Is this a myth or a fact? I know bringing your car to redline puts strain on your engine whether you have 9 miles or 100000 miles. However is it really required to break in engines with cars these days? I figure that the miles you get on your car (7-9 I believe) are when the factory runs your car to get your piston ring seals to close tightly so we don't have to worry about that when we get the car. I waited till 1000 miles to bring my car up to 4k RPM. My uncle however just took his Porsche to its potential right when he got it.

This brings up another question for me on how dealers just give brand new cars away to be tested. I test drove the TSX when it had 140 miles and I got to test drive a brand new Accord v6 coupe with 30 miles on it. My friend even got a brand new RSX-S to test drive with 10 miles on it. So wouldn't the dealer want to break in the engine before letting people test drive? I mean if they plan on selling a demo car and they don't want the customer to have engine problems before 45,000 miles... I mean that doesn't make sense to me. I think the factory ships the car to you ready to go. But then again I might be wrong, actually I probably am wrong

 

Why not just break it in like the owners manual says? Better safe than sorry.

 

 

 

Mine came with 1 mile on the odometer. The factory doesn't really do anything except drive it from the assembly line onto the transport, from the transport onto the boat, from the boat onto the next transport, and then off the transport to the dealer.

Usually 1-2 miles total, from the factory.

Some dealers move cars around between their display lots and a larger storage lot that they often have in a cheaper location.

 

Mine had 4 miles on the odometer.

 

Also, dealer will often drive it a few miles after they prep the car, just to make sure everything's running OK.

 

I don't think the dealer cares about using a brand new car for test drive and selling it later to anyone who wanted it at a discount. The dealer will tell the buyer the car has the full warranty and will take care of any problems. Also, with the 10k miles "normal" oil change interval, your warranty is gone after a few oil changes. The chances of engine problems for a Honda before 40K is very slim.

 

Mine had 18......but 17 were the test drive miles i put on it

 

Wow so 26 miles on my TSX is a lot... I purchased it before it even got in the dealership. I wonder where those miles came from?

 

Mine had 5.

 

mine was swapped, 281

 

6 miles on mine, and then I add another six in the test drive.

 

I had 4 on mine
When we bought our Pathfinder 3 years ago, it was driven up from about 150 miles away...never again will I allow that to happen. I was young and naive then
Additionally, it caught a rock and they had to switch out the hood b.c of the chip on the original hood

 

From the dealers going for a Joy Ride in someone else's car. LOL.

Mine had more, but mainly that was because they were actually dropped off in Portland, and just driven to the dealer, rather than mounting them on the truck.

 

Pretty much every car produced today does a dyno run at the factory about 10min after starting for the first time. The dyno usually checks engine power, shift points, ABS, and any stability control systems. So despite the fact your owners manual might say to keep it under 4000RPM, the factory will redline it all the way up to about 120kmph to make sure everything is OK. They wouldn't do that if it 'hurt' engine life or power.

The purpose of the break-in is to develop sustainable wear patterns. The idea of keeping the engine load down is not so much for the sake of the load itself but the heat it creates. A spanking new engine has alot of surfaces to break in. As they break in they're developing higher than normal heat energy. Hot parts aren't the same shape as cold parts. Excessively hot parts may set the wear patterns down a path that will not lead to acceptable performance down the road.

That said, there are people who belive that babying and engine when its new is hurting it. Simply put, the theory kinda boils down to breaking the engine in for what its gonna do. Break it in for <4000RPM and thats the wear pattern its gonna develop. I personaly have always broken in engines 'hard' rather than the suggested methods by the OEMs. One thing to note though is that this 'hard' method doesn't mean beating the crap out of the motor. But rather loading in in short burst taking care to allow adequate cool down (cause excessively hot parts still can develop screwy wear patterns).

My personal method for breaking in a performance engine... For the first 1000km:
-Never use cruise control, you're trying to develop wear patterns for the whole range of RPMs, always vary speed and gearing to keep the RPM needle moving around.
-Never go above 3000RPM untill you engine has reached full operating temp.
-Allow the engine to cool at idle or cruising speed (very little engine load) before turning it off for at least 2min.
-Once the engine has reached operating temp (at least 10min of easy driving) give it a couple bursts up to redline (highway works best for this). Don't go through more than 2 gears and when you're done coast down for a bit to give things a chance to cool down. 2-3 bursts with about 8-10min to cool down in between its what I usualy use.


-SWRT

Note: Follow your manual if you don't understand the priciple behind engine break in. Thats why the OEMs put it there. It will give you very good results. If you want excellent results, read up on the subject and make your own decision. There is plenty of info on the net about break-in. I am only thowing an alternative on the table, the OEM way is still a viable means to a similar end. But it has been my experience that you get more "doing it the hard way" as they say.

 

I just got back from a 500mile road trip (250 there, 250 back). Before the drive, had just over 1000miles on it. average speed was 80-85mph the whole way (of trip, not first thousand) and averaged 29.9 mpg. Anyway, now the engine seems much more responsive, better go out of 1st and 2nd, less grainy idle and smoother shifts. All in all, i think i "broke it in" because it just seems to run smoother now. Maybe im just getting used to it though.

 

Not true. I work at an Acura dealer in here in New York. They dont give 2 shits if you beat on the car during a test drive. Its only a demo car (test driver) not meant to be sold.

 

13 km on mine... And it was brand new. The sales guy drove to the gas station to gas it up, I think he must have taken it for a joyride too.

 

I only had 1 mile on my TSX.

 

Mine had 7 or 8 I forget, now has 248.6 after 3 weeks.
What can I say, I live close to work and its football season for the weekend.

 

In honda manual for the AusDM Accord Euro (aussie-spec TSX), it only says to avoid full throttle starts. It has nothing about keeping it below a certain RPM. IMO, the engine is already run to redline twice. Once after it is assembled but not yet installed in the car, and once, when everything is put together. The break-in period is more for the drivetrain and suspension.

 

It was probably a dealer trade.

 

Depends on the dealer. I test drove cars from the actual stock. They didn't have any "demo" TSXs, though they did have a couple for the service department without Navi. I was pretty explicit about the fact that I wanted to drive a car with Navi in it to see how it worked and how user-friendly it was in real conditions. They let me drive about 6 miles on the car, which was sold two days later as new.

That said, I don't think the guy would have let me do any kind of high speed or performance driving.

My car was so new to the lot that they hadn't done any dealer prep on it yet. The dealer said that would normally include a test drive of 4-5 miles. In my case they prepped it, handed me the keys, and asked me to let them know if anything didn't seem to be right when I came back two days later for the LoJack install.

 

And again: