot and you shouldnt have it as a DD. well i was wondering what is it that breaks down so much and what does it take to maintain it. i know checking your oil everytime you stop for gas, and gettin it changed evry 2000 miles or so helps. and also getting parts to cool the engine. but what is it that would u keep you from having the car as a daily driver if you drive the car fairly sane, and dont push it too hard. i appreicate the help.

7_rocket

iTrader: (6)

https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...threadid=27094

Rufio

ya i read that...so basically if you upgrade all those parts, make sure ur oil is good, and watch the temps it should be ok? if its that easy how come almost everyone has problems

7_rocket

iTrader: (6)

Its a FD.. nuff said

SayNoToPistons

your another teenage kid looking for a car?

OKRX-7

Common Sense

Not so much unreliable, but no room for error. You have to have a love for your car and one of the follow things:

1. A love for working on your car, or
2. A love for spending alot of cash on your car.

If you don't have these you are looking at the wrong car.

Rufio

teenage kid..yes..just looking for a car...no...i mean yes its easy to critisize me cuz you know so much more than me...but there was a time you were in my postition correct? if i was "just looking for a car" why would i plan on spending thousands of dollars to keep it running. theres plenty other things i could spend my money on but choose to spend it on this because its what i have a passion for. enough with all that sappy stuff, you can have your opinion what im open to critisism so say what you feel you must get out, its not gunna stop me from doing what i love, and tryin to learn as much as i can.

Rufio

thats a good point. i do love working on cars and iv saved up for years and years just for this. and i know i will respect it and treat it like gold because im dealing with something a little more than a civic or something of that sort

sonix7

Oh ****!! Here we go again.

sonix7

You have no idea. Hit the FAQ section. Like third sticky from the top of the 3rd Generation section. Please do some homework, I know teenagers don't like homework, but please do some before you start getting flamed for redundant questions that have been addressed 1,000,000,000,000 times. at that point maybe we can be of some help. thanx. I got you guys this time. I am the watchdog, now. Ha ha.

sonix7

See I was even nice about it, damn I need my replacement solenoids to arrive so I can go back to more important things.

Rufio

because i said i like working on cars means i have no idea? iv read plenty of faq and its helped me alot...the thread was made so i could figure out what would help me the most to prevent break downs. iv spent hours reading every different thing about 7s i could. its helped alot but maybe ill just figure it out when i do it first hand. im going into this knowing where the problems are and what to watch out for. i mean i apologize for asking the same question iv probally heard a million times..but i think the main question im tryin to get at is is it at all possible to have an rx7 as a DD if its well taken care of and such. sorry for the trouble

afgmoto1978

iTrader: (6)

My FD is a DD, but it does require regular maintanence, I usually spend a full day every week working on something, but then again I usually race the FD in one form of motorsports every other weekend. Most of your problems with reliability crop up when you modify your FD to a point where your over stressing the drivetrain. You have to realize cars are designed with a safety factor, when you modify your car to get more out of it, your safety factor drops significantly. I spend around 8K a year on maintance and wear items, track days are hard on stuff.

Good luck,

Test Engineer

sonix7

Its cool, its just a question that is based on the situation, its all speculation. I know its scary trying to buy one of these rides, I was spooked when I bought mine. I say if you are pinching pennies, its too much. Everything is true, YOU HAVE TO EXPECT DOWNTIME WITH THESE CARS FOR REPAIRS AND MAINTENANCE, IT IS EXPENSIVE, YOU HAVE TO DO IT RIGHT OR ELSE YOU WILL PAY, AS RELIABLE AS ANY 12 YEAR, DISCONTINUED, EXOTIC, HIGH PRICED, SUPERCARS OUT THERE. Its all relative. That's all there is to say without everyone of us giving up our personal stories that may be nothing like your situation. Make sense.

sonix7

Search the threads and read what people have experienced, go from there, you can bet you will deal with many, not all, the problems that most of us have had. I thought I wasn't going to deal with many of these things, guess what? Its the way the ball bounces. Be prepared and it will be much easier.

