General mileage question

[Theedn]

About how long do these cars engines last. I'm looking at a couple cars with 250k miles on them. All my car experence is with rx7(rotary engine).

[Raptor13x]

That's pretty high mileage, but a lot of it comes down to maintenance. Engines don't typically have a set time they'll break down- you never know if you'll blow the engine at 100k or it'll last basically unmolested for 500k. Regardless, I'd recommend being extra cautious checking them out before buying them.

[masagsxr]

So I guess you know that pistons last at least 3x longer than rotary .... I love RX7 tho.. My brother had 2 FCs in the past.

Yup, they all come down to how you take care of the car.

[Raptor13x]

The rotary lasts forever, provided it's naturally aspirated. It got a bad rep with the FD due to that car's hopeless overcomplexity and severely inadequate cooling system.

[tjmr2]

Raptor please explain, bad rap with the FD.

I once had a 1976 Mazda rotary Pick Up with the 13b motor. It was too complex for me to understand, but that was 22 years ago. When it ran it pulled hard, but when it didn't want to it took a vacation and left some old sick horse to pull me to work.

Has Mazda gotten past the 50k mile seal issue?

I was in love with the romance of the rotary, but the complexity of keeping it running right eventually forced the sale.

Not trying to bust your balls here, just looking for feedback. Still look back at the rotary as an engine with great potential, and would like to hear any stories you have to tell.

[Raptor13x]

The 3rd gen RX-7 is commonly called the FD (1st gen is FB, 2nd gen is FC... having to do with the chassis code on the VIN). It had a complex twin turbo setup with one small turbo for the low end and a larger turbo for high end power. The car had beautiful styling, handled amazingly well, was fast, etc, but due to some poor design with heat management, the engine would easily overheat, and it was rare an engine lasted 75k miles without grenading. Prior to that, the RX-7s had a fantastic reliability record, with many lasting over 250k or 300k miles. The FD made people doubt the rotary engine, label it as unreliable, and effectively end its production until the RX-8.

BTW, complexity? The rotary? The rotary engine is incredibly simple- it has 3 moving parts. It's pretty easy to understand.

[LokiRx7]

Originally Posted by tjmr2

Raptor please explain, bad rap with the FD.

I once had a 1976 Mazda rotary Pick Up with the 13b motor. It was too complex for me to understand, but that was 22 years ago. When it ran it pulled hard, but when it didn't want to it took a vacation and left some old sick horse to pull me to work.

Has Mazda gotten past the 50k mile seal issue?

I was in love with the romance of the rotary, but the complexity of keeping it running right eventually forced the sale.

Not trying to bust your balls here, just looking for feedback. Still look back at the rotary as an engine with great potential, and would like to hear any stories you have to tell.

I have had three Rx-7s with WAY over 200,000 miles!

My current 7 has 110,000 on it and runs like a beast, and I know of MANY people with 7's that have well over 200,000 miles.


Back to the OP,

My girlfriend has a Corolla GT-S with the same 4A-GE as the MR2, It has over 280,000 miles on it and doesnt even burn oil believe it or not! That said, not all 4A-GE's will last that long, I had an MR2 bite the dust at 205,000. It depends on how the car was maintained.


And as far as piston engines lasting 3 times as long as rotaries.... lol! Its all in how you take care of it!

[mr3]

Found this on craigslist. If you are like this guy, your engine will last forever.

whats up yall! im selling my 99 crown victoria gt. the pictures will be on here later. this car has one problem and that is the passanger front window it rolls up a lil slow and thats it. the car has 110,384 miles f&#k that everbodty say they change they oil every 3000 miles i change the oil and spark plugs in this car every 2 weeks so i know the einge is good, the trans is strong can burn out on 22's with no problem.

[Everett]

Originally Posted by mr3

Found this on craigslist. If you are like this guy, your engine will last forever.

whats up yall! im selling my 99 crown victoria gt. the pictures will be on here later. this car has one problem and that is the passanger front window it rolls up a lil slow and thats it. the car has 110,384 miles f&#k that everbodty say they change they oil every 3000 miles i change the oil and spark plugs in this car every 2 weeks so i know the einge is good, the trans is strong can burn out on 22's with no problem.

