Well after over a decade of wanting one of these cars and watching their prices steadily climb just one step higher than I could afford for a weird and likely unreliable car, I finally found myself in the position of not needing a daily driver, having a small wad of cash in hand from selling the aforementioned unneeded daily, and a seemingly decent example at questionable asking price on Marketplace.
Queue a whirlwind week of organizing a U-Haul trailer, a friend with a truck who has helped facilitate bad decision before, getting final approval from a very undersatnding and supportive fiance, and trying my hardest not to let emotion get the better of me when looking at a car 350 miles from home, and suddenly we were loading a 5-letter onto a trailer. Not just any 5-letter, but MY 5-letter. It was a surreal experience to say the least.
Just under 80k miles. Was black, repainted professionally to red, then repainted terribly back to black. Mostly stock it seems. It started and drove onto and off the trailer but wasn't ready to be driven properly yet for reasons I'll get into shortly.
After a fortunately uneventful drive back, it was home in the garage and we could get a new battery and a positive terminal to see if that was the reason it didn't love to start when we were in PA, and it roared to life! Louder than I thought it should be, and sure enough there is a Pacesetter header and some flavor on unbranded aftermarket muffler. Not the biggest fan of the sound compared to say a Racing Beat setup, but it makes rotary noises and that's exactly what I've dreamed of for years now.
So... why wasn't it really driveable? This car was taken apart in 2021 because it needed a ball joint. One thing led to another and the PO got scope creep and had ordered TechnoToyTuning's Micro Big Brake Kit, Lower Control Arms and Tension Control Rods, and Front coilover conversion kit. He also decided to take the whole front end apart despite having multiple little kids and apparently not enough time for a project car. As such it was functionally immobile since 2021. He sold the coilover conversion kit, and slapped the TC and LCAs on very poorly but well enough to get the car moving. Also put on the Micro Big Brake Kit well enough to be mobile.
That's all well and good but homie forgot to read the fine print that the Micro big brak kit doesn't fit stock wheels. So when he tried to roll the car after putting the wheels on he scraped up the front wheels and the Wilwoods pretty good. To "fix" that he threw 2 non-hub-centric spacers on each side and that cleared well enough to get it on and off a trailer. He mounted the wheels off center so once they were properly mounted again (as much as you can with those terrible spacers) and with a tiny bit of shaving on the top of the caliper to get some extra cleearance for safety the car just needed to total bolt check and a few bits of hardware replaced on the suspension to be able to be driven to the end of the road and back.
So this morning I was able to get the car registered. One small panic attack when a flag was thrown up due to the color changes at the DMV, but now legally recognized as mine and plated to boot, I decided to actually take the car out for a couple miles and see what was wrong with it.
The answer? Several things, what can you expect from a $5000 GSL-SE that's barely been driven in years? Obviously I need to get an alignment done (something I do want to try myself but the whole interplay between Tension Control Rods and LCA adjustment seems a bit daunting. But I do have a bigger issue: the car doesn't want to rev past 5k rpm. Or at least, it didn't. As I kept driving that rpm got lower and lower until 10 miles later I was pulling into my driveway unable to rev past 3k rpm. Not sure if it's spark or fuel. I could see a clogged fuel filter but even at part throttle it seems to have this "soft rev limiter" so I think maybe it's old coils and plugs? I'll have to dig into it and see. It does run strongly though below that limit.
In reply to amg_rx7 (Forum Supporter) :
Thank you! Despite the issues I'm deeply enamored with this car. It's everything I hoped it would be, and as it improves it'll just get better. I would like to get it in good enough shape to take it to autocrosses and some HPDE events, but the timeline is going to be very slow. My fiance and I just bought our first house a few months ago and that takes an obvious priority. But as I keep telling myself, with this car not having any real rust to speak of, the timeline can be slow, I have the car and that's the important part.
I would not be surprised to hear you have a fuel pressure problem if it's been sitting for that long. Might be worth pulling the injectors and sending them off to someone like RC Engineering for a cleaning.
First I've heard of the Micro Big Brake Kit. Made me laugh, we sell a similar concept (using the same calipers) called the Little Big Brake Kit :)
Congrats on the score! And cheers to the PO for all their efforts that made the car more attainable! Take your time and enjoy the ride. Will be following for sure.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
Looking at their site the service is substantially cheaper than I would've thought. I know these cars have a tiny in-line fuel filter at the external fuel pump so I figured I would start by just replacing that, but for less than $100 due to only being 2 injectors the peace of mind from having them cleaned and tested plus the new filter at the pump is honestly hard to argue with regardless of whether it's the root cause
Not too much update today other than that I may have another lead on the stuttering issue. I wanted to check timing and had two issues in doing so:
1) there were no timing marks on the pulley. Apparently this is not that uncommon as they were just painted on by Mazda and can rub off? Either way a little frustrating. The car runs at all though so the timing can't be *that* far off one would think.