Rufio

alright see this is what i mean. most of the stuff iv read says liek just upgrade stuff and it will make it more reliable and stuff. but you say you do regular maintenence on it. i just want to know like what is it thats breaking that u have to fix. if you dont feel like explaining, feel free to link me somewhere. i really appriecte the help the patience

sonix7

he tracks his car, how can that give you perspective on what you are inquiring about? I bought mine as mint condition as you can find, very occasionally driven, 39,000 original miles, tried to keep it stock, except reliability mods, bone stock(upgraded radiator) got home and bought a DP, turbo timer, that's it at first. Then it was AST, then thats when all hell broke loose. Cooling Fan melted tilted and seized, blew relays and almost overheated my ****. Then I replaced radiator hoses, ast, coolant hoses, after that coolant leak, found bad water pump, replaced H2O pump and gaskets, broke some vacuum hoses while doing H2o pump, brittle and baked as ****, now I needed vacuum hose job, fun! I forgot to mention while I was down there, I found my oil pan seeping and motor mount leaking, I decide to install a temp gauge and boost gauge (Defi D Gauge), thermoswitch. At this point I am still doing reliability mods. I have replaced oil pan, resealed it, replaced motor mounts, replaced AST, cooling fans, fan relays, every damn hose on the car, miata thermoswitch, full hose job, custom intake, installed boost and temp gauges, changed every fluid, put neo synthetic in the tranny and diff. Mobil 1 Synthetic for oil. Battery relocation, my stock one went out. Red Top Ultima relocated. I did all this in a year and a half of owning one of the nicest conditioned FD's in the united states at the time, see what happens, and I didn't even mention my custom stuff, wheels/tires, springs, seats, steering wheel, stereo, and interior. Hope that helps, took me a while to type it.

Rufio

yea that does help alot thank you. i tells me some of the things i should expect. would u reccomend doin reliability mods asap or doing it slowly?

RX 4 Speed

You must be a 40 year old teenager. Years and years? What are you, 15? 16? that equates to maybe 2 or 3 years of saving an allowance? omg... and you want an FD? oh man...

You better believe it... comparing a 7 to a civic is blasphemy...

Rufio

iv been saving for the past 4 years, had a job as a manager for the past 3 years working 7 days a week. i have plenty of money saved up

Mr. international

hey bro good luck! I've had mine about a year now, and well ive spent about 6k on fixing S*IT, thats just old! Remember its a eleven-twelve year old car....expect to replace stuff ......

sonix7

Its the money, down time, patience issue. Not the car itself. I envy you for saving for four years, that will help!! If you know this is what you want, its your money, so find the best situation out there for you. Go for the best maintained FD, this will give you a good head start (means that at least it has not been ragged on), usually well maintained cars are happier cars. Lower mileage is good if never overheated and ****. You will still feel the wrath of the FD problems, but will be considerably better off. Yes reliability first, do it right, doesn't matter how long you take. This would be your best bet, also get some time behind a rear wheel car with some power, if you can. nothing can simulate and FD, but won't be such a transition, like going from a honda to FD. Oh my god they are different. That's about it.

sonix7

I have about $6000 in mine after paying $18,000 to buy it. That is saving a lot of money on good deals and me doing hours of labor. I mean I have easily logged over 100 hours on all the work I have done. Sometimes taking my time, would be different for an experienced rotary mechanic.

joeyz87

I use mine as a daily drvier, actually I deliver pizzas in fd. It's expensive cause she is a gas hog. 91 octane $3.00 a gallon is Ca. And change oil often, as soon as it turns dark.

POS7

1st time I heard about anyone doing this. Can't imagine trying to use the fd to deliver pizzas. At least customers will know when their pizza's coming. They could probably hear you 1/2 mile away