LMAO!

[mr2tim]

Got 280,000 miles on my weekend racecar when I spun off the HKS pulley and fractured the tip of the crankshaft.

It was still beating Mustang V8's at the Autocross.

[iceNine]

Are Mustangs very good autocross cars? Even with their power I wouldn't think they would handle as well as Miatas, Porshes, MR2s, etc. Just wondering.

[Raptor13x]

Mustangs are not very good at Auto-x.

The mention of Miatas does remind me of something- a few years back, my car had broken down, and I wanted to go autocrossing with some friends. So I borrowed my parents' Ford Expedition and drove up to the course. The next 3 runs were spent going balls to the wall around the course in a 6000lb SUV. The handling was... interesting... it had 4wd, but around the corners, the truck was getting up on 2 wheels, sliding sideways, and hopping up and down at the same time. After the second run, they told me I'd have to slow it down or I was gonna get kicked off the track, and then I cut 2 seconds off my time for the 3rd run, which resulted in my getting promptly banned. Anyway, I was faster than any of the Miatas there, and posted one of the better times overall for the day. It wasn't a professional event- it was run by an engineering school, but there were a lot of pretty impressive cars there. The driver > the car.

[mr3]

I think we need a "like this" button like facebook for that post right there.

[LokiRx7]

Originally Posted by Raptor13x

Mustangs are not very good at Auto-x.

The mention of Miatas does remind me of something- a few years back, my car had broken down, and I wanted to go autocrossing with some friends. So I borrowed my parents' Ford Expedition and drove up to the course. The next 3 runs were spent going balls to the wall around the course in a 6000lb SUV. The handling was... interesting... it had 4wd, but around the corners, the truck was getting up on 2 wheels, sliding sideways, and hopping up and down at the same time. After the second run, they told me I'd have to slow it down or I was gonna get kicked off the track, and then I cut 2 seconds off my time for the 3rd run, which resulted in my getting promptly banned. Anyway, I was faster than any of the Miatas there, and posted one of the better times overall for the day. It wasn't a professional event- it was run by an engineering school, but there were a lot of pretty impressive cars there. The driver > the car.

At my local auto-x there is an F-body Camaro that posts lap times better than most of the track prepped Miatas and MR2s.

We dont have any Fox-bodies come out, so I cant speak for them. I think the Fox-bodies would be some of the best at auto-x as far as Mustangs go. But the F-body Gm products can do pretty well.

[traintech86]

Originally Posted by Raptor13x

Mustangs are not very good at Auto-x.

The mention of Miatas does remind me of something- a few years back, my car had broken down, and I wanted to go autocrossing with some friends. So I borrowed my parents' Ford Expedition and drove up to the course. The next 3 runs were spent going balls to the wall around the course in a 6000lb SUV. The handling was... interesting... it had 4wd, but around the corners, the truck was getting up on 2 wheels, sliding sideways, and hopping up and down at the same time. After the second run, they told me I'd have to slow it down or I was gonna get kicked off the track, and then I cut 2 seconds off my time for the 3rd run, which resulted in my getting promptly banned. Anyway, I was faster than any of the Miatas there, and posted one of the better times overall for the day. It wasn't a professional event- it was run by an engineering school, but there were a lot of pretty impressive cars there. The driver > the car.

i would have paid money to watch it >>

[Madlife]

At my local auto-x there is an F-body Camaro that posts lap times better than most of the track prepped Miatas and MR2s.

We dont have any Fox-bodies come out, so I cant speak for them. I think the Fox-bodies would be some of the best at auto-x as far as Mustangs go. But the F-body Gm products can do pretty well.

Same here in NY.. We have a camaro that does pretty damn good.. We also have a modified Siverado that runs better laps than a lot of the newbs no matter what they drive.