I think I got got.

[XaulZan]

I recently bought an 86 GXL (two days ago). I had test driven it twice on separate days and it ran fine, but the kid I bought it from wouldnt meet me at his house, only at the mall (red flag #1). Everytime I met him the car was warmed up and ran nice, I even hung out for like 45min on the second occasion so I could let it cool down and run it, but it still ran good. The tranny makes a little noise like a throw out bearing or something, but I figured I could replace that myself.
He had receipts from a local shop for replacing the coolant hoses, which were all new (he said one ruptured but that he stopped driving immediately and had it towed). I checked the coolant reservoir and there was no oil in it. Other than that the car seemed fine.
I bought it on thursday and it ran good all day, then the next morning started fine and about 2 miles down the road the transmission started making a really loud rattling noise when ever not under power (decelerating), also when between 2 and 3k RPM in 2cnd or 3rd gear, after driving for about 30min noise went away, but every time I drive it cold the noise is there.
then today I noticed the coolant hose going to the engine coolant cap was leaking coolant. I removed the cap and noticed a few bubbles of oil floating at the top, so I scooped them out with my finger, loosened the hose clamp and readjusted the hose then retightened the hose clamp and it seems fine now, but the oil in the coolant has me worried. Is it normal to have a few drops of oil in the coolant or am I in for an expensive repair? BTW I spent $1800 on the car, which my wife was a little pissed off about.

[Cp1]

i wouldnt be too worried... yet. i mean if things get continually worse than yes but as it seems now a good used tranny could be in order and quite cheaply too if your up to the task yourself, which could also be the reason the kid sold it to you because having it done by a shop would have probably cost him way too much and he wasnt willing to do it himself... but the oil coolant thing is too early to tell... i would check it daily for next few months and if it seems to get worse than deal with it accordingly... its still a good buy if the body and interior on these cars is decent.... no one on here including myself has bought a used rx7 expecting the motor to perform flawlessly for long... and unless your the 1st owner its unfortunate that almost without fail previous owners do weird shit to these cars, leaving you to work out the kinks.

[XaulZan]

yeah, your right, the body is in pretty good shape aside from the moonroof, which I already ordered a new one. No rust anywhere on the car, and the paint is original. I just gotta convince my wife this isnt too much of a money pit. Luckily she likes RX7s too, and owned two FCs when she was younger. I guess the worst that could happen is the oil will eat away the hoses and Ill have to replace them, but I have a feeling Ill need to rebuild the engine, something Ive never done before (have done pistons though).

[TitaniumTT]

I just gotta convince my wife this isnt too much of a money pit.

ppfffffffhhhhhhh HAAHAHAAHAA....... Good luck with that!

As for the oil in the coolant, I would drain it and flush it thoughoughly and then fill it and run it for a while and see if it accumulates again. Another bad sign is white smoke on startup. Sounds like a coolant seal is fragged to me.

[Max777]

1800? I payed 1800 for one recently....

and mine had: broken driver mirror mechanism, broken hatch lock, all wheel bearings worn out, tires worn out,sunroof stuck closed, shifter bushings destroyed, clutch and pilot/throwout bearings worn out, a pretty big dent in the rear quarter... and because mine is a turbo model, I thought it was a bargain, but now I'm second guessing myself.

I think that with the current FC pricing, 1800 for a clean stock one that's been taken care of is worth the money.

Go to an auto parts store, buy yourself a good compression tester, and check the engine's compression. This knowledge is easily worth the price of the tester.

[vex]

I spent 1300 on my first one (which I wrecked, sad times), then I spent $0 for the roller chasis that I then swapped the motor, interior, and other bits and pieces on to it... then promptly had to rebuild the engine when I decided to turbo charge it.

[TitaniumTT]

I paid $1700 for mine 13 years ago.

A compression tester will tell him absolutely nothing regarding in the coolant.

[RETed]

He had receipts from a local shop for replacing the coolant hoses, which were all new (he said one ruptured but that he stopped driving immediately and had it towed).

This should've been red flag #2 and enough for you to walk away.
You basically paid full price for an FC that had a disastrous cooling system compromise.

Side note, shady sellers would use a bottle of "stop leak" to cover up any cooling system problems.
Done properly, you can't tell if any of this stop-leak product was used in the cooling system even if you looked into the radiator cap (into the radiator) or the coolant reservior.
It's good enough to get the car sold, but it usually doesn't last more than a few weeks more.


