Mazda Rotary Club

Hi Everyone,

Yesterday I had the very sad news that the water/coolant that was leaking from my rex was not a result of the caps or the pipes, so the engine has to come out to check the seals. I am obviously not a happy bunny!

I\'ve only had the car 5 months, it\'s 92 3rd gen with only 19k on the clock, 3k of which I have done. I spent 18 months looking for this car, after doing about 2 years of research so I was fully aware that I would need a rebuild at some point, but I just didn\'t expect it to be so soon!

The car is currently at RXHeaven in Horsham. I was recommended there by Tim Porter as I\'m involved in the Cannonball this year, and then met Nigel at Terminal Velocity last week, which is where we noticed the leaking coolant.

Has anyone used RXHeaven or have some background on them?

I have been happy with Nigel so far, and they seem like nice guys but I just wanted to know if anyone has used them before and what they thought. I\'m also open to suggestions of anywhere else that people could recommend. I had the car serviced by Rotechniks in March which I got the car, but was hoping to find somewhere slightly closer to Essex, where I live.

I\'ve been quoted £1625 + VAT for the rebuild, plus £550 for fitting. If the car only needs the seals done (although he\'s going to checking everything else out and definitely changing the tips) it\'s going to be £1500 + VAT. I\'m thinking it\'s probably worth just having a full rebuild as it will save me money in the long run, as I don\'t want something else happening 6 months down the line and have a similar bill!

Nigel also thinks that the car has done more miles than stated, and has mentioned to be about the different speedo I have to standard (Knight Sport reaching 300) and thinks that when this was replaced, the didn\'t add on the extra mileage. Does that sound feasible to you guys?

What I\'d really like from anyone who cares to comment, is advice on where to take the car and your general views on my situation. I know I have to get my engine done, but I want to make sure I\'m taking the car to the right place and paying the right price for it.

Thanks guys.

QuoteOriginally posted by Candi
Nigel also thinks that the car has done more miles than stated, and has mentioned to be about the different speedo I have to standard (Knight Sport reaching 300) and thinks that when this was replaced, the didn\'t add on the extra mileage. Does that sound feasible to you guys?

Yes,  sounds exactly like what has happened to me.  Anything with after market clocks I consider as an unknown on the mileage front.

No advice on where to take it other than take your pic of the normal rotary places.

Lee

QuoteOriginally posted by Candi
The car is currently at RXHeaven in Horsham. I was recommended there by Tim Porter as I\'m involved in the Cannonball this year...
Uggh, Tim Porter - I\'ll leave others to post their experiences of him...

Has anyone used RXHeaven or have some background on them?
I\'ve heard of one 20B by them (built for Porter for his pink FD, now dead after minimal miles I beleive?) and one guy who sounded as if his 13B was on its way out after a recent rebuild by them BUT I should stress I\'ve had no personal dealings with them - just havent heard any thing good; hopefully some one/people on here have used there services and can comment more appropriately/positively than I...

I\'ve been quoted £1625 + VAT for the rebuild, plus £550 for fitting. If the car only needs the seals done (although he\'s going to checking everything else out and definitely changing the tips) it\'s going to be £1500 + VAT.
Make sure you get a detailed list of what will be replaced with new items and what will be reused before comparing it with other company\'s rebuilds so you get a fair comparison. Also check what warranty they will provide. Finally, ask for happy customers who can recommend them - why not!? :rollin

Nigel also thinks that the car has done more miles than stated, and has mentioned to be about the different speedo I have to standard (Knight Sport reaching 300) and thinks that when this was replaced, the didn\'t add on the extra mileage. Does that sound feasible to you guys?
Totally feasable - 19K on a 12 year old car is really unlikely even in japan. There are loads of cars that come in with a/market clocks and therefore spurious mileage. Personally I\'m with Lee on this; different clocks mean expect the worse to me - sounds like u were unlucky :(

What I\'d really like from anyone who cares to comment, is advice on where to take the car and your general views on my situation. I know I have to get my engine done, but I want to make sure I\'m taking the car to the right place and paying the right price for it.
As above, make sure you know what will be replaced by whomever you go with; the \'usual suspects\' are probably the safest as they have a lot of engines floating about in use that must indicate some thing...just go where you feel happy at the end of the day, but try and get some feedback from existing customers if u really dont have a clue about whom to use.

Yea on the mileage front there does seem to be daft mileage on some cars coming through, cant be coincidence that nearly all FD\'s coming through seems to be lower than 40000miles, does make you think???

