Another break-in Q, drive it like I stole it?

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Originally Posted By: rshunter
Most here would have a coronary if they saw how modern cars and motorcycles are treated in final inspection at the assembly plant. Shiny new Camaros on a chassis dyno being hammered on, Suzuki GSX-R 1000s screaming away at their redline...


Or the Lot Boy at the dealership, doing 7 grand hole shots, or power braking it, or two lot boys drag racing them. How about starting them up in cold weather and reving them to 5,000 rpms as soon as they start to charge up the battery.
 
Originally Posted By: demarpaint
Originally Posted By: rshunter
Most here would have a coronary if they saw how modern cars and motorcycles are treated in final inspection at the assembly plant. Shiny new Camaros on a chassis dyno being hammered on, Suzuki GSX-R 1000s screaming away at their redline...


Or the Lot Boy at the dealership, doing 7 grand hole shots, or power braking it, or two lot boys drag racing them. How about starting them up in cold weather and reving them to 5,000 rpms as soon as they start to charge up the battery.

I thought I'd leave that part out. The fact that, many years ago, I was head lot-man at a big Ford dealership has nothing to do with that, of course...

*ahem*
 
I would never drive a car hard the first 5000 miles.

Why the need for high RPM's on a new engine ?
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From the Altima's owner's manual:

Quote:
During the first 1,200 miles (2,000 km),
follow these recommendations to obtain
maximum engine performance and ensure
the future reliability and economy of
your new vehicle. Failure to follow these
recommendations may result in shortened
engine life and reduced engine
performance.
● Avoid driving for long periods at constant
speed, either fast or slow, and do not run the
engine over 4,000 rpm.
● Do not accelerate at full throttle in any gear.
● Avoid quick starts.
● Avoid hard braking as much as possible.
● Do not tow a trailer for the first 500 miles
(800 km). Your engine, axle or other parts
could be damaged.
 
Originally Posted By: rshunter
Most here would have a coronary if they saw how modern cars and motorcycles are treated in final inspection at the assembly plant. Shiny new Camaros on a chassis dyno being hammered on, Suzuki GSX-R 1000s screaming away at their redline...


Only those not astute enough to discern the difference between the few seconds of high rev-high power output done at the factory vs sustained high power output. It is because of those people that beak-in instructions are written for the completely clueless.
 
Originally Posted By: stockrex
Greeting from warm sunny west michigan,
I just bought a 2010 honda fit (base with auto). it has 2.5 miles on the odo.
all my new vehicles till now I broke them in driving conservatively.

So how should I break this in?
I am tempted to break it by driving like usually do ;-)

anyone care to share their experience on break in process and any adverse effects like oil usuage, compression loss etc.

TIA


According to the 2009 Accord manual:

Help assure your vehicle’s future
reliability and performance by paying
extra attention to how you drive
during the first 600 miles (1,000 km).
During this period:
Avoid full-throttle starts and rapid
acceleration.
Do not change the oil until the
scheduled maintenance time.
Avoid hard braking for the first
200 miles (300 km).
Do not tow a trailer.
You should also follow these
recommendations with an
overhauled or exchanged engine, or
when the brakes are replaced.
 
Originally Posted By: Audi Junkie
Deep throttle, low revs.


Now THAT I agree with. Brief bursts of high cylinder PRESSURE will help seat the rings. Absolutely no need for astronomical RPM, though.
 
KInd of late to ask now!!! IF it has more then a couple easy miles no sense driving it hard now as an excuse to break it in. On a Honda they generate such low break in wear that after about 50 miles it is a done deal and does not matter! Now if you asked this question before you drove it home I would have told you to drive it like you stole it.

Another thing to keep in mind is that unless that car just came in on the truck it has been started up every day it snowed. They are much easier to defrost this way plus you need to move them around so they can clear the snow from the lot. When I worked for a Dealership Ihad to go to 5 other dealerships act like a customer then come back and write a paper for each seperate experince. All of them in Michigan do the same thing and sometimes those cars idle for hours because the sales people that are out their doing that go inside when they see a customer and forget about the cars they have running. SOmetimes I would go to get a car for a customer only to find that a car close to it had been idling since the morning for like 6 hours. One winter they ran some vechiles out of gas just from the constant idleing to defrost them......
 
wow, I would go put the sales guy in the same boat as palin if he idles any car for 8 hours to melt the snow off it.

Not sure where in MI you are john, but in GR, I can idle my vehicle for a full day and there will be snow still on it.
ask me how I know? ;-)

the dealer uses a pro snow rake, made of soft 3m paper like thinggy, I asked him where he got it, I like it, I might get one myself.

I am pretty sure mine was not idled much before I got the keys, the fit came in a month back and he emailed me, I went and test drove one.
I agree, they tend to idle vehicles, my duramax which an 08, I bought in dec 08 sat in a lot in bays city mi for 1 year, it had 48 hrs and 380 miles on it. go figure.

just so everyone can sleep at night, I did not abuse the fit :-).
I have bought a few brand new vehicles with 2.x miles, and all of those I broke in on the hwy varying the speed to seat the rings...drove gently till the first oil change.

