Maybe I should rephrase. To answer his question as to when he can drive it w/o varying RPM's, I'd say 5,000 miles is more than enough.

Anything after that won't be really sensitive to constant RPM's to any noticeable effect I wouldn't think. As I said, the initial break-in that involves the honing patterns, rings, etc... probably completes 90% of its process in the first hundred miles or less. Anything after that is diminishing returns and won't be overly impactful on the life of the engine.

 

That I can agree with.

 

I have an auto and am not clear on varying my rpms during break-in. I am at around 100 miles on the car and have been trying to keep it under 60mph by stepping on the gas and letting the rpm go to around 3 and letting go and next time letting it go to maybe 2.5, etc. I am trying to do this as much as possible
to vary the rpms and keep it under 3 since it is so new still. I am not using the sequential option yet, in fact I have no idea how to use it yet. Do you think my approach is ok? Do I need to use sequential?

Thanks.

 

Your approach is OK but you're probably inconveniencing yourself a bit.

First off, if you're driving on city streets then all you have to worry about is not exceeding a certain RPM. The more miles you accumulate on your car the higher that max RPM should be. Straight off the lot it may be 3K RPM, after 100 miles it may be 3500RPM, after 200 miles 4000 RPM etc.

City streets, especially with frequent stoplights or stop signs force you to vary the RPMs just by the virtue of accelerating from a stop and then coming to a stop. The Auto tranny changes gears for you and all you worry about is those maximum RPMs. You control the max RPMs by deciding how quickly you accelerate. If you accelerate slowly then the AT tranny will upshift earlier, at a lower RPM. If you accelerate quicker then the tranny will wait until higher RPMs to upshift. If you see your max. RPMs approaching then all you have to do is let up on the gas at which point the tranny will shift up.

On a highway its different. If you keep it in automatic then once you achieve a steady speed the tranny will be in 5th gear. You don't want to sit in 5th gear at a constant speed for too long. One way is to slow down then speed up, all in 5th gear, thus varying the RPMs. Another way is to swith it from Auto to SS and then downshift from 5th to 4th manually. The RPMs will increase but your speed, on the whole, will be maintained. The best way is to do a combination of the two. Try to change your speed or your gear about every 3 minutes. Keep in mind that the whole point is to not sit at a constant RPM for extended periods. How diligent you are in doing that is up to you.

One more thing to do in order to help seat the piston rings is to do a couple of full throttle bursts at low RPMs. This is kind of like "lugging" the engine. On the freeway get up to around 45mph in 5th gear, switch over to SS and stay in 5th gear (this is to prevent the engine from downshifing to a lower gear), then press the accelerator all the way to the floor and let your car accelerate to 55 or 60mph (around 10 seconds worth). Do this 2 or three times about every 100 miles.

 

That's what I did. I bought the TSX in San Diego and drove it home to San Jose the same day. I never got 35 mpg again after that day!

But I think it's because I drive so fast, not the short break-in period.

It's running great at 46,700 miles.

I got 32mpg on my last trip, with lots of hills.

 

Too high pressure would cause blowby past the rings though. I'd use 3rd or 4th gear instead.

 

I have a quick question. Tonight, I revved up my engine to 5500 rpm (by mistake, my bad ) before I even reached the 100 mile mark (the mileage was at 60, thereabouts). I only did this once, other than that I never went over 3500 rpm (except for 2 times that I went to 4000 when I didn't shift up in time). Would you consider this a bad break in or is this acceptable?

 

I wouldn't worry too much... The break-in rules are guidelines... Roughly sticking to them is the idea... A few times revving above the guidlines will not impact your break-in...

 

You'll be alright. I did 7000rpm in my first 100 miles.

 

Wow, very interesting thread! It seems there are alot of different thoughts regarding breakin.


Anyway, I've got an 06TSX 5AT, Just hit 7000m today. Had the oil changed at 5000 (when the maintance minder indicated it was time)

Checked the oil this morning, so it's been 2000 miles since last oil change, and oil came up to the top hole on the dipstick, so it looks like it's not loosing any oil at all, is that correct?


Is the fact that it was right up to the top hole, a good sign the engine was broken in correctly?


I didn't see this thread untill today, so I had none of this information to go by when I first got the car. I can say, for the first 100 miles was fairly short trips, letting the AT go through the gears, and never went over 4000rpm


As I went through the first 100-1000 miles I gradually went to higher rpm's, each time going a little higher, and probably didn't go into vtec territory untill 2000+ miles


Bottom line, am I ok, or should I have pushed it harder in the first 0-100 and 100-500 etc?

 

Keep checking your oil level to make sure it stays above minimum. Then when it is time for your next service, check your oil level again to see if it is still around or at the top hole as it is today.

 

Looks like it isn't losing any oil. Burning some oil isn't the end of the world. I've read that the more you get to vtec the more oil you burn. But, its a very good sign if you're not burning any.


Without reading this thread first you used some common sense and it worked out fine. Remember that the break-in isn't hard and fast rules but general guidelines. Looks like your break-in was just about right.

