hey guys

Down my street i saw a used 1990 rx-7 for sale. The asking price was $1,200, the car has about 230000 miles. Right now i'm just looking for a source of affordable transportation and i luckily stumbled upon this deal. So i called the guy for a test drive. The interior isnt that bad, it's all usual wear and tear (torn vinyl, slightly worn out seats. etc). Then i started the engine. The engine didnt hesitate to start, but it surprisingly went up to 3000rpm for about 5 secs and then dropped to 1500rpm...I let the car idle for awhile and it stayed at 1500. Is this normal for the rx-7(it's the non-turbo model, GTU?)?

This is my first time turning on a rotary engine and i only know so much from reading the forums. Besides the strange idle rpm the car begins to make "put put put puta put put put..." sounds afer awhile. Is this because of the spark plugs? Other than these problems the car is fine; accelerates great, shifts nicely and stops pretty good. Also are there any other things i should watch out for?

Thanks,
Pete

 

The 3K rpm startup is the cold start assist. You can disable it by starting the car in first gear. At least with S4 models, not sure about S5's. It "should" hover down to 1500 rpm's after a while and slowly work its way down to 800rpm or so. I would have it checked out if it stays at 1500rpm's at idle after driving it around a while.

 

230,000 miles?? unless you plan on rebuilding the engine, i would say no to this car. there is just a time when you have to be a car down sry

 

My 88 cnvrt did the same stuff you mentioned so I'd say it's normal. 230K is pushing the limit unless it was not beat on and had regular oil changes. With that amount of miles, other than the obvious stuff, I'd look for air bubbles in the anti-freeze which means a warped housing from overheating. If it's GTUs, it has all the turbo goodies without the turbo. Good luck.