1988 Mazda RX7 Base SE from North America - Comments

Keep in mind this car is designed with performance in mind and things like reliability are secondary (like it or not).

Here are some inherent weaknesses:

(1) Overheating. By design the rotary engine puts out a lot of heat to put out the high horsepower with a small displacement. This is just how the engine was designed. The banana shaped combustion chamber is just not as thermally efficient as pistons. So Mazda put in stuff like oil coolers, big factory radiators, 3 catalytic converters, and air pump to address this and the emissions problem. Funny thing is these are still trouble spots. The oil line leaks, clutch fan no longer works, and water jacket blows, are examples of this. Next thing you know you need a new engine because it is blowing out coolant. It is imperative that the oiling and cooling system is kept in good shape in these cars. They are more sensitive to these failures than piston engines.

(2) Flooding. This will leave you stranded and will eat several batteries and starters in the process. It happens when you start the car, then shut it down without it properly warming up. There are lots of discussions on this topic, but it is definitely annoying. You basically have to purge all the fuel by removing spark plugs, cranking several times to purge fuel, reinstall plugs, crank again, etc.. There are detail procedures in several websites, but anyone owning a 2nd gen will know what I am talking about. This is definitely pathetic in the age of sure fire fuel injection.

(3) Clutch pilot bearing. This needle bearing has no inner race and actually rides on the input shaft of the transmission. As a result, if you ride the clutch a lot, then it will eventually fail and you won't be able to shift into gear. I blame this on bad design of transmission. It would have been actually more reliable to put a bushing in there instead (as other manufactures do) or better yet put in a real bearing.

(4) Hard shifting transmission/bad gears. Again bad design. This applies to all non-turbo transmissions. Mazda basically carried over the transmission from the 1st gen (a lighter car) without a new redesign. You can tell because there are a lot of similarities like same input shaft diameters and same needle pilot bearing. Well when you use a design meant for a lighter car and use it on a heavier car, it does not take a rocket scientist to figure that there will be problems down the road. Let's just say that the transmission needed work before 100k miles. Note this is a separate issue from the pilot bearing one.

(5) Electrical... stuff like Logicon and CPU can be on the fritz due too bad solder joints.

(6) Window wiper intermittent no good due to a bad relay. This can be a problem because state inspections require them to work at all speeds (stupid law).

(7) Bad trim. The window sill trims tend to rust. The inside overhead trim cracks.

(8) Sucks up a lot of gas. Engine is again inefficient. They say it'll get better with the upcoming Renesis engine, but we'll see.

Conclusion: You would have to be an enthusiast to put up with the many quirks of RX7s.

Car itself is good, but I question the drive train reliability. The bad transmission design did not help either.

Once it is running it's very fun though. Not for a non-mechanic however unless it has very low miles.

Can't compare to a old piston engine in terms of reliability and practicality. That is also why you see people converting these things with V8s. Rebuilding rotaries are not cheap either.

It sounds to me like this poor fellow has purchased a junk car, which is going to be trouble from the start. Wankel rotary engines are extremely reliable if they are properly maintained. My '88 GXL presently has 159K miles on it and is still running quite well, has never over heated, gets 25 mpg consistently on average, and has never had a transmission or clutch problem out of the ordinary (the clutch was replaced). I have yet to own a "boinger" that is as reliable and trust-worthy as my "7" and I have owned Fords & Chevys to top of the line Cadillacs. I go on a trip, I'll take the RX-7! I know I will get back without being towed or fixed!

Flooding only happens when you press on the gas pedal while cranking, just keep your foot away from the pedal when you are starting it. If it does flood, crawl under the dash, look for a yellow connector (to the right of the steering column), unhook that, then crank the engine over with the pedal floored, it will start, then stop after 3 seconds. All the fuel is out of the rotors. Reconnect the plug, don't touch the gas, turn the key and you are on your way.

I've now had 5 RX-7's I have yet to replace a clutch in any of them. They are sensitive to overheating, but the only time I had an issue there, was blowing a radiator hose while going about 100MPH in the California dessert. The engine needed a rebuild after that, but I plunked another one in there overnight and was off and running. Great cars, but yes, you can't neglect them. Bang for the buck is amazing, and love that smooth rotary power.

My roomie bought a 2nd generation for $1200 and after a month or so he started to flood out everywhere he went. then the car needed to sit for a day or so before we could start it again. He eventually got sick of being left stranded, so I picked it up from him for about 500 and then It sounds crazy, but the only thing I did to correct the problem was I brought it to the do it car wash and pressure washed the engine and WD-40'd the linkage, and have never been stranded since then.

