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Two tips:
-Mazda used philips screws on these parts, just assume you'll need an impact driver to loosen them..
they are JIS phillips, which is why they are hard to remove, its a different screw driver
Originally Posted by 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?
um you would look under the car at the transmission for a round thing with a vacuum line or maybe other small metal line on it, remove the hose, and if there is ATF in there, its bad
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.
It's just an aluminum casting that the actual thermowax "pellet" screws into, again, pretty self explanatory. In general, I use Purple Power followed by hot soapy water and a rinse. The body of the casting has some small water channels that might be grit filled, use whatever to clear (toothbrush, dental picks, etc.).
Like I said before, the system looks more daunting in pictures than it really is.
Originally Posted by j9fd3s
they are JIS phillips, which is why they are hard to remove, its a different screw driver
Well, maybe but they are large headed steel screws threaded into aluminum and exposed to heat and coolant, which probably has something to do with it too.
I replaced all the screws with 5mm bolts...problem solved.
they are JIS phillips, which is why they are hard to remove, its a different screw driver
um you would look under the car at the transmission for a round thing with a vacuum line or maybe other small metal line on it, remove the hose, and if there is ATF in there, its bad
I may have to check this out tomorrow. Is it a known problem for this to happen on (obviously) AT equipped Fc's? I ask because some days when i start the car up cold it will idle around 1500-2000 and just literally pour smoke out the exhaust, and continue to do so until its so bad I literally have to shut the car off or risk smoke screening the whole neighborhood.
I know its not coolant, the car isn't burning any and hasn't overheated in the weeks I've had it, and even when it isn't belting smoke to the point its smoking out the neighborhood, it does smoke, although not much. Maybe it could be smoking the ATF out, but It doesn't seem to be missing any ATF according to the dipstick...however I do have to keep adding oil, maybe the oil seals are just that shot.
Decided to finally remove the Throttle Body today and do some cleaning. (Thanks, Clokker for the direction!) Removal isn't all that difficult, I'm not sure about the S4 differences but I know you S4 guys will have to disconnect the OMP linkage as its mechanical.
I started by taking off the intake pipe between the AFM and the elbow, two clamps that can be easily loosened by a phillips head screwdriver. After those are loose, the plumbing comes off pretty easily, making note to disconnect the two air hoses on the underside of the intake piping before removing.
After this comes the elbow, held on by two (I believe) 12mm nuts. From here it gets slightly more tricky, but not hard by any means. the TB is held on by four 12 mm nuts, two on the top, and two on the bottom. In my case I had to use a deep 12mm socket, and two small extensions to reach the ones on the bottom. dropping the bottom nuts when you remove them isn't that much of a pain, because if they fall, its off anyway, and when you pull the TB they will be easily accessible, the real pita is dropping them when you are reinstalling it...For some reason this did not happen to me, maybe murphy was busy elsewhere.
at this point disconnect the throttle cable (its located between the firewall and intake manifold, simply working the linkage down a bit and pulling gently on the cable is enough to dislodge it. Disconnect the three vac hoses attached to the thermowax system (remember where they are, take pictures if you need to, be careful, one of mine was really on there.)
From this point the TB will work itself off with some gentle assistance. For good measure I carb cleaned the inside of it, and a decent amount of dirt came off. I ran some water through the thermowax, cleaned it out a bit. If you have a JIS phillips screwdriver you can remove the thermowax part entirely for better cleaning, but I did not have one on me, and didn't want to risk stripping out the head on the screws.
Install in reverse order of removal, I happened to find a disconnected vac line in the process, that makes two thus far i've found that the previous owner didn't know or care about.
Tightened everything down well, and I just got back from letting her run for a bit. Minus the smokescreen from the oil seals, she ran pretty damn nice afterwards, idles right on par.
Tb removed, now might be a good time to cleanup anything laying on the UIM, or replace those brittle vac lines.
Yeah, smoking is still out of hand. It does burn alot of oil, but today I decided to test a theory I had in my head that j9fd3s mentioned. The past two days sometimes the car would literally smokescreen the entire neighborhood, as in I could not let it run for more than fifteen seconds without being blanketed in smoke so thick I couldn't see.
I started to notice though, that it only does this usually at startup, it will pour smoke when the idle is acting wonky, with no end in sight. So when I started it up today, puff of oil smoke like usual, I moved it under my tree to get some shade, and parked it, and let it idle. The idle started revving up to 1500~ and pouring the smoke again.
