Hey.

I was wondering if there was any club here in the Bellingham area. I'm in a dilemma with my ride. It broke down and I'm not 100% certain what happened with hit. A mechanic says that it's dead and wants to pay me cash for it...so that's suspicious to me. Though worse case scenario, it needs it's carbonate rebuilt with seals and the engine too, but I"m not totally sure. Is my car salvageable? Will it cost a crazy amount of money to get it street worthy again? Here's a quick sum up of what's going on:

Off the top of my head, here's a few of the symptoms before it finally went.

It began to back fire allot, especially when I left off the gas to change gears (it's a manual tran).

Its got a rough idle when cold, but once the car heated up (I gauged this when the choke snapped back into place) it ran fine. Something with bluish smoke. There was some smoke when cold, but not much at all when heated up.

Before the cat died, the car would lurch forward, like I stopped on the gas for just a moment when I had actually took my foot off of the peddle.

Horse power really went down too...it began to decrease over time

However, a week or so after the catalytic converter went, the car lost all sorts of pressure. According to the shop, they checked the exhaust and there was no honeycomb left in the pipe.

I do need to change the belt for the alternator, so the battery can charge up...and I need a new battery, I think that's the major issue why it will not start. But the car refuses to remain started. The car would die if I took my foot off the gas. I had to keep the gas down a little while in Neutral at intersections to keep it from dying.


Any help is rally appreciated. I really don't want to give this car up.

 

Rotary-guy is in bellingham...here is his thread

https://www.rx7club.com/nw-rx-7-forum-33/car-update-729928/

there also is a thread on there that says..Western Washington University members...

 

Thanks allot for your help

 

Ya i took my first gen to rising sun and almost took it to rods but then i didn't neither of them knew **** about rotaries they said it was normal for it to backfire on decel and run like it had no power.The best bet would be to check the compression on the motor you have pull the plugs and check for oil. Other then that look around in the part section for a rebuild kit for the carb if you think that is the only problem or start thinking about a rebuild.

 

Hi I live in Bellingham, maybe I can help you out. The bit about the cat makes no sense to me the car should run fine unless the cat is plugged not open. Fix your electric probs, change the fuel filter and run some seafoam thru it. Do a search on seafoam there's lots of info on the forum, I just put a full can in about a 1/4 tank of fuel and run it hard for 10 or 15 miles them fill it up. You can get it at napa and it works wonders for me. It sounds like carbon buildup or dirty carb to me. Let me know if you need some help

 

Would you know what a rebuild would be for either a carb or engine at worse case scenario?

Though I do have seafoam. That stuff is good.

Right now I'm charging up my battery manually. I know for a fact that I do need to change the belt on my alternator. I'm sure it's slipping and not charging my battery.

 

It really depends on how much of the work you can do yourself. Did the shop do a compression test on the motor? If the compression is ok the motor probably is fine.

 

You can buy the car rebuild kit from mazdatrix for like $65.00 and do it yourself but just about any shop can rebuild a carb as for the engine i would check compression but it sounds like you are having a fuel problem how many miles are on the motor?

 

I'm sure they did...and I think he said the test was fine on the compression. But their final words to me was the carb was going out and the seals on the engine was as well. But he did seem very zealous at paying cash for me on the spot to buy the vehical.

The engine has about 195,000 on it.

 

Unfortunately, I'm not very car smart. I just know I really like the RX-7 and know the bar basics. But outside of general maintenance, I'm not sure if I can do much proficiently. And as an FYI, I did change out the gas filter a month and a half ago. Or two months. Either case, it's recent.

 

If it has 195,000 with no previous rebuilds then i would say the engine might be loosing compression thus the lack of power and it only running at high rpm's.

 

i still have a pile of first gen parts, i might have a carb that you can have

 

Would the loss of compression be a result from the carb or the engine? Or rather a combo of both?

 

Seriously? o.o Wow, that would be out of this world, heeh. Do you know how to tune them up though? I'm a bit clueless about it. Where some my age went on with cars, I went with computers.

 

loss of compression would be your motor. apex seals could be shot, you do have high miles on that thing.

i knew how to tune the carberator when i had a first gen, about 4 yrs ago lol, no clue now, i moved up to efi's lol

 

The mechanic did mention apex seals. Mentioned that they are easy to take them apart. Reboaring the insides may need to be done too, he said.

Heeh, must be nice to be car savvy, heeh. Being so, I'm sure it's much cheaper to restore the car to working condition. Though, something tells me that the car will be sitting for several months before I can save up 4 grand to have the thing rebuilt. According to the mechanic, anyway, that's how much it would cost.

 

wow 4 grand for a rebuilt 12A, ummm no lol, check out www.atkinsrotary.com no where near 4k lol.

 

Oh yeah, Atkins. I almost dealt with them when I was stationed at Fort Lewis...but I ware to got that a dude there told me that they no longer did rotary engines for cars, but for boats. o.o

Are there any Rotary shops near buy? It's a real shame that allot of the ones I know of seem to be between Seattle and Tacoma.

 

get it rebuilt by atkins...one of the best in the country...in puayllup...i got a brand new (not mine) rebuilt 12a out the door with port and polish for about 3K...i can tell you...it runs well..

i then had to give them my 12a for the core charge..but its all good..they did a good job building me a new one..well worth the money

 

also jerry at jerry's little car shop/ mazda's only is a really good mechanic..30 years experience..he installed my engine..was a bit expensive..but like i said well worth it..

 

Oh ok, So Atkins will not install, but they will sell engines, eh? Well in either case, of that's the only person to get to, I'll just have to figure out how much it'll cost to get the car down there via flat bed or something. I don't think I can trust the car to drive itself down there.

 

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

 

Oh? Have you heard something different?

 

i think we need to consider the source. what shop did you take your car to? low compression comes hand in hand with dying seals. so this doesn't make sense to me; it is impossible to have good compression with **** seals.

 

why yes i have. unfortunately, if i say any more i risk being banned!