General Discussion

[Ben1142]

HI,

Thanks to the scrappage scheme I've been able to buy my first ever brand new car (only driven old banger for the last 10 years in truth). I'm interested in advice on the break in procedure needed for a standard engine/car like this.

I've been searching the net and the a majority of info suggests taking it easy, but gradually upping in over the first 500 miles or so. But along the way, to keep varying the speeds and gears.

a few others, (mainly those who seem to own  powerful big engined race cars)who seem to favour a 'hard' break in. Basically thrapping the crap out of it, espically within the first 20-100 miles.

Finally some have been saying the modern cars have their engines run in on a bench in the factory (run hard) before they get put into the engine.

what do people thing?

Importantly, would VW run their engines in at the factory before shipping it over?

Regards

Ben ( I want to get this right, as for me it is a lot of cash and I don't wan't to knacker it up. already investigated detailing, to make sure the paint will be properly looked after at the beginning, will waxoyl the bottom of the car pronto too.)

[Weerwolf]

I never owned a new car , but I did buy a brand new bike 2 years ago.
Basically , you just keep the revs low and don't use full throttle for the first 1000 km. With my bike , I had to keep below 6000rpm for the first 100km , then 7000 , 8000 , 9000 , you get the point.

Anyway , it should all be in the owners manual under break in procedure.

Just one thing you need to remember:
I have a few friends that work in a shipyard. They load and unload cars to and from the boat. From what I heard from them , the cars being (un)loaded aren't treated kindly. 

[Ben1142]

Hi thanks for the reply, I've heard similar myself. But I guess its not something I can do anything about.

I've been speaking to a few more people today and most are saying the engines are now broken in before getting to the customer. Still I don't want to shank it.

One thing I can doing something about though is the paintwork. I already arranged for a professional detailer to prep the car straight from the showroom. Take off any wax/coatings they have on it, polish the paint until prefect then apply a top grade paint sealant (optimum opti-seal) and a high quality wax over the top to finish (Swisvax best of show). none of this crap prep work by an 18 yr old apprentice spraying on supagard and rubbing down with old sponge!

Will also waxoyl the underneath as soon as possible.

regards

Ben

[McNutcase]

I'd strongly suggest following what the owner's manual suggests, UNLESS it says to thrash it. Thrashing a new engine is exactly what you want to do if you intend to own an oil burning, rough running, noisy, polluting wreck which will keep your mechanic in boat payments for as long as you can stand to put up with the thing. In general, taking it easy for the first thousand miles or so, and varying the engine speed rather than steady running, is still a good idea - if it's not been pre-run at the factory, then it's what you should do, and if it has been pre-run, well, it won't do any harm at all.

Disclaimer: the lowest-mileage car I've driven had about 8000 miles on it; my daily driver is currently approaching 225000. I may not know a single thing about how to treat a new car.

As for finish, you seem to be far better informed than I am (I'm vaguely aware that bird droppings will mess up my clear coat, and that's only because there are lots of spots on the hood where it's happened), but with the underside, be sure you don't block drain holes. Modern cars are very well rust-protected from the factory, and it's not a good idea to mess that up.

Above all, enjoy your new car!

[Ben1142]

Thanks for the reply.

Yes I agree with you, I'm stilling asking and researching, but thrapping it around at the beginning is a bad idea. I'll definitely vary the speed, best advice after googling and lots of forum notes cropping up is to take onto a motorway, start at 50 mph for 15 minutes then every 15 mins increase the speed until up to the speed limit (70mph). the let the engine unwind and repeat. Intersperse this lots of town/city driving the get thrugh all the gears and vary speed.

Looking st other findings it seems it ok to give a spurt of acceleration every now to reach the high band end of engine but only rev it up and then back down, don't let it run at the high revs until later.

HOWEVER: this is only theory that I've picked up and no practical experience. This is the reason for the original post. Is my thinking along the right lines or have I got it badly wrong?

Don't worry about the waxoyl, I've always waxoyl my cars (all over 10 yrs old). I'll be careful, I just paint it on the underside with a soft brush.

All advice and experience is welcomed. I need to know what I'm doing by the time the car gets here and that gives me 8 days.

