It only occurs under about 2000-2100 rpm, when accelerating gently, usually in a fairly high gear. I\'m not sure if it\'s a \'breathy\' sound, or a \'scrapey\' one... it\'s kinda inbetween. It goes away completely after 2100 rpm, or if I let off the accelerator.
I\'m guessing it\'s something to do with the turbo system... at first I thought it might have been a loose pipe or something venting air, but if there was a problem with something like that, surely there would be other symptoms, but the car seems to run fine. (not that I have any point of reference though, since it\'s the only rx-7 I\'ve ever driven)
What I\'m worried about is that it may be something like excessive shaft play in the turbos, making the blades scrape. I really don\'t have the money right now to get the turbos rebuilt/replaced. The car only has 37k on the clock, would have thought that was too early for problems like that to crop up?
Any suggestions?
Cheers.
Mine does a similar thing at those revs although I can\'t confirm whether it\'s the same noise! After much scratching of head and poking around it turned out to be the air filter (bloomin\' great thing) vibrating against the engine bay...
check your air pump..
What year is your Rx? Was checking newera\'s site (as i regularly do) and they had this info on a couple of Rx\'s they had in stock:
"The Air Pump has noisy bearings and the electrical plug for the magnetic clutch has been disconnected. Air Pump bearing failure is common on older RX-7\'s and isn\'t detrimental to performance (If anything it allows the car to produce more power more efficiently at the expense of emissions). With the induction kit fitted, if connected - an air pump would make strange sounds as it came on, which is primarily why these are often disconnected on RX-7\'s."
So this may be your problem??
Ah, that could well be it. Mine\'s a \'92, so that\'s a distinct possibility. So I guess the plan is to disconnect the air pump, and see if it still makes the noise. Cheers guys. I\'ll give that a shot. :)