De-Carb and Warranty
 

The dealership called yesterday and said they've now found something else wrong and I won't get my car with the new engine until tomorrow.

At any rate, 2 questions that the dealer hasn't been very helpful with:

1. What the heck is "de-carb"ing and why do they do it?

2. If there's still a problem after the de-carbing and I need a new engine, is anybody getting their money back for the de-carb? They dealership told me that I have to pay for that and that it's part of the process to see if I need a new engine. Huh? If part of their proscribed process to determine if I need a new engine doesn't work and I do need a new engine, shouldn't I get it back?

At any rate, I'm not all that happy here in rotary land.

Christopher

How much do they charge for de-carb there?
It basically means cleaning inside the engine...

$232 total

about $20 for the stuff and the rest was labor.

Total rip off, if it's only de-carb by itself...

There are DIYs on here, which only cost $10-$20. (Depends on what you use to de-carb, seafoam or the Mazda thing...)

I've never been through the process of getting new engine under warranty so I wouldn't know what should be charge or not...I'm sure there are threads on here somewhere, just look for it.

I decarb'd my engine myself before bringing it in for a compression test and then as part of their testing they did it again. I did need a new engine so they did not charge me for it.

Yea it's common for rotary owners to use sea foam so don't let them try to tell you it will void warranty. Off to the parts store you go.. get a bottle of Sea Foam gas treatment and read the treadz on how to do it. Good luck.

Holy crap! $232 for decarb?

The dealer in Oakville On. Canada charges C$125

I did mine for about 15 bucks.

They wanr $232 for decarb, then if you get a new engine they'll wart close to $1000 for all the stuff that's not included!

That's nearly half of what a decent rebuild will cost you!

If you buy the liquid then get some 5/32" vacuum hose too.

Has anyone tried adding sea foam to the crank case (oil)? According to the back of the can, adding it to the crankcase helps clean PCV valve systems.

Oh wow ... $232? The only tools you need are your fingers and a clear hose ... WTF???

I did in my old car(not a rotary) it says to only have it in there for no more than 100 miles. I dont know if this caused it or not but after doing that and driving for a few days I developed a ticking sound in my engine which never went away. Someone said it was lifter tick but I dont know. The engine had like 90k on it, so what the seafoam cleaned may have been what was holding everything together and in the proper spots in there.

I know that's on a piston engine and not a rotary but just thought id put it out there. :P

Seafoam is a VERY strong cleaning agent. The bottle is right, don't leave it in the crank case oil for that long, immediately do an oil change shortly after cleaning the engine. Once the carbon/gunk is gone, it will then attack everything else, AKA.

I have never added seafoam to the crankcase oil in any of my rotary powered vehicles. Where the crank case oil lubricates, outside of OMP injection, shouldn't see any carbon build up, (bearings, stat gears, eccentric shaft)

In my opinion, bringing the revs above 7500RPM daily is a much better alternative than using seafoam once or twice a year.