tbenton

I am the original owner of my 88 RX7 convert.with 114K . I started with a 1973 RX3 wagon and the Convert is my 4th RX and I am really concerned about what is happening. I used to trade every few years but they never ragged the 3rd Gen and this car has been a jewel and looks perfect so why trade a good thing. The car is garaged and has given me very little trouble over the years. Clutch lasted 100K. Seems that just like her owner the ole girl looks good but is starting to fail inside.

I am not even sure where to start but here goes.

Last week one day when I first started the car the idiot light icons all came on and stayed on. Car was operating normally but of course it bothered me. After my first errand stop when I started the car the lights went out like they are supposed to. This happened one more time but only when I first started car but after that it didn’t reoccur.

This week I was out running errands and drove about 3 miles and the radio audio cut in and out and quit. I thought the station might be having dead air but not so. The display was on and I could change stations manually or with preset buttons but no audio and when I went to turn it off and back on it wouldn’t even totally turn off. The antenna went down and right back up and still no sound. Tried a couple of times. I went into a store and came out and all was well. Almost got home and radio audio stopped again. As I turned up the driveway it felt like I lost power steering for a second but got up hill and into garage ok. While the car was running I did some checking: Headlights/taillights worked. I couldn’t check the rear brake lights. Inside door lights on. Horn worked. Windows worked. Wipers didn’t work. Left turn signal did not light up on instrument panel nor on front/rear of car. Right turn signal indicator lit up and flashed inside but not on front/rear of car and then even that stopped. The emer. Flasher only flashed on the right side on the panel and not on the front/back of car and second time I tried it do a thing.

I turned the car off and tried to start again….…click click. Lights/horn and inside door lights still worked fine. A while back the battery was drained due to a headlight door retractor motor issue ( we fixed it) and I got no click…..just dead and lights,windows,etc did not work at all so I am pretty used to what happens when I battery is low. The battery is a month old and connections are fine and its fully charged. Since the lights are bright and the windows work fine I am sure this is not a battery issue. This is a nightmare. Where do I start? I am TERRIFIED that the elec system has had a stroke and that would be HUGE bucks and I don’t want to give anyone carte blanche to do trial and error on every electric circuit. I am NOT mechanically inclined when it comes to electrical but wonder if there are electric circuits that control ‘ clusters’ of functions. The dead functions that I discovered so far were wipers/turn and hazard indicators and lights/radio audio/starter (solenoid?). I didn’t check the under the dash fuses because I could not imagine all those going at same time and other than the retractor fuse under the hood I am not sure what the others do so I scoured the internet for similar issues but could not find what I am experiencing. I thought about the alternator but don’t know enough to be informed if it could possibly be causing this.

I left the car alone and when my hubby got home he asked me to start the car while he looked under the hood to see where the ‘click click’ originated like maybe the solenoid. He is a Ford truck guy and works on his and knows all about starters/ solenoids but NOT electrical issues so much. WELL…..the car started and everything worked just fine. I am now so paranoid and would be afraid to drive it even to one of my Mazda club's recommended shops as they are not close to me and God forbid to the dealer with their sky high labor charges. I can see dollar signs in their eyes as soon as I tried to describe this strange behavior which would probably NOT be happening of course if I was able to drive it down there. Went thru that a while back when right window would not go up and after a few days of trying I took it to the dealer and it worked for them immediately and they charged me $108. I am retired on fixed income and don’t have the money to let them or anyone quite frankly do trial and error BUT the dealer is the only shop close enough to home ( 5 miles) and I would not be far away if I got stranded if it died again and can’t have it towed a long way…$$.

I have gotten good advice from Mazda club friends to check all the ground points and found a great source for that info on Aaron's Homepage but not sure how much of this I can do here. I am going to check with the local mechanic that we use a lot other than for the RX to see if he might check JUST the grounding points for corrosion,etc. I fear if I ask the dealer to do that I will be starting a mess and their hourly rate is so much higher than our mechanic. I don't think I need an RX7 mechanic to check the grounds as long as they know where they are.....right? Of course even if I can get them all checked there is no guarantee that this will happen again and strand me. I sure would appreciate input from this forum. I am beyond frustrated.

Thanks
Terri

misterstyx69

iTrader: (142)

Sounds like the alternator to me.

Note: try to condense your problem,as reading a novel will only sway some guys to not answer.!..(chuckle,I almost fell asleep!)

marclong

iTrader: (1)

Alternator. Easy to change. Buy at any parts store or have it rebuilt.

tbenton

So sorry to be so long winded but I wanted to explain all that had happened since some things worked and some didn't. If it was the alternator would that affect some functions and not others?