My Rex, i have owned three Rx 7 all 90's and I have never had a problem. except for just making other parts better, clutch, exhaust, air filter, etc.and also I should say flooding problems? I never had any. but if you should have, just disconnect the fuel pump wires behind the drivers seats rear speaker. Its closer to the back of the wheel, behind the interior rug.find then unplug. turn it over about three times. Plug fuel pump wires together and blow flame.

I don't agree with the cooling issue on 2nd gen cars. I find generally they run just fine, and that is is the 3rd gens with the cooling problems due to twin turbos and a cooling system that was designed too small. I drive my 2nd gen hard and it never gets hot and is very reliable. It has flooded a few times, but I solved that by removing the EGI fuse and cranking it until it started and then replaced the fuse.

I've had my Roxy for 5 years and I absolutely love it. It was my previously my cousin's car, and she purchased it new off the lot. Well she got a newer car and left this one sitting in the garage for four years before I got it. I thought that I would have to do some major repair to it just to get it running, but luckily, the guy that towed it home for me (obviously it didn't start right up after 4 years of sitting) had some experience with rotary engines. I, at the time, didn't know anything about them. The only thing we had to do to get it started was siphon out the old gas, put in a new gallon or two, replace the battery, and then he just sat there cranking it for about 20 minutes. Finally, she huffed and puffed and blew all her carbon and smoke out. She putted around for about ten minutes and finally started to smoothen out. I was so excited to hear it run. The only bad thing is that while we were getting it out of the garage to have it towed home, we had to turn the wheel several times which ended up severely damaging the rack and pinion system. That had to be replaced, but after that it was one of the best cars I have ever driven. Only small, normal maintenance was required over the next few years until I finally had to replace the clutch at 95k miles, which was it's first clutch replacement. That and the rack and pinion repairs are the only major things that have been done in the cars lifetime as I have proof of this from my cousin. She still runs great today, and enjoy using it as my daily driver. As for the comment about flooding, that's not a major problem for anyone I know. As long as you know that these engines are sensitive and need to be warmed up, you should not have a problem with that. I never start mine and shut it off without warming it up because I like to take good care of it. A friend of mine (who by the way rebuilds rotary engines for about $1200, which is not too bad by my standards) said that there was a trick to where you could pop the hood and take out two of the fuses and crank it and it should start. I'm not sure of the details as I have never had to do this, but I'm sure someone knows what I'm talking about. I think that it is good common practice to not ride to clutch as to not wear it out. This is the same on any car, and I don't particularly think it has anything to do with the pilot bearing. I will agree with you on the electrical problems because my intermittents do not work some times, but as long as its on all the time it works fine. A small problem that is worth overlooking (how often does it really rain?). Also, my cruise control is more like a missile launch button because when it is on, I go full throttle with no end in sight. This just recently started happening, but I rarely use cruise control anyways. Nothing has happened to this car that has mad me absolutely frustrated with it, and it's records show it to have very good reliability when compared to other vehicles. No car is perfect, but this one has been dangerously close. You have to give it that since it is a 16 yr. old car with 112k miles, it's not doing too bad for its age. It's essentially like a pet though: if you treat it with love and respect, it'll give you a lot of good times. If you ignore and disrespect it, and expect too much of it, it'll turn sour on you. Simply take care of it like it needs to be taken care of, and you'll have a great car for a long time. I love 7's!

Right on the money about the cheap plastic used in the interior. Has anyone notice things like the center console piece, side air vents, and door surrounds all tend to crack? Especially the center console piece that surrounds the radio. They are not cheap at mazdatrix either and you could never find one that isn't cracked at the junkyard. Similarly the outer window trim always are rusted.

I have had a 88' purchased it used with 65k miles on it and I have never had a more fun or reliable car, before I purchased the car all I heard was bad things about it, but 90% of the people who say rx7's are garbage are people who have heard it from some one else who has never had a rx7...

I recently purchased an 88 mazda rx7 for a steal. It has the best original paint job I have ever seen on an rx7. It has 116000 miles on it. Only problem is the back 2 plugs aren't getting fire. I thought it was the back rotor housing, but people tell me if that was my problem, I wouldn't be able to do donuts and power brake it etc. Sadly, I too, hear nothing, but bad thangs about rotary engines. I would love to learn more so I bought a Haynes manual, and it disappointed me. There is a lot of stuff to rotary engines. If anybody could help me I'd appreciate it. You can email me @ ralstonnick@hotmail.com. Please and thanx.

-NICk.

