Tyblat

Let me start off by saying my first real car as a teenager was my 87 S4 GXL back in 2006 ish. Since then i've had two FD's among a few other cars, and I now have a Series I Rx8. Occasionally I'd comb through craigslist, looking to see if any potential FC's popped up that i'd be interested in, as to be pretty honest, I missed mine pretty bad.


I ended up finding a Series 5 GTU for sale on craigslist, asking price of 1800. I live in central florida, and it was located about an hour and a half away. My girlfriend and I look at the ad, decide its worth going to see, so we call the owner up and head out.

We get there, and its pretty obvious the car has been sitting. I start it up and it smokes like a chimney, pretty obvious right away from the smell and color its oil seals. I look at everything else in the meantime while its running, For a twenty five year old car, everything is in pretty decent shape. Body is decent, interior is decent, Car still has A/C and PS, no emissions delete, about as stock as you can get, save two ebay fartcans and a straight pipe. (yuck on the fartcans, just..so much loud..and bad loud )

Car warms up just to where it should on the gauge, oil pressure looks good also. I shut the car off, give it some time, and it fires back up perfectly. We get in, I start to pull out to test drive it, bam, CEL comes on, car won't respond to any throttle over 20%.

At this point I havent really dealt with a ton of Series 5's before, so I put off buying it on the spot, and head back to orlando to do my research. In the meantime we look at one other FC, that the owner said "needs some work" and was about as much of a junkyard car as I could see. (interior half gutted/broken, clutch safety switch disabled, oil pressure/water temp disabled, S4 tail lights on the S5 car, improperly wired fan, front bumper hanging off, non power door in a power chassis...it was a mess)

Anyway, fast forward to about a week later, and I call the guy back, we head back to get the GTU, this time me being armed with alittle more research on S5's. I pull the codes, and i get 13, 17, 27, and 37. So, OMP. Using this as a bargaining chip, we end up getting it for 1450.

I call AAA, have the car towed back to my house, and the build begins.

Tyblat

Had the car for about two weeks now, In the meantime I've mostly been messing with some small things here and there, Oil change with 10W 30 with some STP oil treatment mixed in to help cut back on the smoking (those oil seals are FRIED, will post a video later.)

Oil that came out of it was about as black as it could get, I don't get why people suspect Rx7's to poor maintenance =( (then again, my eight was the same way when I bought it back in 2014.)

One night a few days ago, i started her up to move her from the street to the driveway, and took a short ride around the block just to get the fluids circulating. I noticed the volts drop and heard a bit of an unpleasant noise. I get her parked, and check under the hood, My Alt belt decided it had reached the end of its run.

The following day we went to Autozone to pickup replacement belts, and one of the guys there through casual conversation mentioned he knew of a You Pull It yard nearby that had a Series 5 FC. Mental note accepted!

Next day, there I am wrenching away, loosening the tensioners on the belts (tip for first timers: to loosen the belts on the PS and AC, you actually have to loosen the tensioner pulleys themselves. smaller pulleys on the PS bracket, take a look and you will know what I mean)

As I get to the airpump bracket bolt, the head just gives up. Breaks clean off. Bummer. I manage to take it to a machine shop on the way to that You Pull It Yard and drop it off to have the stuck bolt extracted.

We get to the junkyard, and unfortunately the Autozone employee was misinformed, its was a S4, not an S5. Boo.. (not that I dislike S4's, I just needed some very specific S5 parts.)

Still though, we managed to grab some useful things. Picked up all in all the Manual Pedal assembly for the 5 speed swap with switches, clutch hard line, and the GXL/TurboII front calipers =D. Plus some minor interior clips. Final bill was just over fifty dollars for everything!

Whoever owned the car before we did, did some poor work to it. I know FC's have problematic outside door handles, but who puts a door handle in and leaves one of the inside nuts off? Thanks to the junkyard car and some loctite, the door handle no longer falls off each time we go to open it.

Picked up the airpump from the machine shop, twenty dollars to have it drilled out, but I didnt have immediate access to a replacement airpump, so I made do. To fill in the gap of the missing bushing that fell out, and the lack of tapped threads thanks to the stuck bolt, we went to the local ACE Hardware, where i picked up a stud, a nut, and some washers to fill the gap. Pics coming when I reinstall the Airpump.