-Ted

[XaulZan]

Yeah, your right, but I cant take it back, so now I have to fix it. Ive drained all the coolant out and I picked up a new upper hose from Checkers (dosent seem to fit right, Im gonna take it back tommorrow) , the lower hose looks like its stock, and looks good still. Suprisingly I didnt see any oil in the coolant that I drained from the radiator or block, it looks like all the oil went to the top and into the over flow bottle. Im gonna flush the system tommorrow and refill and take it from there. The shop he took it to was in town (honolulu) and it looks like they took an extra piece of hose they had lying around and hacked it with a pocket knife and then hose clamped it on... then charged $220 bucks for it. I shouldve inspected this hose a little more closely before I bought it... oh well.

[djmtsu]

Since you're in Hawaii, take it to ReTED.

He will give you an honest opinion I'm sure :)

[Kentetsu]

I wouldn't worry too much yet. A glimpse of possible oil in the radiator? No sweat, could be anything.

And that rattling sound from the tranny? Any chance that could be exhaust noise, like small backfires popping in the cat?

Also, a side note on stop leak products: A couple of years back, I installed a used 12a that turned out to have a bad coolant seal. Huge clouds of white smoke, no way it could be driven like that, hell you couldn't even see the car sitting in the driveway for all of the smoke. I had a race the next day, and no other motor, so I had to find a quick solution, even if it was only temporary.

After a bit of research, I picked up a bottle of Alumaseal. I chose this because it uses aluminum rather than copper or anything else. Also, this is a radiator stop leak, not a "block sealant". I figured that if any of the aluminum flakes managed to find their way into the combustion areas, they would just burn off rather than cause damage like copper could (aluminum flakes are actually highly flamable).

I dumped it in the radiator and let her idle for about 20 minutes. 95% of the problem was gone! Drove her for another 30 minutes, topped off the radiator, and never had another problem with it.

That was about 2.5 years ago. Since then I've been daily driving it, racing it on weekends, made several road trips including Michigan to North Carolina and back for the Deals Gap Rotary Rally last spring. I've had no problems with it, and have full confidence in the car.

So I just wanted to add that not all sealants are bad, and it's not always a bad idea to make use of one. :)



.

[XaulZan]

Well, Thanks for all the advice. I replaced the radiator hose and flushed the system (as best I could). Couldnt get to the engine block drain plug with out removing a whole lotta stuff, and I needed to drive to work this morning. So I just filled it with distilled water, redrained, then put a 70/30 mixture antifreeze to water, and now the car runs supercool (driving in the mountains it dosent go above 1/4 way up the guage). Strangest thing is, when I let the engine warm up, (slow driving for 20min) the noise in the tranny goes away. While I had the car on jackstands I tightened everything up that I could, and cleaned the underside of the car (was pretty oily). I was thinking exhaust because it goes away when its warm, but it seems like a pilot bearing (when I take my foot off the clutch and the engine is cold it makes the noise, clutch in and the noise goes away) but when its warm no noise and the car runs great. I was hitting 6k rpms with it last night and it didnt miss a beat (after warming it up for an hour of course). I checked the coolant again today and no oil yet, so I think its alright.

By the way, what are the cylinders with little white notched knobs on the bottom of them that are in the driver and passenger side bottom of the front bumper. Are they for adjusting the suspension? Couldnt find them in the manual. Thanks for your input everybody.
Joe

[RoughRex]

By the way, what are the cylinders with little white notched knobs on the bottom of them that are in the driver and passenger side bottom of the front bumper. Are they for adjusting the suspension? Couldnt find them in the manual. Thanks for your input everybody.
Joe

I think you're looking at the knobs to manually raise/lower the headlight buckets although, I don't recall what color the knobs are as mine still have the rubber covers on them. I could be wrong but I can't think of any other knobs under the bumper.

[TitaniumTT]

Yes, that's what they are and change out your transmission fluid. It's low and dirty which is where that noise if coming from. Good new fluid will makes it's way around the tranny in a hurry and reduce or eliminate the noise.

Let me put it this way, my truck won't go into 2nd gear when it's cold, the fluid is too thick. Let it warm up a bit and she shifts smooth as glass.