I put the car in L, and put up the ebrake, and I noticed the smoke slowed substantially. Doing some digging in the FSM for what j9fd3s mentioned, its called a Vacuum Modulator Diaphragm, and it can cause smoking if bad. So i'm starting to think that its not just burning oil, but its burning ATF as well due to that diaphragm.
Around this time the idle would slowly rev up a few hundred rpms, then dip, and repeat. Eventually messing with the gear selector I got it to idle normal when i finally put it into neutral or park.
Atkins has this diaphragm for 88.00, but the fact that I plan on five speed swapping it doesn't exactly entice me to dump money into automatic only parts.
Thoughts on my thoughts?
Also, took a picture of the finishline mudflaps. Doing some research on Icemarks thread about options, etc, this car had to have a ton of extras added on.
RX-7 logo faded, but there. I don't think the logos were accented in a special color.
Around this time the idle would slowly rev up a few hundred rpms, then dip, and repeat. Eventually messing with the gear selector I got it to idle normal when i finally put it into neutral or park.
Atkins has this diaphragm for 88.00, but the fact that I plan on five speed swapping it doesn't exactly entice me to dump money into automatic only parts.
Thoughts on my thoughts?
cap/plug the vacuum line, it won't kick down correctly, but if you're going to 5 speed swap who cares?
Managed to get it to the dealer today for the seatbelt recall, ended up taking longer than expected, but no big deal. Both sides now work perfectly again.
On other news, I had them run a compression test on it as well, Included below are the numbers. However, they seem to be inconsistent with what the FSM says for the results.
Anyone have any ideas as to why it would be different like this?
Well, just when I think all is said and done recall wise...there's more! The car got back to where I park it Thursday night. I walk out to the car this morning to check it out, start it up and whatnot, and I notice something hanging down that obviously should not be hanging down.
I get in the car and look, and apparently when doing the recall on the passengers side belt, the techs broke the damn trim panel. Instead of telling me about it, they just tried to hide it with some adhesive spray, which thanks to the Florida sun fell apart between Thursday and today causing it to fall down and be visible.
I called and spoke with the service advisor that checked the car in Thursday, and he said that I should have gotten a disclaimer and signed saying they are not liable for breakage of interior panels due to the car being that old. (which I never got or signed, just to clarify.)
I now have to bring it back in on Monday, which I'm sure is going to be loads of fun, as the service manager told me when I was dealing with him Thursday that he hates rotary powered cars. So I can only imagine how badly they are going to try to jip me out on their screw up.
Actually, looking more carefully at that pic, you shouldn't have any visible issues now, even with that cracked tab. Isn't the broken part overlapped and held by the rear of the a-pillar trim? I see the recessed hole where the screw goes through holding both pieces in place.
Actually, looking more carefully at that pic, you shouldn't have any visible issues now, even with that cracked tab. Isn't the broken part overlapped and held by the rear of the a-pillar trim? I see the recessed hole where the screw goes through holding both pieces in place.
They broke one of the retaining clips off, but its not really a big deal now anyway...I took it to the service manager yesterday, (06/29) and I was actually insanely surprised at the whole process.
I went in armed with my paperwork, figuring this would be an uphill battle, etc..talked to the service manager, and with an almost unreal positive attitude he walked over, looked at it for about ten seconds, and said "okay, I'll make it right. I told my guys to be really careful but I guess it happens, they broke it, that means I broke it, i'll make it right, we don't run a kind of company here that treats our customers poorly."
So we went into the parts dept, of course its NLA, but he gave me written documentation that If I find one that is in good shape of the same color, they would pay and install it, and if I couldn't find the same color, they would color match and install.
I'm pretty impressed with Classic Mazda (State Road 436 in Orlando if anyone is curious.) That guy was awesome, even showed me some of his friends project cars on his phone, one being a rather quick Rx-3.
Luckily it is not as bad as it sounds. After I had changed all the drive belts awhile back, I noticed the volts would drop below 14 if the car sat for awhile. The alternator looked dated, but I figured, hey, might just need to re tighten the alt belt. So I did, and the problem still persisted.
I finally sucked it up one day and drove it to Advance and had them run an alternator test. Sure enough, load test failed. But hey at least all of the other systems are in working order.