Regards

Ben

[Chris Longhurst]

Most modern engines are run on the bench before they ever get put in a car. You still need to break it in though, but don't "baby" it. By the same count, don't thrash it either. You need to strike a balance between being too gentle - that results in engines that don't seat properly and glazed cylinder bores - and too harsh - which can result in the pistons scoring the cylinder bores too much which leads to leaks later in life.
Do what the handbook says, but vary the revs a lot - ie. don't drive at a constant speed for a long time (like 30 minutes). If you're on the motorway in clear traffic, do 15 minutes at 70, then 15 minutes at 65, then 15 minutes at 75 etc. Varying the revs helps to seat the engine. The best way to vary revs of course is town driving - you have no choice then because of all the gear changes.
I've run in two new car engines and three new bike engines in the last four years like this.
Just make sure to do the first oil change when they recommend in the handbook and you ought to be fine.

[Abb0]

You mention that you saw some information that said to thrash the engine but it was to do with a racecar engine. This is exactly how we ran in the racecar I was involved with (Sprintcar). Having said that, the car only did about 250 miles a year and was torn down at the end of every season getting (at the very least) the rings and bearings replaced.

Food for thought.

[Ben1142]

I just thought I'd log in and give an update.

I picked up the car on the 22nd of January and in the first 3 days I clocked up 600 miles. its now February 15th and I've clocked 1250 miles. The hand book/dealer said I didn't need to change the oil until 10,000 miles, however I thought it was worth the money to get the oil changed now at just past the 1000mile mark.

so this is what I did:

for the first 200 miles

I drove very steady for the for 15 miles to get then engine fully up to temp. I dorve round some country lanes/town etc. I then took it out onto a quiet motorway M62 late on with the egine fully warm and proceeded to do steady runs starting at (in 5th gear but on straight road) 55mph 2000 revs for 5 minutes or so, then moved up to 60mph 2300/400ish revs then 65, 70 and 75 for 5 minutes each. I then wound the engine down back to 45 in 4th gear  and went through the process again, 50,55,69,65,70 each for 5 minutes. max revs I got to was around 3,500mile. I repeated the for a good hour, around 100 miles or so.

After the 100 mark I started some steady acceleration pulls of the car in 4th from about 45/50 (2000 revs) steadily up to 75 (3500/700 revs), letting the engine decelerate back down and then repeating. I then went through much the same in 5th gear starting at around 60mph (2500 revs) upto about 80mph (3000/200 revs).

Finally I went back to steady running at 55, 60,65,70mph for 5 minutes each and then back hope. All in all it clocked up about 200 miles.

200-700 miles

The next day I had a 200 mile drive for my nephews birthday. I went down the motorway and continued to alter both speed and gear. running as low as 50 and as high as 75/80mph for a few minutes and swapping between 4th and 5th every few minutes. I also coninued to do acceleration pulls when the was a big space between trucks (to allow for the acceleration and deceleration 45/50 up to 75 in 4th and 5th). I repeated much the same on the way back the next day. and had clocked up around 700 miles.

700-1000 miles

When I got back the engine was got and warm so I took it down into a long deserted carpark and went through my first real 2nd gear pulls, from a rolling start taking the engine from about 10mph up to about 35mph, revs wise, 1500revs upto 4000/4500 rev and immediately back down. I did 4 of these pulls and the pottered around with some gentle town drive for 15 minutes and then back home.

The rest of the next two weeks has seen me continue gentle town driving and a bit of motorway driving going through so 3rd, 4th and 5th gear pulls all with steady acceleration though . A week later after the initial second gear pulls I repeated with another set of 2nd gear pulls and one 1st gear pull upto 5000 revs for the first time. THis was at around  900miles on the clock.

1000-1250 miles.

I've continued with mostly gentle town driving, with the odd ocasional  harder driving. As it passed a 1000 miles I booked in for an oil change and that happened today. All in all the car feels 'run in' now. All the brakes, gear changes,clutch transmission feel nice, smooth and bedded. The engine feels responsive and is running nicely. There oil seemed clean and hadn't lost any. All in all it feels good and properly ready now. After 1500 miles I will run it up to the redline for the first time to see how it responds.

Thanks for the imputs on here. I didn't thrash it, but I have dollied it all the time either. for those first 600 miles, I doubt i went more than 10 minutes without changing  gear or changing speed. I was a bit worried about the first time I did the 2nd gear pulls, but when I took it out onto the motorway the next day the engine pulled at the same revs/speed in 4th as it had done previously.

Any thoughts would be welcome.

Regards

Ben

[Chris Longhurst]

Nice job - I wouldn't worry about it any more now - after 1000 miles of driving like that, you'll be fine.