BoostFrenzy

Looking at getting a 1994 RX-7 touring model, 58k miles, owner believes clutch has went bad (began slipping soon to failure and requiring a lot of "milking" to get it to engage), as it sits no amount of careful slipping will make it engage and car runs fine just doesn't go anywhere

I can replace the clutch and get it rolling again but wanted to know what I should be looking for when inspecting this car, i've never owned a rotary car and just need a basic primer on "gotchas"

BigBoosting

The main thing you need to do is check the compression.

rynberg

Welcome to the club!

Ok, now that you've been welcomed, don't act like a dumb newbie. Act like a smart newbie and read the newbie sticky and use the search function. Guess what? We get at least a thread a day about this topic. Please don't add to the clutter.

Thanks and good luck.

BoostFrenzy

Yeah i'm currently reading thorugh the FAQ and lookin around at current threads, just was looking for a quick "hey newb this is the issue" and "do this when you go check it out"

moehler

iTrader: (12)

I wouldn't buy a car that you can't drive. If you really want this car (the newbe stickies might change your mind ) tell the owner to put a clutch in it and if it is fine after that you'd pay the difference.

I seems strange to me that someone would try to sell a car broken, when $300 - $500 could fix the issue and secure a sale.

BoostFrenzy

no, the car is going for a VERY good price and he doesn't have the money/time/knowledge to fix it himself or pay a shop, to be honest a lot of my desire to own this car lies behind doing a LS1 conversion later down the road however i'd like to run it stock as a daily for awhile until i can accumulate all the parts needed to do that

BoostFrenzy

so check the compression and what else?

boostincoyote

honestly that doesnt seem like a good deal but here is a brief check list that u should do when buying a FD. there was a fuel line recall so check the fuel lines under the intake manifold. also a coolant system recall so check the upper radiator hose and all water hoses located above the engine. check for hesitation when the secondary turbo comes on at 4500k rpm. check if the car runs fine under light acceleration...that deal seems a little funny good luck

adam c

iTrader: (2)

Since you don't know the price, how can you say that?? Maybe the guy only wants $5K, and the car is pristine?? 58k is pretty low mileage.

Jesuscookies

iTrader: (1)

If it's a great deal, and you are planning on doing an LS1 conversion, then who cares about the condition of the drivetrain?

seafordguy

that is NOT Low mileage for one of these cars. Read around and you will find that the majority of 3rd generation RX-7's have had engine replacements between 60 and 80K miles. there are plenty that have gone somewhat further. there are a FEW that have gone MUCH further. There are plenty that have gone before 60K. Engine replacements are not cheap, and should be considered. That being said these are not the best cars to have as daily drivers. You need to see what kind of maintenance has been done on the car and an oil change every 5K miles is NOT enough. Proper warm up, proper cool down, not driven like it was stolen. I can tell you this - most of the 94's received a more "appropriate" clutch and if this guy has torn that thing up I have a feeling he has driven it hard. I don't want to sound discouraging but of all the Japanese "super cars" of the 90's the RX7 is the trickiest to buy. Read this site a LOT before you make any decisions on that car. Good luck.......

adam c

iTrader: (2)

Bullshit!!

Read around and you will find that most of these cars have 80-100K on them, or more. While it is true that many have had engines replaced, that has nothing to do with the number of miles on the car. An 11 year old car with 58K is about 5K per year, and therefore has not been a daily driver for any significant length of time.

Montego

iTrader: (1)

mine died at 108K. fully stock too! precat and AST. MY service contract people were so looking out to get out of my contract that if I even thought about upgrading the AST it would void it. Hence my car stayed stock.


I believe that one of the main culprits of dead engines at 60-80k was modding.

seafordguy

No that is not much mileage per annum, however 58K on one of these cars is getting to the point where you possible could see some significant expenditures sooner rather than later.

moconnor

iTrader: (14)

The evidence would suggest that this belief is incorrect. Lots of stock well taken care of cars have died in the this range (or well before) it. An original-engine 100k mile car is what a statistician would refer to as an outlier. Drawing conclusions from outliers is not sensible.

Montego

iTrader: (1)

I would say the majority of members here in the forum are modded. Whether it be DP or a catback, intake whatever. Interestingly enough 60-80k range came from here.

All of the FD owners I have ever met or seen on the road had at least one modification.

https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...rebuild+milage

^^There are a few people on this thread that fall in in the 60-80K range but there are also quite a few that have gone past 90K on original motor. SO just by that thread alone saying that 60-80K is average life span is false and disproves that I fall under the outlier category

moconnor

iTrader: (14)

That thread was asking for outliers fercryingoutloud.

Are you seriously making the claim that the average lifespan of an FD motor is 100k? I spent a year looking for an FD before buying mine. Of the dozens I looked at or whose owners I spoke with, I found one above 80k with its original engine. Many of those cars were stock. (You might get the impression from this group that everybody mods their FD, but many FDs are owned by 40-year-old+ guys who would not know the difference between a downpipe and a didgeridoo.) My guess is that 5% of FDs or less make it above 80k miles with original seals.