2) When I pulled the vacuum line off the advance on the dizzy there was no change in the way the car ran...at all? So I put a finger on the line and there seems to be basically zero vacuum. Pulled the second line off and the same. In fact almost everywhere I checked other than directly at the intake seems to have basically no vacuum. Something tells me I have a leak, and a pretty severe one.
ADHD brain takes over and I'm no longer focusing on fueling. Grab some brake cleaner and start spraying, nothing is changing how it idles. Head inside and grab some soapy water and start spraying and I can't find a thing. No bubbling anywhere. I may just have to re-do the vacuum lines (something I'm sure is long overdue) and hope that I find something while doing them. Also hoping it's not the metal manifold that has a leak because I have no idea how hard it'll be to source one of them.
The only clue I can get is that when the car shuts off there seems to be some kind of air leak that continues for maybe 10-20 seconds after engine shut off. Couldn't find it with soapy water and looking for bubbles there either.
I didn't have much time to work yesterday so I only made it about that far and a very small way into pulling the upper intake off to get access to the "rat's nest". Couldn't find any sort of detailed write-up so I'm working a little blind but so far it's been relatively straightforward, just need to make sure I take plenty of reference pictures for vacuum routing. Hopefully this weekend I'll be able to get a bit more done, I'm itching to drive the car!
I would think soapy bubble water is not gonna work to find vacuum leaks. If there was a leak, it would suck air in, not make bubbles.
The old go to was to use a Propane or Mapp torch (unlit) and "spray" the flammable gas near all hoses / joints / Connections to see if the idle increases.
I'd be checking fuel pressure. Pretty easy on these to "tee" in a pressure Guage. Tape it to the windshield and go for a drive. Watch if the fuel pressure starts dropping.
I have also seen exhaust systems internally collapse or have an obstruction that does a very similar thing. If you Crack the exhaust loose a bit after the header and it improves, you know it's an exhaust issue.
I would not think spark. I don't have experience with gsl se, but I do have experience with 12a and s4 engines. I don't think I've seen spark issues that would cause the issue you are describing.
Edit to add.... a vacuum leak isn't gonna cause the car to NOT rev. It would cause it idle high. If anything, it would run slightly lean at high rpm, but unless it is a HUGE vacuum leak, it isn't gonna hurt the engine.
The soapy water was admittedly a last ditch effort when I heard the hissing after the car was off, but you're 100% right. I never thought of a propane torch unlit, I'll have to find my mapp gas (re-finding everything after the move has been such a joy) and give that a shot. Seems a bit easier to manage than having to keep the brakleen can upright enough to spray and also make sure I'm hitting the right spot from a foot away.
Fuel pressure is still my leading thought on the stumble, I just knew I didn't have enough time to run to Advance to get a fuel pressure tester and the complete lack of vacuum really puzzled me so I went off on a tangent. You make a good point though to just figure out one thing at a time and fuel pressure may solve the stumbling issue so I can work on the next one without confounding/compounding factors.
I always wanted the SE but this Bosch L-Jet is a good deal more complicated than I anticipated. I suddenly don't blame the countless forum posters I saw growing up ditching for the simplicity of carbs. I'm stubborn as a mule so I'll be staying fuel injected, though.
These cars were particularly prone to collapsing the rear muffler internally. Those I saw fail were the original stock component in a 4 year old car. The way it started OK and then faded mimics my customer's descriptions of their failures.
Failure mode also mimics a stagnant dis-used fuel tank plugging all filters, common to every engine today. Dirty, watery fuel eats the pumps too.
Congrats on the new acquisition! Seems like it might not take too much to get it sorted, depending what it takes to get it running right.
I've always thought these were such pretty cars.
Well great news! Got an hour or so free yesterday after work so backed the car onto ramps, un-did the 6 bolts to access the external fuel pump, and after disconnecting the inlet line found the dinkiest little fuel filter:
This little guy was completely clogged, so I cleaned it out with some brake clean, drained about a quart of fuel into a jerry can, and buttoned it back together after confirming it would start again.
The fuel was definitely old (not surprising as the PO took the car off the road in 2021, although I think the gas is older than that). But it's not "drain it completely" old in my opinion. Either way, after buttoning everything back together, I took the car out of the garage and sure enough:
It's alive! pulled nice and smooth all the way to redline and the buzzer I've been waiting 12 years to hear in person.
The suspension I think will be the next concern. I am rubbing pretty bad on right turns, and the T3 micro brake kit isn't supposed to fit stock wheels so it's time to shop for some 4x114.3 wheels and get some tires that have date codes from the current standard on there. If I can swing it I may do new shock inserts and springs at the same time as the whole suspension is a bit worn to say the least.
That said, man does it look good despite the condition
Yay!
P.s. I believe these fuel tanks are hard to come by. You might want to spend the coin to get yours refurbished. They are specific to the 5 letter cars.
Fantastic! Glad it was an easy fix to get it running well. Projects are so much better when drivable.