As of now the car is just waiting on the S5 OMP, Pressure Sensor, and O2 sensor (thanks to Kevin/Rotary Resurrection for the first two, Rockauto for the latter.) Before I put the airpump back on and putting her entirely back together. Pics in the meantime!








Not a huge fan of the rims, but they serve their intended purpose for now.





Minus the fartcans, the body is in overall good shape, aside from the sun damage, and a touch of surface rust on the sunroof and front.











Failmatic, but for 1450, we couldn't beat it. Already souring parts for the five speed swap.





107k, not bad.





Factory radio! (ashtray has since been replaced.)

Tyblat

Here is the manual pedal assembly I pulled in its entirety out of the donor car at the salvage yard. To be completely honest, wow, what a pain. Although the 80+ degree Florida heat and being stuck under the dashboard with broken glass might have played a small part as well





Entire MT pedal assembly.<br/>


I was originally going to follow Rotary Resurrections guide to swapping in the pedals, but his specifies removing the entire assembly from a donor car (like I did) and then removing the A/T assembly out of your car, then swapping the entire assembly from the manual car in. I cannot even begin to imagine how much of a crazy pain that would be, trying to maneuver the assembly into the car and avoiding the wiring harness, the steering column, etc. ( I learned this firsthand pulling the assembly out of the donor car.)

The only issue I am concerned about, however, is the brackets for the clutch return spring and the Neutral safety switch. I haven't climbed under the dash of the GTU yet to see, but I'm assuming they aren't there...Unless mazda for some reason has a near identical pedal assembly from M/T to A/T, with the only difference being the longer bolt.




Nut on the far left end of the pedal assembly, on the clutch pedal. This is what holds the bolt that the pedals rest on. Clutch return spring is visible on the right.





Bolt in the middle





Head of the bolt on the opposite end of the assembly from the nut.


Here are more closeups of the parts I'm wondering about being present on the A/T assembly themselves.





Bracket holding the clutch return spring





Bracket holding the switches on


On other news, finally decided to bring in the calipers I snagged. (just a heads up, the donor car was an 88 GXL)





Four piston calipers, not a bad find, and at only fifteen dollars for the pair. Hardline on the drivers side twisted itself off during removal though, will have to call Mazdatrix and order a replacement this week.

Calipers were definitely sitting on the car for awhile, but the boots all appear to be in good shape, and thankfully none of the bolts rounded themselves off when I removed them. I'm taking a trip to advance today to pick up some brake parts cleaner, some fine grit sand paper, and some caliper paint to at least bring some life back into them. Pictures to follow on completion.

clokker

iTrader: (2)

To do the pedals, just remove the dash.
You'll end up doing it eventually, might as well be now.

It ain't that hard.

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

+1, if you need to do more than one thing under the dash, just pull it. it comes out as an assembly, so its not too hard.

i did the pedal box swap once, and the dash needs to be loosened and lifted up to do it.

Tyblat

Took a look under the GTU today, it looks like the bolt should be able to come out without much issue, Wont know until I do it though. Better than pulling the entire assembly out and dropping the column though.


OMP, pressure sensor, and O2 sensor should be here by tomorrow, or Wednesday by the latest.

On other news, calipers have been sanded down a bit with 800 grit, and first coat of paint is still curing. The calipers themselves look pretty good, no torn boots, and the bleeder screws look brand new, maybe they have been rebuilt at some point.

Calipers thus far:

Tyblat

Here's a brief vid that was shot a few days ago of the car on a cold start. I had let it sit for about two days without being started at this point. Anyone have any ideas as to how bad the seals are gone?

lduley

iTrader: (1)

I'd say thats more coolant seals than oil seals the way it smoked for awhile than quit, usually oil seals will just continue to smoke. Let it sit for a couple days, roll it over by hand a couple times, than look at the plugs

either way, the motor probably needs new soft seals either way

Tyblat

It smokes fairly steadily when idling, especially if I rev the motor up high and let off. Distinct smell of oil, I don't smell anything sweet reminiscent of coolant.

Tyblat

Just finished replacing the OMP, as well as the pressure sensor, as they came earlier than expected in the mail!

