Ok, I am planning on buying an FD, but probably not for 2 years till I get outta school and have a steady job, but alls I ever hear people say about them is that they are nothing but headaches and problems and evrything breaks all the time. Is this really the case?? Yes I understand that when you modify it has to be done correctly and there is a very small area for mistakes, but If one does everythng correctly, is it still going to break?? Even if you do all maintenace like replacing vacuum lines ,and all that weak plastic ****, and frequent oil change? This really doesnt affect my descsion to buy one, I dont care if it breaks once I week, I love the cars so much, Ill fix it a million times if needed, I just wanted to hear straight from you guys if the cars were that unreliable. Is it a car that should be used just for weekend fun, should I be scared to drive it to the mall or out to dinner for fear of breaking down?

 

no they are just fine. i drive mine EVERYDAY! never had a problem. the only thing that goes wrong is like turbos...and you can drive without those, it just isn't fast. i am sure you will baby it like me: by like warming it up proper, cooling down proper, change the oil. they are just fine...just won't last very long (over 100,000, well for MOST of them). heck, i even use the cheap cheap gas and i am doing just fine...it has NEVER been undriveable. you just HAVE to baby it.

 

Yea, babying it wont be a problem, I treat my cars better than I treat most people, or myself for that matter:o . Any other comments about the reliability??

 

fd's are getting old right now....they might still "look" cutting edge but all their components are getting old....the oldest ones have build date back to late 91 and newest around 95. combine that with the way most people drive them and you've got tons of bad stories.

 

In 2 years this WILL be the case for you. In 2 years, a 93 FD will be 11 years old. Nothing lasts forever, and so you will be basically buying a project car.

Rememebr, these are cars people like to drive hard. I sure so. It's a sports car designed to be enjoyed. In my 3 years of FD ownership, I've gone through 1 engine, several bushings, a bad 5th gear syncro, a leaky oil pan gasket, a leaky fuel pulsation dampner, and a few bad rubber components in the engine bay.

I bought the FD with the engine 1/2 way gone, so there's that.
If the fools at the dealer installed the engine properly, then there wouldn't have been a need to reseal the oil pan. So that right there was previous tech's fault.
Bushings? Well bushings go bad on everycar. More so on a car with a stiff ride, so this was expected.
The pulsation dampner died at 80,000 miles. Can't blame it either.
And the rubber componets throughout the engine? Well, there IS a lot of hear in there, and you cant expect rubber to last forever, either.

I've had my FD for 50k miles and 3.5 years and people know I drive her like it's stolen. Things WILL go bad. It is a finicky car, but it is my hobby, and so I dont mind it at all.

I believe, the #1 reason why FDs are so problemmatic is because of a previous mechanic. So many times have I ahd to take my car back simply because they forgot to do replace somethng or isntalled something the wrong way, or forgot to put something back I don't always take the FD to a mechanic, but I don't exactly have all the time in the world, either. I only took the FD to the techs when it was under warranty, and 9 times out of 10, I was unhappy with their work

 

All you do to kepp your FD running great it follow some easy steps. Check out this website for info:

http://7sins.rx7life.com/

 

any car that carries 3rd gen #s will have to be maintained well but if keep your hand on her pulse its the best ride for your money by along shot. i have owned 5 over the last 4 years and have only spent about 4k in reliability and upgrades. buy one thats been owned by an rx7 enthusiast and you will be fine. read as much as possible about the cars weaknesses and find one that has as many as possible of those weaknesses inroned out.

 

Get a GOOD mechanic to look over it first...I belive i will be picking up an FD this weekend that has had a complete diagnostics done by RX7.com, so I rest easy at night knowing that im not buying an abused 3rd gen. Take care of it and have fun. =)

 

Original engine and turbos (soon to be replaced with J-Spec twins).

I drive the **** out of it on track, and sometimes aggressively on the public roads.

My R-1's a 4-season car which means snow, ice, and sea salt up in these parts.

I've had my R1 for 6 years. It's an April 1992 build date, which means I'll have a 10-year-old car this Spring.

Don't ask me how much I spend to keep "Sleep R-1" running like a top. the figure will shock you!

Yes, I do have a rotary shop close-by that handles all the mechanical work (visit them in my signature, Advanced Import Motorsports Tuning, AIM Tuning for short)

 

When the car gets up in miles things start to go. A lot of peopl ehave the air pump lock up like mine just did but i fixed it for 40 bucks by myself not a big deal just takes some time and looking for used parts. Most of the stuff that goes bad isn't going to be too big of a deal but things will start to go wrong. I had an a/c leak and i know three others whose a/c doesn't work. Things like that start to go wrong but nothing big so far for me i am almost at 80k but got it not too long ago. if it's a young car (low miles) you probably won't have many problems at all provided you take car of it.

 

...haven't experienced the siezed air pump yet.

How did you fix the A/C. I'm not worried about that now, but I will be come May/June!

Did you just recharge with old freon?

 

i agree with flybye on this one, my fd has never really been worked on and i havent had much go wrong with it. it has 90k on it and its got the original motor, turbos, and vacuum lines.

mike

 

I dont know exactly what the numbers are but something like 80% or more of the fd's that have more then 70k miles on them have a new engine. It is a killer car but that says alot. There was a poll done on engine failure some months back. I did not search it out but you can check on it. I got my car 4 years ago with 55k miles on it KNOWING that I would need to do an engine change at some point, and it went to 71k miles before it wint pop. The car is not an expensive car to buy when you put it up next to an NSX - Supra (or something that will give you performance in this range) so an engine change can be planed for. Ya there are some 3rd gens that go alot of miles without any work but that is not the norm. The car is worth buying any way because there is nothing out there that has the same bang for the buck.
Kevin

 

I work on quite a few, some are problematic and some aren't. I've had more come to me for turbo rebuilds then engine rebuilds so far. Got one at my shop right now with 88k orig that we're rebuilding the motor before it actually "pops." And another one that's been in my care for about 6 years with 96k+ original motor, driven hard like it should. Just pay attention to the small details and lots of things can be taken care of early with less costs.
It's a sports car, so you will be spending money on it.

 

IT'S SEEMS YOU NEED TO HAVE TWO BANK ACC. ONE FOR YOURSELF AND THE OTHER FOR THE VERY EXPENSIVE LADY THAT IS PARKED OUTSIDE OR IN YOUR GARAGE.. ANY THING WITH MOVING PARTS WILL WEAR OUT AND BREAK. SO WHEN SOMETHING GOES WRONG I GET MAD. I GET IT REPAIRED THEN I HAVE A SMILE FROM EAR TO EAR.........PEACE........