Keep your car running forever?

[mcabe]

Do you have any tricks or words to the wise to keep your engine/car running longer?

Also, would be cool to hear what the weirdest thing you've had to fix because your car just keeps going?

[CF-Mike]

Honestly....

Regular maintenance and TLC goes a long way. Proper storage of the vehicle during sit times will keep it running a long time as well.

[hondamatic]

... so long as you don't drive an RX-7 :p

[CF-Mike]

lol true

[Pistonhead78]

Why is it RX-7's need more attention than other cars?

[DetroitMuscle]

Originally Posted by Pistonhead78

Why is it RX-7's need more attention than other cars?

motor design mainly. I know that a decent rotoray mechanic is damn hard to find.



I just keep fresh oil and fresh gas in it, seems to do the trick, change the normal stuff ,filters ect. Just keep your car like you keep your wife and it will be fine, unless she cheats then you get rid of/sell her on ebay.

[blah]

keep revs low, little strain on the engine, don't trans brake, change oil and other fluids at regular intervals, drive slower and be patient. if you constantly baby it, it'll last you a long time. redline driving on a car not designed for it can be quite harmful. either way though, you're putting more wear on your car with more rpms

[hondamatic]

Originally Posted by DetroitMuscle

motor design mainly. I know that a decent rotoray mechanic is damn hard to find.

Don't mean to step on Mike's toes with this post, but... yes, you're right for the most part. Not many people know how to repair these cars; consequently, rebuilds are costly.

1st generation cars ('79-85, excluding the GSL-SE) are supposed to be reliable. If you run into one with a stuck rotor/engine, I heard there's a trick where you can put ATF in the combustion chamber, tow it and do the ol' start-in-gear trick, and get it working. Running cars are so dirt-cheap anyway...

2nd generation cars ('86-91, but including '84-85 GSL-SEs) without the turbo are a little less so, but still quite good. There's apparently an oil bypass valve that almost always clogs at 80k miles, reducing the oil delivery to the rear apex seal and killing the engine. Replace it on time/schedule and your engine should last as long as any other. My friend bought his car at 298,000 kms, and the engine had just had its first rebuild 5,000 kms earlier (for his purchase price of the car!).

The 2nd and 3rd generation ('93-95) turbocharged cars are more of a headache. I'm not super-familiar with the 2nd gen cars, but I know the 3rd generation cars had problems with excessive heat cracking the exhaust manifolds, and the ton of vacuum lines makes for a bunch of hard-to-find, hard-to-track vacuum leaks. The cooling system's supposed to be sub-standard too.

The second- and third-gen cars are really light by design, with lots of aluminum bits in the suspension, a backbone chassis and just generally a little less attention paid to the inside than the powertrain and chassis. Don't buy a crashed one. Interior parts are a bit fragile (my friend's car's dash was a mess), fuel pumps and electrical stuff in general can short or go, and in the case of the third gen car the cooling system is weak. I'm more familiar with the second-gen cars... for those, the headlight switch fails regularly at higher mileage ($300, but my buddy just wired the lights to the "flip-up" detent) and the fuel injectors almost always leak or fail at high mileage too (even more money to fix, but my friend installed a kill switch so the car doesn't flood). Nice cars without these problems certainly exist, but if you're looking at $2000 used car lot specials, keep an eye out.

The plus side is that RX-7s drive incredibly beautifully. Even my buddy's 330,000 km 146hp base '86 with steel wheels. Gorgeous steering response, turn-in, communication, predictability in weight transfer... anything handling-related on the car is probably the best you'll ever experience, unless you drive an NSX or a Lotus Elise with any frequency. For $2000-4000 you can do no better, unless you're buying a shifter kart.

[CF-Mike]

Unfortunately everything you posted is correct. Motors are fragile, the interiors don't hold up well, etc.

Good look at the CF-RX7 project I have up:

http://www.carforums.net/cf-rx7.php

I have already replaced the entire interior and the motor. Now I have to move onto the suspension and possibly the transmission after I run a little power through it.


BUT they are one of the most attractive looking vehicles of all time IMO, AND they have a very unique motor. It's cool to have something different, even if they are a pain in the ass. Luckily I can do everything to my car myself, and I'm learning how to do rebuilds on them as well. Once I learn how to do a rebuild, I'll never have to worry about anything with this car that I can't fix myself.