Removal of the OMP wasn't hard, A basic guide for any of you guys wanting to know how off the top of my head is as follows:

Disconnect Neg battery terminal

Remove intake plumbing (two phillips head screws to loosen the two clamps, one at the intake manifold, one at the maf)

Remove airpump & bracket (dont lose the bushings when taking the pump off)

this should clear up most of the things getting in your way there are three bolts holding the omp onto the engine, two short bolts, and one long one (don't confuse where they go, but if you look at the omp once its been removed, the thickness of where the bolts thread through the omp body will pretty much let you know where they fit)

Finally there are the four bolts holding the omp lines onto the omp itself. Be VERY CAREFUL with these lines, both taking them ON AND OFF. they can be VERY brittle due to age/heat. If you break one, your job just got considerably more time consuming and more expensive, as they will have to be replaced, and that involves the manifold coming off.

Each of those bolts holding the lines on have washers, they might be stuck to the lines themselves. (in my case, 3/4 of them were all stuck on the lines, only one came off with the bolt.) There is also a metal gasket. Take note when putting the new OMP back on, this gasket, if not aligned properly WILL NOT LET THE OMP BOLTS FOR THE LINES THREAD IN.

After the OMP was put on, I connected the two white plugs (one three pin and one six pin) and then swapped out the boost sensor to get rid of my remaining code.

Fired her up, double checked for leaks/any missing tools, let it warm up, and the CEL is gone! Drove her around the block and to the gas station, was quite nice not having the car cut fuel/spark due to limp mode

Next in line is putting that airpump back on tomorrow, and hoping the replacement setup I am using in place of that stuck bolt holds up.





Took the car to the gas station, Runs and drives fine for the most part! (hood being up was just to verify there were no fluid leaks, etc.)

sloFC3S

Congrats on the car man! Good to see another Florida rotary owner! I hope to have my car running sometime this year lol!

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

oh actually one thought on the oil smoke, there is a kickdown diaphragm on the transmission, and when that goes bad, the engine can suck up ATF, which = smoke

so you might want to look at that. its a round gold thing with a vacuum line on the side of the tranz

Tyblat

I've never dealt with an automatic Rx7 before, haha. How might I go about finding this, and what would you recommend doing to test it to see if it works?

Tyblat

Appreciate it! I havent owned an rx7 since 2009, it had been far too long. I love my Rx8, but its just not the same haha.

On other news!

Car has been running quite well since I replaced the OMP, minus a few small problems that I still have to address.

Today has been a crazy day for the car and myself, well, more like a crazy week!

One being the oxygen sensor, It was throwing a code for that originally, so I went to advance auto parts to get a socket to remove the old and install the new once my O2 sensor came in the mail (which, for the books, a direct fit, direct plug in O2 sensor from rock auto ran me twenty dollars and change I want to say. Rockauto again came out on top.)

After soaking it in PB blaster for a few days at a time before I tried the removal I was met with no success. It wouldn't budge. no dice. I ended up taking it to a local tires plus just to see if they would have better luck with a breaker bar or impact gun, and from the looks of it, the thing is cross threaded in there. Rather than risk taking it out and not being able to install the new one, I've put this one on hold for now until I can source a new manifold if I have to.

Next stop took me to a local Tuffy auto care center to get her up on the lift so I could get a look at the underside. I've taken my Rx8 there to have a stud replaced on the exhaust, and the people there were rotary friendly, so they've always helped me out for small stuff like this.

The car had been sitting for so long at one point before I bought it, mid wasps had made their dwelling near the fuel lines at one point.


One of the mechanics there has a first gen that he somehow managed to source a Jspec 12a turbo motor for. No idea how, I haven't seen a single one of those engines for sale in the 10 years i've been into rotaries.








12a Turbo, no idea how the guy managed to find this.





The FC about to go up on the lift at the shop...I thought this photo was appropriate.

After getting a good look at the undercarriage, I headed off to Mazda to get the inspection done for the seatbelt recall. For anyone considering going to the dealer for this read below. Most of this will probably be information you already know, but some might not.

This recall is warrantied for the lifetime of the vehicle. It doesn't matter how old the car is, or how many times the recall has been performed in the past. The dealer will most likely try and stop you in your tracks by saying the recall is closed (meaning, already been done.) Don't take no for an answer at this point. It's still eligible. It helps to bring in a copy of the recall letter with you (it can be found floating around the internets, just do a quick google search.)