BoostFrenzy

look, the price is 5000$, the guy needs some money very badly and the car hasn't drove since last year, he purchased it from an elderly couple that bought it new down in texas when he lived there and paid cash, since then he been down on his luck financially and doesnt' have the expierence/resources to repair it, needs the 5k from me to fund his move back from michigan to texas, i know the guy very well and he isn't trying to snowball anyone

it's stock, never been abused per his words which i believe because he's more pissed about selling it than anything, im a bit surprised the clutch is out but it could just be a mechanical defect or failed master/clutch cylinder, i haven't inspected it yet either way i want to drive it stock until the funds are accumulated for a LS1 swap and i can deal with a 400$ clutch and a case of beer + my time to get it on the road again, which is why i kind of wanted a primer for what to look for, i know hondas subarus and audis, rotary rx7s are foreign as hell to me

moconnor

iTrader: (14)

Do a compression test. If compression is ok, $5k is a screaming deal. If compression is not ok, $5k is not necessarily a bad deal - FDs with blown motors usually go for $8k or so.

adam c

iTrader: (2)

What kind of condition are the body, paint, and interior in? Has it been garaged? If the body and interior are in good condition, buy it. It is a bargain.

dgeesaman

iTrader: (7)

Download the Factory Service Manual (was at www.iluvmyrx7.com assuming the site is up) and see. You'll find very good notes at www.scuderiaciriani.com/rx7 and some with pics at www.davidgeesaman.com.

In a nutshell, the tranny of the FD is like any other car, except that it uses the less common pull clutch arrangement. I didn't find it a difficult setup to work on.

PS: $5k is probably a very low price. If it has an excellent interior/exterior, decent engine and only the clutch or clutch hydrualics need work, you'll come out 8K ahead.

Dave

Montego

iTrader: (1)

I made this little chart for you taken from Adam's thread "How many miles on your FD"

https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...6&page=1&pp=15

out 64 cars here are my results. Keep in mind if no performance mods were listed they go into the unmodded category. And yes a DP is mod, even though it is done for reliability it can create a spike or up the boost so therefore it also questionable.

Now M= Modded, S= Stock

Unknown milage at which engine(s) blew and coincidentaly are multiple offenders

60k M (Brike 2 engines by 60k and he is heavily modded)
70K M (Fd3Boost 3 engines by 70k and he is also heavily modded)
100k M (x605p4479 3 engines same scenario as being heavily modded)
140K M (RESuzuki 3 engines same scenario as being heavily modded) M (I forgot this who this person is but he is also modified)

All 5 of these people have blown multiple motors but they are all modded pretty well.

People who have are still on an original motor

10k S S S
20k S S
30k S S S S
40k S S S
50k M S S M S S S S S
60k S
70k S S S M
80k
90k M M
100k
110K
120K
130K
140K M
150K
160K
170K
180K
190K L as in a lie

30 people in this category in which 6 of them are modded. Oddly enough most of them are stock...One at 190K who is obviously not being thruthful

Milage at which original motor died

10k M M(Jimlab)
20k
30k
40k S M
50k M M S
60k S M
70k M M S M S
80k M S M
90k M M S M
100k M S S
110K S S S S
120K
130K
140K S

@108koutliersmyass...

I am assuming that Jim Labreck was modded at time of death only because of his reputation. An for reinhart I found this:


29 people in this category. 14 were modded 15 were stock, and 14 died before 80K and 15 died past 80K

Interstentingly enough, 14 blew before 80k (60 - 80K remember?) and only five of those were stock! So 9 were modded coincidence...

8 cars died past 100k and only one of them was modded... Do I need to say more?




Given this are you still going to say that the average life span of a stock FD is 60- 80k? and that "only 5% of FDs or less make it above 80k miles with original seals" Or do you take it back



OH yeah sorry for the thread hightjack

moconnor

iTrader: (14)

The typical failure range for an FD motor is 60-80k, which this graph pretty much nails. I never claimed that this referred to stock cars only, though I think it does (see below).

You have to be very careful drawing conclusions from the deeply unrepresentative, tiny, self reported, and potentially biased (if your engine lasted 100k+ miles you are going to be damn sure to post to that thread) samples of FD owners in that posting. People on rx7club.com are not typical FD owners. From my search using mostly Autotrader and Craigslist (which will give a much larger and unbiased sample) I discovered that most FD owners know nothing about their cars. Many FDs still had their original plastic ASTs, for example, and few owners had heard of reliability mods. The guy I bought my car from was one of these guys - the previous owner has installed an AST and boost gauge, but the gauge was not working and he had not bothered to fix it in the seven years he owned it. Most just brought their car to a Mazda dealer when something went wrong. Few of these cars reach 100k miles and, in fact, everything-ran-fine-until-the-engine-died-at-60k-miles stories were typical in my search from these types of owners. Another typical type of owner was a young kid who could not afford to maintain their FD, drove the **** out of it, and then had to sell at 60-70k when the engine blew.

80k+ FDs with their original engines were not the norm (and were easily under 5% of the total). Spend some time looking on Autotrader (I did for a year) and see what percentage of cars there have their original engines after 80k miles. Autotrader will give you a much larger and more representative sample of FDs out there.

Montego

iTrader: (1)

Count the number of engine that have failed at 60 - 80K VS 80 +. 9 engines died in the 60 - 80K range. while 20 engines died after 80k or are still runing past 80k. So how do you still figure that the data backs up your point?


Tell you what go to Craig list and autotrader and compile a list. Because I haven't seen anything that that proves your point other than what you saw. Which is not what I have seen nor experienced.