[XaulZan]

Ahhh... thats gotta be it, Ill change out the tranny fluid right now, and your also right about the knobs, just checked em, didnt want to be winding on them till I knew what they were. Thanks for the info guys, I really appreciate it.

[vkjrocker]

this story reminds me of how I bought my turbo II.
i got it for 1,500 with a straight body but mismatched fenders and hood. LOL
and now its not running :\ so fml haha.
good luck with your repairs

[XaulZan]

One more question for everybody, when driving quick over bumps (uneven pavement, patches/ potholes etc) the front right makes a stuttering sound, like a real quick succession of "bump,bump,bump,bump". Im thinking Ball joint? But there is no play in the ball joint, and everything seems tight, any ideas what this could be? It only does it above 60mph.

[Ender]

One more question for everybody, when driving quick over bumps (uneven pavement, patches/ potholes etc) the front right makes a stuttering sound, like a real quick succession of "bump,bump,bump,bump". Im thinking Ball joint? But there is no play in the ball joint, and everything seems tight, any ideas what this could be? It only does it above 60mph.

Maybe squeaky springs, maybe rubbing panels. Kind of hard to say without experiencing it, but I'm also young at this.

[TitaniumTT]

Check your strut tops.

I'm old at this ;)

[XaulZan]

Ok, any suggestions on how to check, what to check for in the strut tops. I looked in the service manual but couldnt find any reference on inspection procedures/tolerances. Thanks for the help.
Joe

[FC Zach]

A quick check: Raise the hood, pull off the black rubber covers from atop the struts (if still there), and visually inspect the rubber that the shock is mounted to for cracks/deterioration.

[TitaniumTT]

you need to jack the car up so the wheels are hanging off the ground and with someone turning the wheel back and forth and moving it up and down.

[XaulZan]

Ok, checked the struts and they are good, but I think I found the problem. I couldnt pinpoint the exact location of the noise so I drove the car with the shifter boot removed, and its the tranny, bouncing up and down. I checked the mounts and they are still there but are cracked/deteriorated and the center bolt through the crossmember looks like its supposed to have a rubber bushing on it or spacer or something but its not there , just the bolt hanging down with a rubber ring around the head of it that sits about a half inch from the crossmember (I think at speed when hitting bumps this allows the tranny to bounce up and down) Am I on track with this? Cant find anything relating to it in the manual, but thats what it looks like. I also cant find this spacer/bushing anywhere on the internet. Any Ideas?
....I think Ill start a new thread on this.

[XaulZan]

upon closer inspection it seems that the transmission mounts have deteriorated to the point that the transmission is actually sitting 1/3" lower and slightly angled, so that the rubber washer on the crossmember center bolt (along with the center bolt itself) is sitting low, when i hit bumps at high speed it bounces the transmission up and down on the crossmember... not good.

[XaulZan]

strangest thing is the manual shows the exhaust hanger bracket bolting into this gap, but on mine the exhaust hanger bolts up to the side of the transmission housing itself. I dont know if this is stock or not.

[Ender]

strangest thing is the manual shows the exhaust hanger bracket bolting into this gap, but on mine the exhaust hanger bolts up to the side of the transmission housing itself. I dont know if this is stock or not.

If you can you might want to correct that. I don't know if it's attached to a strong boss on the trans, but I really doubt it's supposed to be connected to it at all for various reasons.

[Max777]

so... you need a new cross member, and some mounts... check your driveshaft as well, mine was actually all fine till I replaced the tranny mounts, and then it made the loose u joints in the driveshaft start making noises...

So far, replaced entire cross member, mounts, and driveshaft is next.

[XaulZan]

ALRIGHT! Replaced the crossmember, tranny mounts, ball joints and outer tie rod ends today and she handles like a dream. ALL the noise is gone, no bearing noise from the tranny, no tapping, no grinding no NOTHING! Took the wife for a ride after I finished and shes not mad at me any more! Awesome! Now I just gotta replace the power steering pump and the moonroof rack (wich I already ordered off Ebay) and throw a radio in her and shell be like new! SWEET!

[Rx-7fetish]

Dont get to excited lol, fc's like to toy with ya, its gonna lull you into a false sense of security and bam! You'll be stuck on the side of the road 30 miles from the hospital where your on your way to see if your moms lump is benign or cancerous................ true story. But when it is running good its the best car in the world lol.