Also once here when the km is changed to mph how much more work could it be to say drop 20k off the mileage with no documentation from Japan - which is quite often.

On the bright side, once the rebuild is done you can look forward to lots of years of driving ;)

No coincidence just normally that the Nippon based folks get nailed for more milage as i understand it so more often than not for the FD there\'s not going to be a shed loads of miles on even the oldest car but dont get me wrong does sound dubious at best & clocking electical read out milage cars is peace of pish as i understand it........
Si

Great, thanks guys.

Will keep you updated with what happens.

Have a great weekend...

Hi Guys,
           I am in the same situation, my seals have gone but i knew that before i bought the car, i still think the car was worth it, its done 49000, but i am hoping to rebuild it myself with new ported housings, remove air pump and cat, fit boost guage, water guage all new silicon hoses, and i would like to fit a larger capacity rad, as i now cant take my eyes off the temp guage, air filters etc.i have done a few ordinary engines in the past, ive got the video, just a matter of sourcing seals etc & rx8 apex seals. and getting organised, there seems to be a lot of help on here too. so i will dive in soon, any chance you could do it yourself mate? good luck.Bob

My car had a rebuild from RXHeaven in february, and i\'ve had endless problems since.

The car was taken to them by the guy i bought it off, and the car supposedly had all the apex seals changed, and 3mm racing tips put on, the only documentation i have is a warranty slip.

In the first week i had a massive radiator leak after i was told the rad had been replaced, i took it back to them and they replaced it promptly, though now i find that i have the same problem in virtually the same place.

I had more work done on the car by them in may, which included new suspension upright joints, brake discs, engine oil seal,2nd turbo actuator and a new set of mille miglia evo alloys and avon tyres, the bill in total was £3400, which is quite hefty imo, so it took a couple of weeks for me to pay them as i was in egypt and i am self employed, which RX heaven were not very nice about, and kept ringing up my parents and harassing them about the money every other day (they had my car at the workshop during this period so i never understood what the fuss was about).

As far as i know the work was done ok but since then ive had to do alot of work on the car since as i discovered my 2ndary turbo actuator had failed again and most of my vacuum lines were brittle/broken and when i rang them up for a quote on replacing the vacuum lines/coolant hoses/actuator i was told £1500+ vat.

They seem ok if you HAVE to go to them but i wouldnt recommend otherwise as there very costly+they have a knack of being quite patronising to some1 who\'s actually owned 2 rx7s, fair enough im not an engineer/mechacnic but i think that attitude stinks and is a very sucky part of the motor industry, and i dont like the fact that if you have a problem there rather prone to telling you to bring the car in to them immediately rather than offering a little simple advice (advice which ross from dragon seems more than willing to give, and makes me far more willing to spend my cash with him).

Imho id get your car to ross@dragon, cos it costs £185+vat to get it towed by rxheaven if it breaks down, which is pretty steep by most standards.

PS i would have thought they would have noticed how bad the vaccum lines were when they replaced the actuator but maybe the lights were off or something

:confused:

Hmmmm,

interesting stuff there buddy, i suggest you avoid rx heaven from this mo forth, however you should have not gone back to them once the first lot of work was unsatisfactory???

I personelly go to Pip at WGT engineering, and he is very helpful and the worksmanship is top class:)

My car is from Ross, and would go back to him tbh but its just too far from Derby to Exeter???:(  good 4hr drive!!!

Hmmm..

 Is RxHeaven the one down nighting gale rd, in what used to be JV\'s unit?

 A friend of mine does the accounts for them I think, I\'m heading over that way on Wednesday and think I will check them out and see just how much bull they spout. (Was thinking of taking my FD there to get speedo and odo changed over to mph)

 If your (new)Rad has gone in the same place it may be worth checking to see whats caused the failure before you replace it, might save you more £££ in the future.

As there are so few specialists in the UK it is expected that you will travel to get work done. From the reports I\'ve heard I personally would steer well clear! I take mine to Tim @ RX Motors, although I have had some bits done at Rotechniks (I like their work but I think they are a bit pricey, also they aren\'t into porting). My 2Ps worth

Hi Candi,

Sorry to hear you have lost your engine.

The above posts are a little worrying as all you really seem to have been quoted for is a strip of your engine and a new set of tips !.

When these engines lose their water seals it can be that the rotor housings have warped and will require a lot more parts that realised at first sight.