I get to the dealer. The Service lady, after looking at the FC like I had just stepped out of a foreign dimension, asks if she can help. At this point I can already see how this is going to play out in my head, which is them giving me crap.

I mention I am here for a recall, which as expected gets a weird look. she takes the vin, and then tells me somewhat rudely "There aren't any recalls for this vehicle" I just reply calmly that there are, it is for the belts. She then shows me on her computer "there arent any recalls, they are closed." At this point I know I'm getting nowhere with her, so I just say to her " Can I just speak to a service manager? The recall is good for the life of the vehicle, regardless of if it's been done before, I have a letter to prove it."

About this time she rather hastily says "email it to me, here is my email address." So luckily I have it saved on my phone, as I anticipated this happening. I send the email with the attached copy of the recall letter then and there, she prints it off, and mutters she has to go check with her manager. At this point I just take the opportunity to finish my fast food I had bought about half an hour earlier, then light up a cigarette and wait.

About two minutes roll by, and here appears the service tech, this time with a complete change in attitude. She takes the keys, gives it to a tech to do the inspection, and he whisks it away back to the garage. About twenty minutes later, she re appears with the paperwork, and I sign, acknowledging they have ordered the parts for both driver AND passenger side belts, and am informed they will call me once the parts are in.

From this point, I hit the road and head home, realizing that an AC system with near zero refrigerant in it coupled with the high heat of the Florida sun with stop and go traffic makes for an experience I do not miss. (yes, I did in fact stop by Advance Auto Parts and pick up a can of R134a after I got back to my side of town, and charged the system. It is still somewhat low though, I need to add a few more ounces at the least.)

Tomorrow I'm planning on cleaning the BAC valve, putting the airpump back on, and doing a seafoam treatment. I have the manual transmission pedal assembly ready and waiting to go in the car, as well as the four piston calipers that just finished curing on their new coat of paint.


In the meantime, heres some random photos of my trip to Pettit racing this past Tuesday to pick up my eight:





Front of Pettit Racing, My rx8 on left.





1994 FD, 54,000 original miles, reminds me of my 93 =(





Just a photo of the two parked under the shade to escape the Florida heat

Tyblat

Haven't done an insane amount of work on the car recently, I've been messing with my Rx8 since I finally got it back from Pettit Racing, it seems to be doing well!

I did manage to pickup about 12oz of R134a and a can of ester oil, and charged the system on the FC with it. System cools...but its nowhere near cold. It is however considerably better than what it was before. The compressor would kick on before I charged it, but room temp air was the best it would get.

Thanks to that partial charge, its now cool, but far from desirable, Might head to Advance Auto Parts and pickup a small can and give it the rest it needs.

On other news, I decided to clean the BAC valve. From what I've read through searching, there isnt really much that definitely tells you what/how to do it. (Although Aaroncake did mention to pull it off and apply 12v inline with a resistor to keep it from burning the valve up.)

So anyway, I went to pull the BAC, loosened the clamps on the intake pipe, and just had somewhat of an idea pop into my head. On the S5 (not sure about S4, this might work for those as well, but again, not sure) There are two bungs on the bottom part of the intake pipe near the elbow that two hoses plumb onto.

One such hose goes right to the BAC. So I got the bright idea in my head to unplug that hose from the intake pipe itself, plug the hole in the intake pipe, leaving the hose open running right into the BAC valve (pictured.)





Hose running to the BAC valve. It was unplugged from the bottom of the intake pipe pictured. Leaving the other end still connected to the valve itself.

I thought to myself, if the bac valve is opened/closed by the signal from the ecu, why not let the ECU handle it for me while i do the cleaning? I started the car up (it may want to die on you at first, mine did) and worked the throttle by hand from the engine bay as I sprayed the carb cleaner into the hose. (car will smoke and shake a bit, think of it as a mild seafoam treatment.) I did this, let the carb cleaner stall the motor out at one point, let it sit, and then I put the plumbing back together, fired her up, and let it burn the rest of it off.

All in all fairly simple. I'm currently waiting on the motor to cool down before I reinstall my airpump & belt.

clokker

iTrader: (2)

Interesting approach to cleaning the BAC, what lead you to believe it was dirty to begin with?

