Making this car last...Prevention is better than cure!
 

So I've had rx-7's for 7 yrs now and recently picked up an 8. The 8 is the newest car I've ever owned.

Let's put together a list of things to do to keep these cars nice and fresh. So, in 10-15yrs, they won't seem like old junkers (like my 85 GSL-SE). This is not just rotary specific stuff.

My Practices:

-Carbon. A redline a day keeps the mechanic away.

-Cold engine. Never race until FULLY warmed up.

-Premix. Jury's out on this, but probably a good idea.

-Oil. I'm changing it every 3k, I don't care what the manual says.

-Plugs. Keep em clean and change regularly.

-Don't brace/lean on interior pieces (to crack them) and be extra careful not to break or lose parts when DIYing.

-Maintenance. Like Nike - just do it. :)




Questions:

-Aux ports . this car has 5-stages of intake. I remember my FC (1990 rx-7) had a 3-stage and the 6-ports and VDI would get stuck and need o be greased. How can we prevent these cars from actuator/valve seizure?

-Moisture Sealing. My 85, 90, and 93 rx-7's all would have frost INSIDE the damn car windows on cold mornings and fog up in rain. how can we keep these cars from doing that down the road? Or is it inevitable.

-Windows/mirrors/wipers . I LOVE how fast and crisp the motion of my Windows/mirrors/wipers are on my 8! It would take FOREVER for the older RX's to do these. Sometimes, windows would get stuck and not even make it up or down. Can we prevent this?

-I also love how ALL the buttons work on the 8. Do these things simply just fail, or can we prevent this too?

Those are the main ones I can think of now. Hope people have answers to them :).

Feel free to list any questions/practices of your own.

The interior trim is delicate and vulnerable to scratches, let alone cracking. If I have passengers in the rear, I'm resigned to either a) asking them to please be careful with their iPods, handbags, zippers which, let's face it, you really can't do without sounding like a weird anal loser... or b) finding new scratches on the center console trim that costs $$$ to replace. Can't win on this one. :(

Thing just pretty much break down with time , I don't think there's much you can do about it .....Just like us , we just get old ......It' part of the package ..........

Plus, what come out tomorrow, will be better than what came out , today.......

Good practices and these are basically what I follow. dre-2000, what brand/weight oil do you use in your 8 and have used in the 7's?

hahaha i see you're concerned about the wiper switch and the wiper motors, sounds like someone that has had some fun with FC's lol

Thats hilarious, I see the looks on peoples faces when I ask them pretty much the same things. I took a chick to the movies a while back and she did'nt say anything but I could tell it bugged her that I parked out in the middle of the parking lot away from all the rest of the cars. But hey that's why my car is perfect after three years. People are always surprised when I tell them my car is an 04'.

Keeping the engine as cool as possible through the warmer weather will prolong the car's life, as we all know the Renny (or any rotary) doesnt much care for hot weather/climates.

Examples: Upgraded radiator (BHR), Mazport fan mod or fan control manipulation through EMS, air dams or diversion panels, vented hood, ect.


9krpm...i do the same shit dog. I will pass on a space right up front if i think its remotely too tight or if its by a fu**ing minivan/SUV or something where most likely there will be 3-4 snot nose kids swinging open the doors carelessly. I try to park my ride next to the most expensive car in the lot or out in no mans land.

I wish more people thought as you do, great post!
Most of the buttons on my RX-8 (05) have held up really well.

on a side note: the plastic trim fades after a while so make sure you have something around to keep it looking shiny. Meguiar's NXT (purple bottle) works great.

Also, the paint on our cars is quite soft so make sure you keep it polished. Meguiars or Zaino is your friend.

Castrol GTX 10w30 in the FB
Castrol GTX 20w50 in the FC
Rotyal Purple Syn 10w30 in the FD
Castrol GTX 5w20 in the RX-8

I premixed the FB and FC with valvoline 2-stroke (blue bottle)

(all were what were recommended in the owner's manual)

Ahh yes, I remember the fun I had trying to get the windows to come up in my '85and '87 RX7s. I had the driver's side window shatter in the '85 GSL when it slipped off the track as it was going up. I thought someone was shooting at me! (In the neighborhood I was in at the time, that wasn't an impossibility...)

which brings up another major point in preserving your car as long as you can.

park your car in a FULLY COVERED garage as much as you can when you're not driving.

the sun is the ultimate destroyer of anything that is exposed to it.

keep it covered and you'll save YEARS off the wear on your car!!!

^^ which is why mine hides under a cover at work and in the garage at night. :)

Drive hard. No need to greased or anything. Its been 20 yrs since FB.

Never happened to me, and outside temp has been lower than 32 for a week or so.

Never happen to me, yet.

Everything fails, just the matter of when.

I'd have to disagree and say that a cure is better than prevention. Though prevention minimizes the risk, a cure solves the problem. I'd rather have a cure for cancer than do cancer prevention :-P

If we could prevent cancer, we wouldn't need a cure. A cure solves a problem...prevention means there isn't a problem to solve. :-P

Prevention just means to minimize the chance of something occurring - which means in can still happen. Similar to a hockey goalie preventing goals from being scored. But not every game ends in a 0-0 draw.

Preventing means STOPPING it from happening before it's too late.

Example: let's stop arguing this definition to prevent this thead from being derailed ;).

A 'superior' water pump doesn't hurt (Mazmart RE-medy, hint,hint :) ) and I would advise running 10W40 rather than the maufacturers 5W20 recommendation for most parts of the US whether you prefer dino or syn.

My 2 cents.

Paul.

You missed out on some areas I think are important:

If you love the car's interior, get yourself Aerospace 303 protectant (has SPF 40) right away and apply that to all the plastic panels esp. the dash. If you have leather, get a good cleaner/conditioner (Zaino is one). And if you know you'll be keeping the car forever, have tint on ALL windows (windshield too!) even if its 70% tint which is hardly noticeable just so it blocks the UV.. if you use the sunroof allot too, tint that as well (the factory tint does nothing for protection except make it look dark).

For your paint, get a clear bra if possible (unless you know you're swapping out the bumper).. even still, have your headlights protected with the bra too (you'll have mint, rock pit-free, crystal clear headlights after many years this way).

Also if you haven't selected a wax/polish solution yet, I'd strongly point you to Zaino. Its totally non-abrasive, durable as hell, shines even if you don't wash the car for a month, prevents you from thinning out or swirling the thin paint on the car from other polishes, heck even the Zaino car wash doesn't strip the polish but conditions it (I used to just use plain water on my previous car b/c the car shampoo took out some of the Mother's 3-step polish/wax I just applied for hours). Oh, make sure you use only quality microfiber towels (not those cheap ones from Target!! :lol: ). If you want to be more hardcore, let me know hehe.

What about...........
wax on.. wax off... wax on

sure thing...but other things can derail this thread though...

What's the best way to improve my mileage?!? :lol2:

u ain't the only one. and avoid camry/corolla drivers... those are usually some either really crappy drivers, or one that don't care too much of their cars.