Not a good start

[B.Martin]

Sooooooo. I\'ve got my car on road, been loving it off, even had the arse end out a bit for fun. How ever, having owned a Nova for a good 2 years the only problem i\'ve ever had has been my fault. Now after 3 weeks of driving the RX i\'ve had to drop it in at a local garage... It definately needs a new alternator belt? (i assume thats the belt you can see spinning under the bonnet) and the lights on the dash have all turned on whilst i\'m driving, it seems the fan has stopped working and it overheated... Now i hope its an electrical problem, but know it could be much worse. So please people some kind words of comfort and tell me it will be okay and my first RX hasn\'t lasted 3 weeks before the engine has given up on me.... Please

[James N]

Sounds like it mate, probably water pump/air pump belt, and alternator belt. Mine just did that! At least you cant blow the head gasket. I\'m not sure what happens to a rotary engine if you overheat it, probably be fine if the gauge didn\'t go right off up to the top, but i\'m not sure! Crappy luck that, but i\'ve had mine 2 days and the belt came off!!!

[TiddlesRX7]

It all depends on how hot it got I\'m afraid. Hopefully not too hot. Stick a new belt on it and see what happens. Hope its ok mate. Goodluck.

[B.Martin]

well as far as hotness goes, after i turned it off it spat water out the coolant pipe thingy...

[TiddlesRX7]

Yeah that happens. How high on the guage was it?

[Brett]

Are you sure the hydrostatic fan is working correctly?  When they start to fail you will eat belts and eventually they won\'t provide much in the way of cooling either.

[pdtaylor18]

let me know cos I can supply a fan.  You do need to make sure that everything spins freely, water pump, fan etc.  Its not good to run them mega hot cos you will blow it thats for sure, always wait til its cooled a bit til driving off

[B.Martin]

i left it to cool, the guage didn\'t get to the top i\'d say about 80% filled. Then i turned it off and didn\'t drive it for a good few hours and then only a mile at most. The car is in the garage so hopefully tomorrow i\'ll know a bit more. The man working on it has owned a few FC\'s in his time and worked for mazda for 7 years so hopefully i\'m in good hands. Thanks for the support and any parts i might need you\'ll be first to know.

[B.Martin]

Thank god it seems it was only the alternator belt, but it is over fueling so i need to get that sorted, if anyone has any ideas. The garage did a few tests on the engine for me and everything came up normal which is a relif, i\'ve done a good few miles in it tonight and some spirited driving and it seems to be running sweet as. Just a new exaust and some lowering springs now and all should be good.

[m1tch]

What ECU is it running on? as modding the intake and exhaust will need a remap lol

[nikp]

nah, intake and exhaust you\'re probably ok on. It\'s when you add a cat by-pass that it starts to require a re-map.

[nikp]

Ops, 2nd gen section! Stoopid me. Forget what i said!

[James N]

Good news there mate, at least it was a nice simple fix.
Is there a fc tuning guide on here anywhere?
Ben, i take it yours is a Turbo II yeah? You happy with it so far? Barely driven mine yet.

[B.Martin]

I\'m afraid not, its only an egi as thats all i can afford insurance on at my age, but come next october i\'ll be getting the TII. And will replacing the exaust need a remap? How come? And i suppose thats expensive is it!

[BenLewisMav]

A pretty decent tuning guide can be found here;
http://fc3spro.com/TECH/FM2W/power.htm
Follow the steps on here and you can save yourself quite a headache later on! Includes the important reliability mods aswell as power gaining ones.