Tyblat

Finally got around to installing the airpump back on the car. It was a bit tricky getting it installed, as I had to find a long, small stud to fit through the pump/tensioning bracket because that bolt decided to twist itself off, thus forcing me to take it to a machine shop to get drilled out.

The bushing on the other bracket that the long stud threads through also decided to go missing in action, so this was truly a macgyver move. Managed to fabricate a makeshift bushing out of three washers superglued together (I know..superglue..but it kept the washers from falling apart and into the black hole of the lower engine bay while I was trying to thread the stud through.) This ended up working..I'm not happy with it, but at least the air pump will be operational until I can source a new one.




makeshift bushing installed.


Bad news is the alternator is failing, had it tested at advance, everything else checks out aside from the alternator. I figured it was the culprit, as the car sits at 12v or a shade under, but if I free rev it in neutral up to about 3k it jumps up to 14v.




Here's some photos of some of the documentation that came with the car when I bought it, pretty cool stuff in my honest opinion.
















I'm not sure of that aftermarket cruise control system, a google search led me to believe the company has since shut its doors. Anyone ever seen/heard of this on an rx7?


When I had the car up on the lift the other day, I noticed it had the finish line mudflaps installed from the dealer, pretty awesome if I must say. Pics when I have sufficient daylight.

Tyblat

Just general sporadic idle issues when adding/removing load, sometimes erratic idle levels when cold, etc.

I figured it could use a good cleaning anyway. Eventually I'm going to start troubleshooting why the AWS only selectively works. I know its terrible for the motor, I always tap the gas to cancel it out, but i'd like it to be consistent.

clokker

iTrader: (2)

The manual describes the AWS pretty well but I didn't really get it till I held the throttle body in hand and poured hot water into the thermowax.
Not coincidentally, I suspect the thermowax is your prime culprit and will benefit from your attention far more than the BAC valve.
Also well worth checking is the coolant feed to the thermowax. You've seen the part that bolts to the thermowax (and is, in my opinion, a complete joke) and both the aluminum fitting and the hoses are prone to clogging with junk over time.

After the first time- where you might reasonably expect cranky hardware, dry, sticky hoses and who knows what else- pulling the throttle body takes about 10-15 minutes and requires no gaskets, so no reason not to do it.

We have nearly identical cars (mine has no sunroof), btw.

Tyblat

Nice! the S5 blaze red was always my favorite look on the FC. Although I could do without the sunroof myself (I haven't owned a single FC where it actually worked, maybe I should add that to the list of things to do)

I'll go through the manual today and have a look at the AWS, it will give me something to do..any idea on what section the thermowax would be under?

clokker

iTrader: (2)

Fuel & Emissions, I think.

Tyblat

You would be entirely correct. It shows how to test it, yet it doesn't have any instructions on cleaning, I Haven't been able to find much through searching. Do you happen to have any suggestions?

Tyblat

So I was going through the storage bins in the FC a few days after I had AAA drop it off, and I noticed this stuff called "Colorback" by turtle wax had been sitting in the storage bin.

Didn't think much of it at the moment, seeing as I have a few things on the list to do mechanically, and aside from giving it a wash to get the road grime off, I haven't done much else cosmetically..yet.

well, I noticed on the back it said it was a de oxidizer, so I figured try it on my rx8's headlights, they are oxidized to hell.





During





After


If anyone has any foggy headlights out there, i'd definitely give this stuff a try first. Better than sanding off the UV protection on your lenses for sure.

clokker

iTrader: (2)

With throttle body in hand, it's completely intuitive how to remove the thermowax device and clean it.

Two tips:
-Mazda used philips screws on these parts, just assume you'll need an impact driver to loosen them.

-Not directly related but handy...on the opposite side of the throttle body is the TPS, which occasionally needs to be removed. Two of it's mounting screws are easily reached but the third is on the bottom of the throttle body. While the body is off remove the bottom screw and leave it off and in the future you can get the TPS without touching the body.

Tyblat

Gotcha, I'll have to remember that about the screws. Par for the course anyway. I guess I should have clarified more, for the thermowax, What would you clean it with? I don't want to use anything that would cause damage to it or contaminate the system.