I am 18years old and I purchased a 88 RX7 GXL with only 88,000 on it for only $1500 about 4 months ago. It runs great. So far I changed the oil, but I put synthetic in. I have been reading that putting synthetic oil in rotaries may be bad so next oil change I am going to put normal 10w-30 in. I also put a new pair of plugs in her. I want to buy wires to, but first I need a new exhaust. Its all rusted and on the drivers side the tail pipe broke off of the muffler. My friends tell me I baby the car too much which I do. I heard the rotary enjoys the red line, but I am scared that I will blow an apex seal. That's my worst fear about the motor. Besides that I love the car and have a big interest in the rotary engine. The suspension is really nice and stiff. On sport mode it takes turns at high speeds with no roll at all. I love it. I got the coolant flushed and it had a light orange color to it. We put fresh green coolant in it and a few days later it was back to the light orange. I think that's how it should be due to the high temps rotaries run. If you know different please comment. I had a flooding problem at first, but I just pulled the EGI fuse, cranked it a few times, put the fuse back in and she started right up. When it flooded though, gas ended up in the oil so I changed that, put new plugs in and bought a new battery with more cranking amps. I haven't had a flooding problem since. I'm trying to treat the car well and show it respect and love so I hope in return she will treat me well. Someday I wanna drop a 20b in it and make a car for the track, but for right now I am happy that its my daily driver.

About 4 months ago I bought a none turbo 88 Mazda RX7. All I know is it makes my 87 I-ROC feel slow. I have no cooling issues though I think my compression is going. But that is after 160,000 miles. I let it sit for about a week or so, then it wouldn't start. After tearing it apart trying to find a problem, going through the deflooding measures I got lucky with a push start. It blew out blue smoke but didn't stop me from leaving some rubber. Now I start it every day and I don't have any problems. As of the interior. I consider that a luxury. It has none.

Purchased new, we are driving our 1988 RX7 for 21 years now but have only put 65,000 miles on it so far (I drive fast, not far). It had some emissions problem about ten years ago that the local dealer could not fix. They tried everything and said nothing could be done. A shop called Rotary Performance said that there was an update to the air intake system available and that fixed the problem.

I have replaced the exhaust, brake pads and tune up parts but nothing else. I had the flooding problem for a few years but it went away after one of the tune ups. I do the work myself and can't imagine what cured it.

Planning on a new top for it this year and maybe some body work. Love the car.

I just bought Ameli, a 86 na RX7 a few weeks ago for 600 cash. After sitting in a barn for the last 7 years, with a little bit of work, a good engine cleaning, new vacuum lines, plugs, filters, MAF cleaning and a new starter installed, she starts right up every time with over 146k on the stock motor and auto trans, which before I got to it seemed to be heavily neglected.

It's a quirky car for sure, has a personality all of her own it seems, but for the mileage and the fact that it is a auto trans and it shifts beautifully after 146k, and sitting for so many years now, I don't think I could ever say anything bad about it, and disagree strongly now with the weedwhacker on crack persona that the RX7 has been given over the years.

Wasn't my first choice for another (5th) car to have laying around here, but out of all of them I have now, it sure as hell is the most reliable, and has since replaced the 924 as my daily driver.

The car itself is very well balanced and proportioned, probably more so than almost anything else I have ever driven.

The depth perception of the hood and view angles of the car from the drivers seat are second to none, and the dashboard layout, although dated, is something that just tells you this car was a special breed; it is a performance vehicle, but with anything that is a sports car, it should not be let go and should be taken to someone who understands what the rotary engine is, and how it properly operates. Most garage mechanics have no idea what they are looking at or how to go about troubleshooting such a engine, which is why if you are looking for an RX7, even if you have a lot of experience with previous vehicles, you should read up on exactly what it is you're looking at and how the best way to go about fixing such a vehicle should be.

Don't be afraid to dive into it as a project, and also take all the horror stories you may have read with a grain of salt; it varies from car to car, and how the owner last maintained it.

I never would have expected to get such a good vehicle for such a cheap price, but it could have been a lot worse, and it might have been better. Best thing to do is take the car for what it is; a sports car designed in the mid 80s that was targeted at combating the 911 in rally style races and hill climbs. It was Mazda's first attempt at a full blown "next gen" sports car, and unlike the ma70 mk3 Supras, didn't have any of the shoddy framework issues or the inability to modify it like a z31 300zx from the same era.

I know what I'm talking about here, because I have both sitting in my garage next to my 7. Even though over 20 years have now passed, the fc series still can more than hold its own on a good mountain road, or even when properly maintained and with mild modifications, can be a very potent highway vehicle.

The amount of aftermarket for this car is damn near incredible, and rivals that of the s13 (240sx) and "ugh" Hondas...

If you want a fun car as a daily driver, it is within consideration to get one, but as I stated, make sure you do research and find out what to look for before you take the plunge, or you might end up with a car that was beaten half to death before you bought it, and will require a lot of work and more effort than anything else to restore.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.