For the fit, I did it a little different,
I think my rpm never went north of 4300,
if I goosed the engine up, I accept it, will it consume oil, fall part on the hwy, time will tell, I will even to a compression test when I pull oil for analysis.
for it has been parked till april while I mod the interior :-)


Gears grinding, so I should drain out the tranny and refill it to get of the breakin stuff?


bit of Hx on the 2000 accord in sig, wife bought in new in delaware and her idea of driving is to keep her feet either on othe brake or the gas, she never allow the vehicle to coast. the v6 is still going at nearly 200k miles.
 
Originally Posted By: ls1mike
I hammer the [censored] out of mine. My 01 Z28 was on the Dyno at 151 miles with paper tags. It made 300 RWHP. I hammered that car until it got totalled. It had 132,000 miles on it. Never burned a drop of oil and alway ran perfect.


I somewhat agree with this method. I like Yamaha's more recent method. "Avoid PROLONGED operation above, say, 5/8ths rpms for 500 miles, then avoid prolonged operation above, say, 6/8ths until 1000 miles and DO NOT cruise at any set speed for awhile.

I got a new bike and broke it in avoiding any operation, instead of prolonged operation, at those rpms. Result: bike was still fast, but not quick and peppy.


They say the first 20 miles are the most important. IF you have a 6000rpm redline, I'd say get it nice and warm for about 10 miles then hit the highway and pull it through all the gears near WOT until 5000rpms in each gear, then let the engine brake down to 3k, downshift, let engine brake to 3k, downshift, etc, repeat. Do it at night down a quiet interstate.


Don't beat the dogsnot out of it, but don't baby it, but I'd err on the side of beating it. I had a girlfriend who had a Toyota Corolla from new and her then boyfriend drove it hard and fast, and it was a 3spd so it always saw high rpms for a prolonged amount of time. The result, maybe like 5yrs 75000 miles she lost her engine because of oil consumption(being a woman, of course she didnt check it). When I was with her, it burned oil pretty badly at 30000 miles. you don't want that. So get it warm, vary the speeds, drive it hard and but be gentle.

However, you have a auto, so I would be more worried about hurting the transmission by caning it. Just don't baby it or wring its neck and I believe you wont end up with a dog.
 
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neither of my kia manuals had anything about "break in periods"...kinda glad since they were previously rentals.

can't count on a rental place "breaking in" a vehicle "nicely" can we? lol.
 
I am going to be using a variation of the mototuneusa method. I have 10 miles on a vehicle right now. I will crack the throttle quickly open from about 40% of Redline to varying levels of RPM. For example, if Redline is 10,000 RPM, I will go from 4,000 RPM to 6,000 RPM in my step 1, as follows:

1.Run engine for 5-10 minutes with several 40%-60% max RPM bursts. After each "burst" I will close the throttle to allow for a lot of engine vacuum.
2.Allow engine to cool completely.
3.Run engine for 5-10 minutes with several 40%-75% max RPM bursts. After each "burst" I will close the throttle to allow for a lot of engine vacuum.
4.Allow engine to cool completely.
5.Run engine for 5-10 minutes with several 40%-85% max RPM bursts. After each "burst" I will close the throttle to allow for a lot of engine vacuum.
6.Allow engine to cool completely.
7.Run engine for 5-10 minutes with several 40%-90% max RPM bursts. After each "burst" I will close the throttle to allow for a lot of engine vaccum.
8.Allow engine to cool and repeat step 7.
9.Change oil and filter.
10.Operate vehicle "normally" for about 500 miles.
11.Change oil and filter and consider break-in to be done.
 
Originally Posted By: JT1
Has anyone ever killed an engine from too hard of a "break in".


I'm sure its possible although I've never heard of it before. If the engine blows up right after being built its normally due to a part defect or improper assembly. I once met a builder who immediately brought the engine to max RPM for several minutes once the cam was broken in. A little crazy I thought, especially when dealing with $8,000++ engines but he never blew one up. Of course, I don't know how long they lasted either.

I bet 90% of the general public pays no attention to any break-in procedure in the owner's manual and just drives the vehicle as "normal" from day one.
 
Originally Posted By: cfromc
Originally Posted By: JT1
Has anyone ever killed an engine from too hard of a "break in".


I'm sure its possible although I've never heard of it before. If the engine blows up right after being built its normally due to a part defect or improper assembly. I once met a builder who immediately brought the engine to max RPM for several minutes once the cam was broken in. A little crazy I thought, especially when dealing with $8,000++ engines but he never blew one up. Of course, I don't know how long they lasted either.

I bet 90% of the general public pays no attention to any break-in procedure in the owner's manual and just drives the vehicle as "normal" from day one.


I did with all my cars, be it Lexus LS400 or Honda S2000 or MB E430. I only take it easy the first 2-3 miles then drive normal the rest of the trips since the first day I took delivery of the car(s) from dealer lot.

I also left factory filled oil in the full OCI.
 
I think letting the engine warm-up before flogging it is very important. Perhaps one of the most important things you can do for engine life besides proper maintenance. On vehicles with a real coolant guage I wait until the needle is at least half-way to the normal operating temperature mark before giving it much throttle. On vehicles without gauges I wait at least 3-5 minutes before accelerating hard.
 
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