'94 RX-7, manual transmission, ~80,000 miles, never raced or driven hard, only 'spirited' driving. I'm looking at $800-$1200 in repairs to the transmission (these are Mazda dealer prices) to fix some noise and a problem with it popping out of 4th when I downshift into 4th from 5th gear. My question is this: this car is 10 years old. I'm about to put a new engine in it and I'm concerned with the age of the transmission. Would it make more sense to spend the extra money to put a whole new transmission in it? I don't recall the exact cost, but I seem to recall people mentioning around $2300 for a new tranny. Is that accurate?

 

try to find a low-mileage used tranny.

 

Here try these...I personally picked up a J-spec last year off Ebay which saved me $900 vs. a rebuild.


http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...spagename=WDVW

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...tem=2478477217

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...spagename=WDVW

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...spagename=WDVW

BTW: J-Spec trannys are the same thing except you might luck out and get a better 5th ratio...

 

yeah but then your revs will be at like 3500 on the highway lol

Personally the 5th gear ratio is too much already and I wish I had a 6th gear. Cruising at 80mph 3k rpms for 3 hours in a row is one of the downsides to daily driving the fd

 

Your right about fuel economy getting worse in 5th...but it's nice when you don't need to downshift at times.

Btw, it's closer to 3700 at 80mph...