I followed the advice at the start of this thread with precision and I have not noticed my car consuming any oil at all. But it only has 11111km on it, so maybe I don't have enough history to know yet.

Chad

 

The second I drive my new TSX off the lot, I'll be driving it 2.5 hours on the highway and then again 2 days later for 2 more hours. What seems to be easiest for me would be to hit it pretty hard initially - not redlines, but to 5-6k as I accelerate to cruise, and then keep varying gears from 4,5,and 6 every 5 mins. That way I get good seals and varying engine speeds... right?

Furthermore, my daily commute is only 5 miles. I don't want this short driving span to hurt my baby as it grows up... Advice Please!

 

5 miles of daily commute is not long enough to warm up the engine and burn off the moisture inside the crankcase and exhaust system. Not good for your car... Change oil more often under those driving condition.

 

Exactly. Recommend 5K mile OCI (oil change intervals) w/ a decent quality oil.

And PittIsIt: Your break-in plan sounds good - the main thing being varying the engine RPM as often as you can...

 

Isn't 5,000 RPM a little high for a brand new car that has less than 600 mile on its odometer? I would stay under 3,500 RPM or so, and shift between 5th and 6th gear on freeway.

 

Yeah this whole Full throttle burst business is hard for me to grasp. Is that just flooring it in a tall gear?

Whats the purpose of that, other than sending a lot of fuel to the engine?

Some of you advocate pushing the car just a bit in the break in -- some advocate beating it to shreds, others talk about a "beach entry." I was trying to create a happy medium -- I'm in the boat that says that Honda knows how to make an engine and you wouldn't really need to be anal breaking in the car, just not an idiot.

I will keep it under 3500, and this should be pretty easy considering that my mom will be with me and she'll flip if I have too much fun. By the time all this driving is done, I'll be 500 miles into the car, and out of the woods with the break in anyway.

I would change oil every 5k anyway -- usually do 3k now with my 94 nissan altima, that's at 99k and is still is very strong. This engine is much better, but I will try my best to wait 30 secs before driving away in the mornings to help get the overnight gunk out of the system and to warm up the fluids before going anywhere. This seems to be enough time to get my music and tomtom situated. (Although a 5 mi commute doesn't really need a 30gb ipod and gps unit)...

 

I know no body asked, but in my opinion, that is almost 20 seconds too long for warming up TSX, considering you are at Florida. Manual said no warm up is necessary, just be gentle with the accelerator first.

 

comments in bold

 

Yes, you want to do a WOT in a tall gear. But not lugg the engine. Say for instance....3rd gear at 2.5k rpms and floor it up to 5k rpms....then let the engine decelerate on it's own. Repeat the process gradually raising the rpms. You can even keep it in 5th gear as long as you aren't lugging the engine and then floor it again bring the rpms up. You want to put load on the engine basically.

 

That's pretty much it...

(Although I'd recommend 3rd gear, because in 5th, to get to near-redline, you'll be going too fast and get a nasty ticket, LOL)

 

a quick question. I'm at 400 miles now and have been driving it mixed city/highway, no cruise control, and revved it up through several gears. Would it be safe to take it on a 3 hour highway drive this weekend? ok safe may be the wrong word.. but would you do it or advise against it?

 

Safe? YES. Enjoy it.

What kind of highway? The only thing I would advise against is hopping on the freeway and setting the cruise control at 75 for all three hours straight (and that's being nit picky on my part)

 

I'd do it, but I'd try to vary the RPM once in a while.

 

i-35 South. Yeah I wasn't planning on using cruise control but it would be nice for the mileage though..

 

Sorry, I'm a SoCal guy and don't know where I-35 is, or what kind of topography. Hills will help because they vary the stresses on the engine. Just vary the RPMs a little, pull off the highway for a bathroom or snack break so you don't sit at a constant RPM for the trip. Your mileage will go up soon enough.

 

So I'm at ~1,100 miles on the car (in about 3-4 weeks of driving so far). I've been trying to maintain a proper break-in process by constantly varying my RPMs between ~2-4K.

However, the highest I've revved my engine is 4k. I realize that the i-VTEC is a high-revving engine, but this is my first MT car, and I've been a bit apprehensive with taking it beyond this point since my previous AT cars have never gone above 4-5k RPMs.

Am I screwed for the break-in period, or do I still have time to correct this?

 

Just wanted to say, great post and great thoughts all around. Glad to see this has lasted a couple of years...

 

My opinion would be "What's done is done". You can't go back in time, but I don't think you're at all screwed by not having gone above 4K RPM. I'd suggest that you start going above 4K rpm when you feel comfortable, preferrably sooner than later (just in case you're still in the window where this will make a difference - although i doubt it!).

Enjoy the car, treat her well, and she'll do the same for you.

 

this thread is so informational....
bump!

 

acura dealer said that TSXs come out broken in... so I don't know what's the point of this...