Those sounds will always tempt me, but then I remember all the friends who've lost the rotary battle and think 'maybe I'll just watch someone else own one'. Congrats though, such a classic Japanese-lines car.
Very nice! My uncle used to autocross one of these and my brother's got an FC vert currently. This has me browsing craigslist/marketplace again...
Saw this on FB-M today and thought I'd post it here just in case. It's in Wayne NJ and it's expensive, but still probably a deal if you need a bunch of body work in that area.
https://www.facebook.com/share/k3XuxqJdY384TnvU/?mibextid=79PoIi
wvumtnbkr said:
Yay!
P.s. I believe these fuel tanks are hard to come by. You might want to spend the coin to get yours refurbished. They are specific to the 5 letter cars.
Definitely good to know. I've heard folks are having a hard time with 1st gen tanks in general so to know mine is unobtanium squared I'll be sure to be extra careful
Woody (Forum Supportum) said:
Saw this on FB-M today and thought I'd post it here just in case. It's in Wayne NJ and it's expensive, but still probably a deal if you need a bunch of body work in that area.
https://www.facebook.com/share/k3XuxqJdY384TnvU/?mibextid=79PoIi
I actually saw that! Seller seems to have a bunch of Starquest stuff too so he's a complete glutton for punishment and the kinda guy I wanna have a beer with. Astonishingly this car doesn't seem to have any serious rust. Surface rust that is starting to get in need of attention in the bins and that seems to be it. PO story was that it's lived the majority of its life in a barn so I suppose this gives some validity to that
Okay so a month later and not too much change with the car (being a new homeowner has really slowed down everything more fun). We had a tree taken down which was way more expensive than anticipated, but also still got to go on a few day vacation up to Maine in the truck with my DIY camper platform
One boring thing was draining and refilling the diff and trans, neither of which changed the slight whine I'm getting from both. Not too concerned by it, but something I'll keep an eye on. Also tried to diagnose why I have no reverse lights and all I can think of is that I need to replace the switch, which for some odd reason has 4 wires coming off it.
I did another driveway alignment so now everything seems to be tracking more or less straight and I am no longer rubbing which is good. Still keeping an eye out for cheap wheels and tires near me to not be running the stock wheels with spacers on the T3 brake kit.
In more fun news, a Mercedes shop near my house was hiding an astounding sight to see and needless to say I had to bring the Mazda to meet its elder. Never seen a Ro80 before and fortunately got to talk to the owner for a while.
My buddy also came by with his slammed C10 so we got some pictures and some pizza and threw the correct badge on the rear instead of the silly T3 build badge.
Today the Mazda visited yet another friend who was prepping for his MR2 meetup in New York
While taking the car out for a drive with my buddy in the car the fuel filter once again clogged
I need to drain the tank to clean it properly but I can't trust the fuel gauge yet and don't have much drain pan capacity so for now it's going to be a few rounds I think of this
Can you slap in another filter upstream from that to assist?
In reply to Sk1dmark (Forum Supporter) :
MR2s and RX-7s go well together! My best friend has had an 83 rx7 for the past 10 years and I have an 86 mr2 and an 01 mr2. I wish I was able to make the bear mountain meet that your friend is going to, but I am all the way in Wisconsin and the timing didn't work out
Sk1dmark (Forum Supporter) said:
Okay so a month later and not too much change with the car (being a new homeowner has really slowed down everything more fun). We had a tree taken down which was way more expensive than anticipated, but also still got to go on a few day vacation up to Maine in the truck with my DIY camper platform
One boring thing was draining and refilling the diff and trans, neither of which changed the slight whine I'm getting from both. Not too concerned by it, but something I'll keep an eye on. Also tried to diagnose why I have no reverse lights and all I can think of is that I need to replace the switch, which for some odd reason has 4 wires coming off it.
I did another driveway alignment so now everything seems to be tracking more or less straight and I am no longer rubbing which is good. Still keeping an eye out for cheap wheels and tires near me to not be running the stock wheels with spacers on the T3 brake kit.
In more fun news, a Mercedes shop near my house was hiding an astounding sight to see and needless to say I had to bring the Mazda to meet its elder. Never seen a Ro80 before and fortunately got to talk to the owner for a while.
My buddy also came by with his slammed C10 so we got some pictures and some pizza and threw the correct badge on the rear instead of the silly T3 build badge.
Today the Mazda visited yet another friend who was prepping for his MR2 meetup in New York
While taking the car out for a drive with my buddy in the car the fuel filter once again clogged
I need to drain the tank to clean it properly but I can't trust the fuel gauge yet and don't have much drain pan capacity so for now it's going to be a few rounds I think of this
Congrats on finding the issue.
However I would not run it any longer with that filter now that it is torn.
Pump the gas into cans, (then filter it and run it in your lawn mower or something), get new filters and keep that stuff out of your fuel system and injectors downstream.
My apologies if I'm stating the obvious, its just that you have had such success I'd hate for a minor oversight to drag things out.