 

glad i found this thread and that i searched first instead of getting yelled out for posting something new

as a few of you know from my detailing question thread, i purchased a new '06 TSX 5AT recently, when i drove it off the lot it had 16mi. I bought it in philly and live in delaware so i had to put about 40mi on it to get it home down I95. i wish i would have read this thread before i got the car, but i had enough common sense with a new car not to push it too hard while the engine still had very low milage on it.

currently i have about 200mi on the car and i've been careful not to go over 4k RPM. I probably have once or twice because there's some idiot drivers around here that need to get passed.

from what i'm reading i already missed the crucial break-in period, but i plan on incorprating the following things:
- slowly incrementing my max rpm usage with each drive (only with a warm engine)
- switching between 4th and 5th (auto tranny SS mode) gear on the hwy and varying RPM's but keeping it under ~4k RPM for now. I'm not sure when it's safe to get into higher RPM's.. also when does VTEC kick in, 4500rpm?
- 4th or 5th gear pedal to the floor method on the hwy (there was some dispute over this in the thread, one person said 5th gear lugging, another said u shouldn't do that in 5th, and do it in 4th instead because of additional strain on the engine? (paraphrasing)

how does this sound?

 

^^ sounds like you've been doing a lot of reading.

Your plan sounds fine. A stock TSX hits vtec at 6000 rpm.

 

as a followup, i realize once i hit about 5k miles i'm broken in.

how long do i have to switch between gears on the hwy and not keep rpm constant.

i guess the slow increase in max rpm and full throttle burst is for <500mi ?

 

Your engine will continue "breaking in" well beyond 5K miles. But, the important break in is the first 600 or so. Unless you do all your driving on the highway or plan to do a long roadtrip your everyday driving should take care of the "vary the RPMs" requirement. If not then you can stop worrying about it after 600 miles. By the time you reach 600 you should have redlined a couple of times.

 

I like to give a new engine shorts bursts of WOT in 3rd or 4th , maybe for 1000-1500 rpm sweeps from 3000-5000 rpms. You dont want to go too easy on it...

 

sounds like i need to be more hard on it, i'll have to leave the WOT for when i go on I95 to and from Wilmington. the increase in RPM i can work on around the city in SS mode. I'm goin to start pushing it to 4k rpm.

 

well on the drive back from work i was a bit more aggressive with the car. i was pushing into the 3800-4300 range.

after i got out the car a few times (i had a few stops to make) i noticed an acrid smell, i think i may have burned some oil? it wasn't overwhelming, but a few sniffs and i could notice it.

is this normal or not?

 

your car is ruined! omg! kidding of course

I wouldn't bother much about this break in thing... just don't get too close to red line for a 1-2 thousand miles and you'll be fine

 

Normal. Its the plastics, oils, lubes, and such getting accustomed to operating temperatures.

 

The main thing is that when you are on I95 is to vary the RPMs. That's probably more crucial than what RPM you should drive at. I hit 6000 rpm in my first 70 miles of ownership.

 

Hi there, English is not my first language, I thought i am not quite understand this

" Use full throttle in short (2-3 second) bursts at low rpms (say 2500) - 5th gear on the freeway is ideal for this. Do not do more than one full-throttle burst in the same 2-minute period. "

Question time:
1) Full throttle = floor the gas pedal?
2) Which gear I should use when i floor the pedal? 5th?
3) How could i keep the rpm under 2500 if i floor the pedal for 2second?

 

I don't like to use low RPM and full throttle on an engine that is not broken in yet. I wouldn't follow that advice.

 

1. yes
2. Any gear, provided your rpms are relatively low, i.e. 2500. Obviously, the gear will depend on how fast you're going at the time.
3. As an example, if you're going 70 mph in 5th gear your engine is turning at around 2500rpm (on AT). If you push the accelerator to the floor the car will start to accelerate and your rpms will slowly increase. The key word is "slowly". The rpms will not instantaneously shoot up to redline. And remember, the theory is 2-3 seconds per burst. So, using my example, after 3 seconds you may be going 80mph with the revs at 2800.

 

I followed this break-in schedule to the letter on my new TSX in the summer of 2005. It has performed flawlessly ever since and has never burned so much as a drop of oil as far as I can tell. Was this break-in procedure beneficial? I don't know. But it didn't seem to hurt it.

 

Well this thread is quite informing. How often do you guys do full throttle at low rpm to make the seal? I did it like every 10 minutes....for 2-3 seconds each time..

 

I know some people don't like ancient threads being resurrected, but it was such a good thread, so I thought I'd report back that I just sold my 2005 TSX with 124,000 km on it. It never did burn any noticeable amount of oil. I'll never know if this break-in period was the reason, but I'm going to do it this way again on my next car.

She's a good car and the new owner is pretty excited.

 

I never buy new cars, so I'm always nervous about how well the original owner performed the break-in. My guess is they don't give it a second thought and just drive it like they normally would.

That said, my car has the same number of miles as yours, and it doesn't use any noticeable amount of oil between my 12,000 oil change intervals (1yr interval).

 

I read this original post prior to buying my car in 2005. I broke in the car exactly as mentioned in this article. I took special care not to even go on highways during the first 600 miles. I stayed in the city and varied my speed constantly. My car does not burn oil. It now has over 100,000 miles. Like you, I don't know if breaking in my car using this method was reason it does not burn oil. I don't know if I had not used this method if my car would burn oil. What I do know is that I would follow this method to the letter again if I ever get another new car.