Whilst l know very little of this company other that what Rich has pointed out l find it a little worrying that you mention no guaranties and it would appear that possibly by the time you get the car back it will quite possibly cost a hell of a lot more than what you have been told.

These engines are not as simple to rebuild correctly as a lot of people believe, indeed on the production line whilst these engines have only a third of the moving parts of a conventional piston engine they take TWICE as long to assemble because of the exact tolerances involved in building them.

Personally l would prefer you to go to one of our proper Rotary engine builders on the site who will give you a two year guarantee and a proper fixed in and out the door price price.

As you should know l have no problem if you or your dad wants to contact me to help you make the best decision for you surrounding your car.

gsb876, the reason i took the car back to them after the radiator leaked in the first week i had the car, is because i didnt know of any other RX specialists near me+the guy i bought the car off strongly recommended me to take it back to them if there were any problems, so being slightly protective:P of my new motor i just followed his advice.

Wont be bitten twice though :)

I did get told by rotechniks that the rad that they(rxheaven) had put in had known welding problems at the bottom and that they had been recalled a the day before i spoke to them.

Also i had no idea that the bill would come to so much, as the reason i took the car was that there was a clunking noise from the rear right wheel/suspension,+ it seemed that there was a crack in one of my 18" alloys and also 2 of the tyres were illegal.

Sorry to hear about your FD Candi - hope you get it back on the road soon!

Regarding the milage - When you fit a new speedo eg. RE Amemiya/Mazdaspeed 300km ones, they reset the milage to 0km!! Hence the low milage on your car, so you essentially have had 19000km since the new clock was put on.

Great if you want to reduce your milage, although you\'d need to bear this in mind if your buying a motor with aftermarket gauges.

I\'ll do you a swap with my 88K standard one which still clocks up Km\'s too (nice authentic Jap touch there)! :p

Wish you the best in getting your car sorted, I understand your perils in finding rebuilders as theirs alot of stuff flying around at the moment with regards to who you should use. Just look around the forum and ring around, I\'m sure you\'ll see who\'s a safe bet!;)

Hi guys,
             Back to basics for a min, candi says that the car is leaking water, as i understand it if the engine seals have gone, it wont show outside the car at all, as the engine consumes the water,with clouds of white smoke! or have i got the wrong idea?  could just be a leak.
Bob

QuoteOriginally posted by ro284
Hi guys,
             Back to basics for a min, candi says that the car is leaking water, as i understand it if the engine seals have gone, it wont show outside the car at all, as the engine consumes the water,with clouds of white smoke! or have i got the wrong idea?  could just be a leak.
Bob

It can do both,or either.
Kind regards
Carl

Thanks Carl, you are the expert on this of course, i was just surprised candi did not mention any other symptoms, like misfiring, poor running, overheating,white smoke,wont start.etc. the cause of the puddle under mine was the thermostat failed to open, overheating and bioling the water and forcing it out of the expansion bottle, mine seems ok now now, fingers / legs crossed.
kind regards Bob

Just driven the car home to Essex from Horsham this morning (6am start - yuck!) after having no work done at RX Heaven.

After having a chat to Clive on Monday afternoon, we think the car might just be running with too much water in her so it\'s just getting chucked out. I\'m going to check this theory over the next couple of days, as on the run back, she ran perfectly. My dad was also following me the whole way and said he didn\'t see any smoke or water coming from the exhaust, or anything unusual at all.

Keeping my fingers crossed that it\'s what Clive thinks, but will keep you all posted.

Thanks heaps for all your help and advice, I hope I get to meet a lot of you soon...

Glad the car ran well candi. it seems so easy to assume the engine needs a rebuild, just because of a puddle, even that garage seemed to think that! had you left it with them, you could have had a rebuild you hopefully don\'t need! good luck with it.
Bob

Hi Candi,
That is great news.
I like many assumed that the garage knew what it was doing.
After speaking to Clive about it he came to what is in all likely- hood the right conclusion.
Happy motoring!!
Kind regards
Carl

Hi there guys, when my 1st gen rx7 went bang it was an intermal water leak due to it overheating in a big way. It would start so we left it for a while and when my engine builder came to check it out we took the soark pluge out and turned over the engine and sure enough it spat water at us. It is always best I think when dealing with a potentially expensive repair to know what might be wrong or roughly therabouts.
  good luck with it anyway.

You could also try using a \'water pressure tester\' to see if the engine is consuming water. I managed to borrow one from Paul-Tll (thanks mate!), who lives in the Surrey area I think. This will tell for sure if your water seals are damaged!