So here we are, Advance was doing a pretty decent sale online with speed perks, standard price for the alt was $129.99, but with ordering online and doing an in store pickup I got a discount of 19.50, plus 20.00 in rewards from speed perks. Core charge on the alternator is 27.00, so after I return that i'll be looking at 99 bucks ish final cost. Not bad for having it in stock for same day pickup. Typically I go to rockauto for most of this stuff, but with a price that decent, and no shipping times, it was worth it to me.
So I go out today and put the new alt in, make sure the belt is tight, etc. let the car run, do a test with load on it, watch the volts, etc. Everything looks great.
Shiny.
Afterwards i'm sitting in the car with the hood up giving the gauges a final check over, I see smoke lifting out of the hood.
First thought in my mind is, ****, pulsation damper, ****. My mind was torn from running straight to the water hose or inside, risk tripping over the dog, and grabbing the fire extinguisher. Jump out of the car, run over and luckily, coolant smell. About ten seconds and half a heart attack later, I realize one of the coolant hoses that connects the BAC valve to the thermowax has sprung a leak.
Hard to see, but it sprung an almost pin sized hole in the hose.
Blessing in disguise imho. One being the car wasn't on fire, and two the hose decided to rupture safely in front of my house with the hood up.
That's why I advocate a scorched earth approach to a "new" car...just replace all the soft bits at once and be done with it.
As it is, now you await the next hose (vac or water) that decides to go AWOL and chances are, it won't be as convenient as this episode.
That's why I advocate a scorched earth approach to a "new" car...just replace all the soft bits at once and be done with it.
As it is, now you await the next hose (vac or water) that decides to go AWOL and chances are, it won't be as convenient as this episode.
Probably a good idea. I was planning on replacing all the vac lines with silicone as well. Any advice on replacing the hoses that go to the thermowax? Only ones I could find at advance I didn't trust to not kink due to the awkward shape.
You can delete the "heatsink" section on the BAC, which makes the hose routing a bit simpler and somebody on the forum claimed to have found the perfect preformed hose to use...but naturally, I'm not sure what it was.
you NEED a new thermostat neck NOW. they start black and then turn green and then white, yours is white. do NOT touch it until you have a replacement, it may not survive taking the hose off.
if it pops, it likely will take the engine with it
you NEED a new thermostat neck NOW. they start black and then turn green and then white, yours is white. do NOT touch it until you have a replacement, it may not survive taking the hose off.
if it pops, it likely will take the engine with it
i was just going to add that with one exception... get an aluminum neck instead.
Rotary13B1 necks are very well cast and machined, it's the first thing just about any S5 should get.
you NEED a new thermostat neck NOW. they start black and then turn green and then white, yours is white. do NOT touch it until you have a replacement, it may not survive taking the hose off.
if it pops, it likely will take the engine with it
I appreciate the advice. I'm trying to source one among a few other parts atm, might just end up going aluminum.
you will sleep easier at night if you just get it in aluminum knowing that it won't explode if you lean on it wrong. lol
my radiator started leaking in my Rx8, and it gave plenty of warning, it just drips in the undertray, and you can see that from like 20 feet away. radiator was cheap.
i took the old one out, and it literally crumbled when i touched it, its like a cheddar cheese, scary!
my radiator started leaking in my Rx8, and it gave plenty of warning, it just drips in the undertray, and you can see that from like 20 feet away. radiator was cheap.
i took the old one out, and it literally crumbled when i touched it, its like a cheddar cheese, scary!
my radiator started leaking in my Rx8, and it gave plenty of warning, it just drips in the undertray, and you can see that from like 20 feet away. radiator was cheap.
i took the old one out, and it literally crumbled when i touched it, its like a cheddar cheese, scary!
yep i know what you mean, the RX8 plastic radiator tends to just turn to dust and starts to leak and slowly ramps up over time as it deteriorates.
the odd thing about the FC plastic thermostat neck is that it usually doesn't give any warning until it literally explodes. the plastic is thin and turns hard and brittle where most others tend to turn soft and mushy at weak points.
the odd thing about the FC plastic thermostat neck is that it usually doesn't give any warning until it literally explodes.
that isn't true, it gives tons of warning. it changes color, yours is white, it should be black. this is why we've been telling you you need to change it since you bought the car. how much more warning do you expect?
that isn't true, it gives tons of warning. it changes color, yours is white, it should be black. this is why we've been telling you you need to change it since you bought the car. how much more warning do you expect?
I took your advice and had already started looking, were you talking to him or me lol?
06-22-15, 03:56 PM