 

It's not the engine that needs running in. It's the piston rings that need sealing and everything else (drivetrain, transmission) that need breaking in.

 

https://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25361

https://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28541

 

wow, now it makes sense why my 60k Integra was burning oil like crazy

 

Yup that was me!

And I'm happy to say I've had absolutely NO oil burn / blow-by in the past 9,000km since the new short block was put in. I ran it in fairly hard (basically, the MotoTuneUSA method with a few minor modifications).

 

Not saying that the same thing will happen to you if you don't follow break-in procedures. But, I spent $27K on a new car and I wouldn't want to take the chance.

 

Back to your 1st oil burning block, how did you run it in? Using the Mototune method?

Just to remind everyone, I ran my engine in using the mototune method. I took a long highway trip with very little varying RPMs (maybe 2-3 runs up to 5000rpm), a misshift that saw the engine at 7000rpm during that highway trip and then 1.5 years later took it to the track. I didn't burn oil after 90 minutes on the track over 3 sessions, and at 2 years now, no oil consumption either.

 

Maybe the first one was a dud, and now the 2nd one is normal so it doesn't matter which break-in procedure is used?

 

I let someone else drive it for the first 72,000km.

 

Who knows... all I can assume with the first block is that since the car had HIGH mileage, and the owner lived about 60-100km out of downtown (where he worked), the car saw a lot of cruise control probably from day 1.

 

from 100-500 miles, it says to increase peak rpm w/o full throttle and to do it no more than once every minute.

However i peaked rpm with full throttle and i did it about 5 times every mineute. should my engine be okay? or was i pushing too hard on my engine?

 

As long as your engine was warmed up before you did that, it's fine. But 5 times every minute? That sounds like you did it in 1st gear, which doesn't generate enough pressure at the rings to seal it properly. Use 2nd gear.

 

also i have another question.
when i bought my car, my car had about 96 miles on it b/c it had to be delivered from a far away dealer.
should i be worried since it was probably transported via freeway, and the driver probably did not vary the rpm? (of course there is slight possibility he was a caring man, and did in fact vary the rpm on the highway).

right after i got it at 96 miles though, i varied the rpm alot and went up to 4.7k rpm on it and tried to wot with short bursts alot.

should my engine be okay? or shoudl i be worried?

 

you're ok.

 

You'll be alright. Don't worry. Also, check your oil level every month and if the level doesn't drop, your engine is alright.

 

does that mean if my car eats alot of oil, even during break-in, that it was broken in wrong the first 100 miles? b/c i hear alot of stories from ppl who have problem with their tsx eating alot of gas....

but anyways, thanks alot aficionado and aaronng for anwering my questions! i was just worried and ive been loving my tsx so far, so i just want everything to be perfect.

 

Gas is different from oil - the former is a case of heavy right foot and/or hard braking rather than smooth accel and decel.
Oil consumption is more worrying (to a degree) since it means oil is passing the piston rings in the cylinder and being burnt in the combustion chamber along with the fuel. That's what the piston rings are there to prevent.
Revving too much when cold can cause psitonslap, and as such, the rings can gouge a bit out of the cylinder wall, causing the 'system' to be fully sealed.

Personally, if I were breaking in new engine, I'd be running it at 3.5-4.5K in a lower gear (4th/5th) for a good 20 miles each day or go for a 100 mile round trip doing the same, but only after the first 10 miles or so had been done and everything was up to temperature.
I'd also use the highest RON petrol as well since the engine runs rich whilst cold and at lower rpm, thereby allowing blow-by to contaminate the oil.
This is why you follow the severe service intervals if you only do short journeys or many cold start ones each day.

 

It's a destructive cycle when you start consuming oil. You don't notice it at first, so more wear occurs til you either find out that the level was below minimum or the oil pressre light comes on. Once that happens, your engine will be consuming oil pretty quickly. The best way to prevent this is to check regularly, every 2 gas refills. Oil consumption depends on many factors and can vary week to week depending on whether you have been redlining your car often. But the trick is to keep the oil level above minimum at all times so that you don't accelerate oil consumption.

Eventhough my engine doesn't consume oil, I still check every 2 gas fills.

 

Just a note that I'm up to 18,000km now (11,000 mi), and still no oil burn. I'm very happy with this car.

At what point is the engine as broken in as it's every going to be? Ie, does there ever come a point where it "likes" to be driven at one constant RPM? (After all, piston engines are more efficient at one RPM.)

 

I'd say its fully broken in to that point by probably between 5 and 6,000 miles. Basically by the first oil change on a severe service interval schedule (5,000 miles / 8,000km).

Anything after teh inital 100 miles or so is considered "extended break-in", as the first 100 miles is where the actual break-in occurs and is the most crucial time.

 

IMHO its fully broken in a bit later than that. Maybe 12,000? I noticed that my overall fuel economy improved at around 10K (by between 1 and 2 mpg) without a change in driving style.