how much on average, do u guys spend on fixing your car per year, or every 2 years or whatever? i'm just curious because I don't want to be taking it to the shop like every month or anything. but i'm very close to buying an fd so yeah, and i want one real bad. i just need an estimation on how much maintenance costs

 

Alot depends on how many miles you buy the car with, how it's been treated, what's modded on the car(reliability mods?), etc.

My car has 110k on it, and I don't even want to think of how much I've spent between mods/maintence.

To be truthful if you're worried about maintance costs then I'm not to sure it's the car for you. You could get away with spending 1k on reliability mods and that's it for a year, or you could end up spending 5k the first year.

 

i must back up black99. if you are worried about maintance, this is not the car for you. although it really depends on the condition of the car to determine maintance, i gaurantee you will run into a large problem more than once good or not. the problems arent so bad (boost, vac, compression, ast, heat) if you are mechanicaly inclined to fix them, and if you have worked with rotories and sequental turbo systems before. but if not, the car will cost you lots of money taking it to a mechanic. if thats your case, think about also finding a decent rotory mechanic isnt that easy. if you can handle all that, then you will enjoy having one of the best sports cars of all time.

 

in just maintenance, i would guess i spent about $1000 the first year and about $600 the second. This does not include any mod upgrades.
I've got it all in a book at home, but, the first year I spent $600 on tires, $100 on a maintenance book - then i'm guessing $300, mainly just for oil, plugs, plug wires.
The second year, I spent, in addition to the oil,plugs - $100 on a radiator (parts trader, mine started leaking) and $100 on a tow truck (coolant hose busted on a sunday drive).

i work on the car myself, and have put about 35,000 miles on it in 2 years.

Drive the car regularly, run it to at least 6000 rpms on a regular basis, and do the regular maintenance, and the car will not be a money pit (at least mechanically)

 

i'm assuming this is with a strong engine? mine has 99k miles and i try not to take it pass 4k until i save enough money for a rebuild. this is better?

 

It's ideal to keep the engine revs up on a regular basis. The idea is that if you lug the car around, you promote the buildup of carbon deposits.

Carbon deposits are probably more troublesome to rotaries, due to the fact that rotaries have little apex seals that ride on 'leaf' springs to maintain a seal from one rotor face to another. As carbon builds up, these seals/springs may begin to stick open - resulting in low/lost compression, and possibly a rebuild.

 

that is not a good idea...I'd redline it atleast once a day. You don't want carbon build up...rotary engine is meant to be reved.

 

i don't "lug" it around. i drive it normal. it's just i never go wot and shift well before 6k. but from what you guys are saying i should drive it harder despite it not being a "strong" engine...just seems so counter intuitive for an old engine...i guess it's just a balancing act?

 

The idea not to WOT all the time probably comes from the world of pistons, where they have to worry about valve float, pistons that change directions, and everything else that, at the limit, puts unnatural stress on the components. A rotory just has rotors that naturally likes to spin, and spin, and.... Oversimplification of course, but I guess that's the general idea.

Daniel

 

oh, and assuming your car is properly tuned, hehe. Then, WOT all the time is probably not a good idea...

 

my engine has about 65K miles on it.
yeah, shift at 7000 rpms, drive it at WOT, etc...
the biggest killer of any high performance car is "baby-ing" it -

 

ok, now i have an excuse to drive my fd

 

I just picked up my FD a few weaks ago. I knew it wouldn't be cheap going into it. Just like my cobra, once you mod it, it's a domino effectb(just more intensive).

I've already spent about $1,500 getting all the fliuds changed, an intake, a downpipe, and AST, a boost gauge, and a few other things. Now, when it's cooler out my boost is going to high which means I need to spend a wad of cash on additional mods (boost controller, ecu, fuel pump, smic).

It seems like you could spend $5,000 to get this car running sweet and still need another $5,000 for the "there goes the engine and/or turbos" fund...

it may be cheaper to lease a 911 turbo for $1200/mo.