Looking at buying my first RX7 later today; it is and 86 GXL w/ everything minus the leather and rear seats.

Stats up fine, idles nice, and everything appears to work except the sunroof.

Now, to the questions: Anything outside of the "what to look for's" to look for?

More importantly, the water thermo sensor is there put the wires that run under the manifold area back to the engine is what I can't locate.

Again, the thermo sensor is in, green thing under the alternator area, but it is not connected to anything...can't find the wires...any reason this would be?

Thanks in advance.

 

I'm not a 2nd gen guy so Best thing I can recommend is check out the 2nd gen FAQ thread stickied in this forum.

The factory service manual should have some info on the location of the thermo sensor if no one chimes in soon. Not always easy to find in the FSm but may be there.

 

One of the wires runs to pin 2I of the ECU while the other wire is a ground. Both wires are normally found in the Emission harness, but you can run your own wires if need be and it won't make a bit of difference. The ECU pin should read 2 to 3 volts w/the engine cold and .4 volts when fully warmed.

 

I have read through the FSM and a Haynes - trying to do the research before hand
Guy couldn't meet up yesterday so I have a little longer. Running some new wires isn't a big deal, it just seemed a little funny that the sensor is there but the wiring for ECU and ground to sensor is currently not findable.

Nothing really suspect about it? More like a lazy or uneducated owner...?

 

I'd take that as a sign of other potential hacking.

The wires should be there, maybe tucked under the harness or something. There's no legitimate reason to disconnect that sensor and doing so just causes the ECU to default and assume the engine temperature is always 80 degrees (or something around there). It absolutely needs to be reconnected though. Mileage and drivability greatly suffers.

But the thing is, what else is missing and what other weird things have been done?

 

Thinking about it now, when I put the key to on it sounded like static coming through the speakers, not "I can't find a station" static but a 1-2 second low volume, kinda push of consistent white noise. Stereo was turned off if that is of any matter.