Hey guys, my name is Nick and I am 23 years old and live in southern california. Now that I have gotten the introduction out of the way I have a few questions.

I am looking to purchase my first rx7. I am looking for a stock one or close to stock to use as a daily driver. I have some sports cars already for the weekends that are pretty fast (800hp supra). Anyway I found a rx7 that I liked and it is running fine, although a mechanic said the turbos should be replaced (88k miles)

I took the car for a drive and I only heard the one turbo spool up once when I went down a straightaway, they're not making much boost, only about 5psi so I would like to replace the turbos. I am pretty decent with cars but I don't want to do a turbo job myself. I was curious as to how much it should cost for the turbos to be replaced and possibly some options as to what to do with them. (sequential, single turbo etc)

Any help or opinions would be very much appreciated. I look forward to hearing back from you guys.

 

I am assuming you are talking about a FD here.

What is your power goal with this car? You should look into upgrading the twins vs going to a single turbo.

 

Also, what is your budget?

 

I'm not an FD expert (I personally like my cars to be reliable ), but don't immediately assume that the turbos are bad. There are a load of vacuum lines and solenoids that control the turbo system, and they are very prone to failure. It may be something as simple as a bad vacuum line.

 

All of the vacuum lines have been replaced, the seller told me the turbos were bad.

I don't really want to make this car a racecar but more so a reliable daily driver. I have a Toyota Supra that is 850hp (built by team vertex) which is almost undriveable.

I only want to put like 4k into the turbos max.

Also yes it is a FD, I can get it for 11k, keep in mind this is also socal. My budget is around 15k, I can go over but I don't really want to.

Also here is the current arsenal of cars

The ford GT is no longer with us, as it has been sold. Also don't think I am rich because contrary to the picture, I am not.

 

well your certainly not poor

 

If he has to maintain all those cars he might be!

OP: 11k for a FD is a pretty good deal. For what you are looking at it sounds like you might be best with just sourcing a good set of used turbos and then doing some reliability mods like a bigger radiator.

Make sure the car has a stock exhaust or if it has a aftermarket exhaust some sort of computer to control it or it will blow the motor.

 

haha. i agree

and if you think 11k is a good deal for an FD. look at this craigslist add
http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/cto/1628557852.html


i see them in washington adds all the time for like 10k and lower. i saw a 93 rx7 on craigslist with a real NOs set up for 6000 and it needed the motor rebuilt. ive seen them on there for 8000 too. if you want a cheap FD. look on the seattle craigslist. because a long drive for a cheap FD is definitely worth it

 

There's 100 more items in Seattle on craigslist then there are in Chicago. That's, A obnoxious, and B, proof of supply vs demand.

FD's here go for way more then Seattle, and probably in a more rusted out condition to boot.

 

are you saying there more rusted here in seattle or there? and most of the time there sold for about 13-15. i havent seen one on there in bad condition. there was one that was owned by an older lady and sold it for 3000. and it had like 113k miles. people here are just stupid and dont know what there worth

 

Doesn't sound like the seller knows what he is talking about. If the turbos were bad they would be smoking and leaking oil like a sieve. Low boost is a result of a bad vacuum and sequential system - basically turbo control.

FDs don't make the best daily drivers. They are finicky and lots of small stupid things will leave you chasing your tail for days, weeks months trying to get them fixed.

The very first thread stickied in this forum is the 3rd gen FAQ thread. Go to that thread and scroll down till you find the Buyer's Guides. Read them.

PS - get a compression test before buying any turbo rotary.

 

ive always bought cars from the southwest(cali, arizona, new mexico) the chance of rust on them is very minimal, if any.
but 1100 for a fd i think is a hell of a good price, but im no expert

 

i meant 11k

 

im not saying 11k isnt a good price. that price is great. but im just saying i cant find better deals than 11k in washington

 

I'll go check out the buyers guide, thanks!

 

If you are talking about a Fd which i am since your talking about twin turbo, and you are looking for reliable mods a singe turbo would be the way to go as even though during the production of the Fd Mazda spent nearly half of their budget towards the Fd to create the sequential twin turbo system and yet its still a bit icky, although everyone is different thats just the way i will be going cheers.

 

yes, 11k sounds Good, but if u have the Budget to spend more..why not just look for one that already has Clean Mods../runs good... u get what u pay for..

 

Agree on all of the above. FD shopping is very much caveat emptor. Many sellers don't know that much about the car, many shops that worked on the car might not either, and few buyers really know anything.

If the seller thinks the turbos are bad that's to your benefit. New turbos cost $2650 for an FD, if you buy the 99 spec ones. Then labor is a good 4-6 hours if you pay a shop. If this car is a good one, I would negotiate the price down based on that fact. Odds are that the turbos can be run at full boost for much less money since the problem is rarely the turbos themselves.

For each car get a feel for what's broken and use those replacement costs to work on sale price.

The condition/price of used FDs varies so widely it's hard for us to say much about it. You need to go see as many as possible to find the good deals. While you do get what you pay for, there are some underpriced and many more overpriced FDs out there.

Dave