in the US the FD has a bad reputation for being unreliable. curious what its reputation in Japan is. do people make fun of it? how it's engine goes kaboom every 60-80k miles?

 

well rx7's have their own magazines........... so im sure its very well loved over there......... and it outlasted the production of the supra.......

 

IMHO the reputation that the FD recieved here in the united states was caused by a lack of trained mechanics.
What was the end result of taking a FD to a dealer, replacing an engine because they just didnt know a damn thing about them. If we would of had qualified mechs the small problems like the ast and cooling sys would have been spotted and fixed, then reported to mazda and updated in later editions of the FD like what happened in japan.

 

on a side note i just realized that im no longer an exaust leak@! YA

 

yea, i realize the bad rep the fd has in the states is partially due to the dealers....i just want to know from people who've been to japan or live in japan what the reputation over there is.

 

also note that in japan, they do have strict emissions in which case you have people replacing their motors at a good 40,000km anyway.


Danny

 

We have less strict emissions than in the states. This is the reason why it is harder for us to import cars from Japan into the United States. The downpipe is a good example. We don't have a pre-catalytic converter in our downpipe...just a downpipe.

PLEASE do not post BS...know what you're talking about before speaking.

 

yup...we all know asian countries don't care about pollution...you guys hear about that cloud of pollution that's floating over pakistan

 

i hate america...******* we never get good cars anymore...lol ******* mazda why cant they jus import the stupid car......:*(

 

LOL...

 

What's the avg. life expectancy of a 13BREW in Japan? We all know what people think here, but I'm wondering if the 3rd gens over there pop engines like we do...

Another thing how common are FDs in Okinawa? Just curious...

 

They last about 2 days to 6 months for racers... they last about 50,000-70,000(if you drive like a girl) miles stock and unmodifed from mazda... They are same engine in a different country doing the same thing...

 

Ah... I thought the average driver(people who drive like a girl as you put it) would get more milage out of their engines. One would think Mazda actually trains their mechanics in Japan...

I guess truth is stranger than fiction.

 

Depends on who overhauls your engine, what turbo you have kicking the crap out of your engine IE T-88, T-51, etc....
What port job you had done, seals etc..

Usually the life is what jesse said about 50,000-70,000.. I would say closer to 50,000 though, In my opinion doesnt matter how you drive, but if you have a good tune and take care of it you can drag every weekend and do curcuit and it will last a while.. Life is different on them all, as to the effect I said above overhaul and all that..

The reputation is its a smooth looking car. FAST always know as a different engine (rotary). Usually race in different races and rounds but other then that I think is cool actuall HOT in the summer haha

Jason
www.jt-imports.com

 

Thanks for the clarification.

 

The same problems that happen in the states happen over here in Japan too. But people know how to work on them, and they show there RX7 the attention that is needed. Speed and good looks come at a price, you just have to be willing to learn about your car, and work on it yourself were ever you are.

 

It is the same over here... Maybe a bit better, there are more mechanics that know what they are doing "per sqare foot" but the rotary is the rotary over here too. One thing for sure... if you are not needlessly rich or dont know how to do the work yourself you should leave it alone over here too.

 

How you take care of your car is often more important than how you drive it... but the 50-70,000 miles I estimated is on the bone stock unmoded engines... I have NEVER see a car tuned over 350hp that lasted anywhere near 50,000. The older 12a's had a recomended time change of the apex seals every 40,000 "kilometers". The Fd is far better than that but if you leave your car bone stock, take care of it really well, "drive conservatively" you will still be lucky if you compression is above 7 after 70,000 miles. They dont just have a reputaion of being unrelighable. They just are. It is the bad that comes with the good.

 

As far a reliability issues on a performance car making power.. It doesn't matter if it's a full tunned 2JZ, B16A, or a 13B it's not going to last a long long time.. If you drive it a lot and you use the power it's not going to last forever, hell it'll will probably only last a year regardless of what you stick inside of it... The reason the 13B has a bad reputation for the Apex seal's is because it's damn near one of the only parts that can break in the engine.. Piston engine can break timming belts, drop valvesm, blow head gaskets all kinds of ****... The only diffrence is we have to pull our engine to fix it when they can usually just pull the head or fix the engine in the car...

 

It is always expensive to go fast!

 

Hi Jesse, have you seen my little boy Chris?

 

well said people.

 

wow, dragged up from the depths just for the kudos?? :p

I'll add 2c while it's up.

50,000-70,000miles is a fair estimate, the rotary magazines here call 'rebuild time' about the 100k km mark (which is what? around 60k miles?). Interestingly, this is also the rule of thumb in the australian rotary world. The type v, and vi cars probably (?) do a little better - if the 'improved apex seal lubrication' helps (I'm assuming it does).

'Common FD problems' are similar, though a few I've read on here I've never seen in any japanese data. I have a great magazine that listed common issues, just can't find where I put it... IIRC, the list included hose, rats nest, solenoids, hatch support, master cylinder, anti-roll bar bracket... (that's about as far as my memory goes - but it was a much longer list than that)

Japan certainly (and obviously) does have the best rotary tuners in the world, and the best % per square mile :p However, that doesn't mean that everyone (myself included) can get to amemiya, ks, panspeed or any of the other names you might care to mention. In my case, I take my car to a honda dealership (the local mazda crew are small and crap, and there are no local performance specialists) - I'm sure they don't like working on the rotor, but they have one very, very good resource - mazda japan is only a phone call away.

 

does that rule of thumb apply if someone is using stronger apex seal? i know some ppl will say that depends on your driving. However, generaly speaking will an upgraded apex seal such as ceramic apex seal help in achieveing higher mileage before rebuilding again?

 

Everyone needs to realize that all of this is about turbo rotaries by the way... N/A rotaries will run damn near forever by comparison...

Apex seals only really matter on how much boost/RPM's/Power your trying to make and help keep the engine together for performance applications. Ie. A harder Apex seal that will last longer will just chew up the rotor housing faster.

A large % of engines that hit the Dead zone described above die from loosing the O-ring's that separate the water jackets from the combustion area and start eating water. The rest of them are from apex seals that have worn down to the point that they will try to tip over in the tip of the rotor and then cause a catastrophic chain reaction of destruction. Engines that die from loosing/very weak compression usually are ones where the apex seal has been worn down considerably, the apex seal springs have eroded the tips and the corner seal spring have lost their springiness due to heat/friction and time.