The Truth about this 50K rebuild claim. It is the Rebuilders looking for more ££\'s??

[rmagictastic]

could we also bear in mind that the japanese and americans also have lovely high RON fuel, and most of us run on 97 or lower, (even if optimax says 98).

the cars are mapped for the higher RON of the mother country, so the do say 40k in one condition, then we stop them for 4 months (while shipped) and then try to suddenly thrash them on weak fuel which has completely different characteristics.

[memski]

Iirc americans have a lower ron fuel than us!

[rmagictastic]

sorry, the point was that we use the wrong stuff.

[petemillis]

This is the thing that niggles me about the false impression that you should only buy a low mileage car. I\'ve had no reliability issues (except for a leaking oil injector feed pipe) on 3rd gen RX7s, they\'ve all shown really good compression, and not a single one would be considered to be low mileage, and all the ones I have sold have been used as daily drivers by their new owners. (OK so one has since had to have a rebuild but that was through the owner unfortunately leaving the coolant filler cap off).
 
The same is true of other cars - eg the 2.8TDi engine in the Mitsubishi Delicas and Pajeros. I prefer to import those that have done a minimum of maybe 6000 miles per year. And I have never had a problem. Fuel pump seal failure is one of the weak points on these engines and it nearly always affects the lower mileage vehicles. Which sort of tells me that the rubber o ring seals in the fuel pump (diesel) go brittle and shrivelled through lack of use. It\'s using them that keeps the seals lubricated. I\'d hazard a guess that this is a contributing factor to water seal failure on RX7s as well - probably not helped by the fact that petrol in the bottom of the housing from flooding would wash off any lubricant and contribute to perishing of the seals.

Another problem that seems to occur on mainly low mileage imports is engine overheating and subsequent cylinder head failure. Again lack of use contributes to blocking of waterways within the engine.

And another thing, short journeys (like less than 4 or 5 miles) don\'t give the engine time to heat up properly. This means that moisture accumulates, destroys the lubricating properties of the engine oil, and contributes to internal corrosion.

Anyway, I\'m just off to Southampton to pick up a 1994 RX7 with 28000 miles on the clock - wish me luck guys :rollin

[ro284]

From my experience, my motor would have done a much higher mileage if a corrosion inhibitor had been used more often in its history! i dont know if they use any such thing in Japan, they may not need to, and If not this may explain why so many import engines fail, and not through tips breaking up, or mechanical failure,
Bob

[ro284]

Personally i don\'t mind that my engine needed a rebuild, and £2500, on a 12 year old car is not a lot to pay for peace of mind,
if i replaced the car for any reason for another 7 i would allow to have it done anyway, after all most seem to be 12 years old, and you could spend that much and more on any old engine,The unknown factor here is that being an import we can never know what general maintenance these imported cars have had, especially with regards to cooling system, so it\'s a bit of a lottery buying an import for that reason.
Bob

[Carl]

Originally posted by ro284
From my experience, my motor would have done a much higher mileage if a corrosion inhibitor had been used more often in its history! i dont know if they use any such thing in Japan, they may not need to, and If not this may explain why so many import engines fail, and not through tips breaking up, or mechanical failure,
Bob

This picture you have supplied is more often than not happening on cars that have been over here for a while.
The cause is the use of cheaper blue antifreeze,in Japan most cars seem to have the green antifreeze in them that inhibits the side housing corrosion.
The blue stuff seems to cause this kind of corrosion.
Often though the engines seem to have only the water seals failed and the side housings are fine if they have the green coolant in them.
My comments about low battery power earlier were saying that when the battery of a car is run down through lack of use in japan,then flooding is more likely,especially on the Docks in Japan.So the car may well have been fine when over there in use but then it sits with fuel eating away at the waterseals for the few weeks trip over here,cos everyone who tries to move the car keeps on flooding it!
As for the fuel being different here,that too can contribute to detonation and subsequent apex seal failure.The cars in the States were obviously setup for their fuel,and the same in Japan.The fact that the UK cars had a lower power spec tells us that the UK cars were also tuned slightly differently, for the fuel and conditions here.
Regards
Carl

[petemillis]

Putoline produce a really good coolant/corrosion inhibitor that I use in my 2 stroke enduro bike. I\'m thinking something like this might be pretty good to use.

Never touch the cheap blue stuff myself.

[Wav]

Originally posted by Carl
This picture you have supplied is more often than not happening on cars that have been over here for a while.
The cause is the use of cheaper blue antifreeze,in Japan most cars seem to have the green antifreeze in them that inhibits the side housing corrosion.
The blue stuff seems to cause this kind of corrosion.
Often though the engines seem to have only the water seals failed and the side housings are fine if they have the green coolant in them.
My comments about low battery power earlier were saying that when the battery of a car is run down through lack of use in japan,then flooding is more likely,especially on the Docks in Japan.So the car may well have been fine when over there in use but then it sits with fuel eating away at the waterseals for the few weeks trip over here,cos everyone who tries to move the car keeps on flooding it!
As for the fuel being different here,that too can contribute to detonation and subsequent apex seal failure.The cars in the States were obviously setup for their fuel,and the same in Japan.The fact that the UK cars had a lower power spec tells us that the UK cars were also tuned slightly differently, for the fuel and conditions here.
Regards
Carl

What make of green coolant do you recommend carl?

Cheers,

Paul:)

[Oedipus Rex]

am I not right in thinking that the colour is purely a post production additive? and that there are no rules or regs governing what ingresients are related to what colour product?

Surely you should be looking more carefully at the Glycol content and chemical structure of the coolant, rather than the colour of the liquid.

[ro284]

Well my car was imported early last year, assuming the blue stuff was put in when it arrived (doubtfull) then it certainly does damage quick!as the car only did 6000 miles before the seal failed! i have a newly rebuilt motor and filled it with blue stuff!oh dear!what else is there please?
Bob

[Durn]

Oedipus Rex - your comments re coolant are quite correct.

Also bear in mind that what comes out, in the way of coolant isn\'t
necessarily what did the damage - if corrosion has occurred due to coolant neglect, it is likely to be discoloured and therefore perhaps renewed prior to sale.

For info my car is a \'94 UK FD... engine rebuild at 80k in 2002 (before I purchased it) having been dealer serviced. History is fairly comprehensive though minor services (for oil) either not recorded or not done as regularly as I do now. Now at 88k.

I wonder if the high mileage US owners share our paranoia with
oil change intervals - I suspect not.

[MikeLMR]

Originally posted by memski
Iirc americans have a lower ron fuel than us!

not true, the US uses the road octane rating which is derived from a test with harsher conditions being run on the test engine

The scale we use which is the Research octane number and the testing is done at a lower rpm etc. etc. resulting in a higher rating for the same fuel.

you can also rate fuel using the motor octane number which I think is an average of the two !

[petemillis]

Durn, I assume that when you say your rebuild was done at 88k, you mean 88000 MILES, which is 140000km - yeah?

[Durn]

Originally posted by petemillis
Durn, I assume that when you say your rebuild was done at 88k, you mean 88000 MILES, which is 140000km - yeah?

Pete, yes I meant miles but rebuild was at 80k so around 130,000km