i am now a proud owner of a 04 TSX, 5AT, ABP W/ BLACK INT.......
i gotta say what a sweet car, i LOVE it.

 

YAY!

Post some picz

 

Yet another Arctic Blue Pearl owner

 

ain't the break in period a bitch

 

Shoulda traded your screenname in with the Civic! Congrats!

 

Did everybody manage to baby their car for the first 600, or have any of you just said fuckit?

 

I actually babied it until I hit 3K, but it consisted of not going more than 75MPH and limiting my revs to 4K...Man that was hard to do...But now taking it to its limits is all the joy in waiting. The best part are redline shifts and chirping 2nd and 3rd gear!

 

great to see another member with an ABP TSX.

 

And people on the blown clutch threads say they never abuse they cars.

 

Congrats....
I can't wait until I can say the same thing and make my ownership final

 

break in period blows ......... its so temping to just slam on the gas.

 

After the break-in period is where all the fun begins!!!

 

I just got my new PWP TSX yesterday!! What do you all recommend to do for the break-in period? The salesman only told me not to accelerate or drive too fast for the first 1,000 miles. Is that right? I felt a jog when the automatic transmission shifted. He said that goes away after the break-in period. True?

Thanks for your input!

 

Amalia,
Check out this break-in thread: http://www.acura-tsx.com/forums/show...&threadid=1443
The post by ClutchPerformer is one of the best discussions on break-in that I've seen. My only deviation is that my 1st oil change will be at 5K mi. BTW, doesn't PWP just look great?

 

Artic Blue was my second choice. I very nice color indeed. Of course I like all the TSX color combos.

 

Thank you so incredibly much for the great write-up. There are a few crucial terms in the write-up that I don't understand. Could you tell me what they are?

They are "use full throttle." What is it? How do you do it? Does it mean revving the engine above a certain RPM? The dealership said don't rev the engine for the first 1,000 miles.

What does "heavey throttle" mean?

I have automatic transmission. It says "vary your speed and alternate between 5th and 4th gears." How do I do that with AT?

One dealership around here recommended doing the first oil change at 1,000 miles. This article recommends 500 miles, then in the next paragraph says he changes the oil after 1500 miles. Which is it? Both?

 

As to the PWP, it's gorgeous. So creamy and shimmery. The longer I look at it, the more I like it.


I see that TSX 3Pedal says "I actually babied it until I hit 3K, but it consisted of not going more than 75MPH and limiting my revs to 4K...Man that was hard to do...But now taking it to its limits is all the joy in waiting. The best part are redline shifts and chirping 2nd and 3rd gear!"

So, what does "redline shifts" and "chirping" mean?

Thanks!!

 

Amalia,
Lets see if I can answer some of your questions:
1. "Full Throttle" is just another way of saying "pedal to the metal" or giving your car "full gas". It means to accelerate as fast as you can by pressing your accelerator as far down, or against the floor, as it will go.
2. "heavy throttle" is essentially the same as full throttle. It means to accelerate at a high rate, to really "stomp-on-it". If you drive like you are trying to beat someone off the line at a red light all the time you are said to be "heavy on the throttle".
3. Reving the engine is a little different than full throttle or heavy throttle. Reving the engine implies that you let the RPMs go up into the higher ranges of the engine. At idle, without gas, your AT should turn around 750 RPM.
4. "Vary your speed and alternate between 5th and 4th gears". The intent here is that when the engine is new you don't keep it running at a constant RPM for a long time. City driving, stop light to stop light, is ideal for this because the engine will be exercised though a band of RPMs. If you are driving on the highway then this is a little more difficult to do. In the AT you have a sport-shift feature which you engage by sliding your shifter to the left from the "drive" position. Go between 4th and 5th to vary your RPMs and don't do a constant 65mph but vary your speed between 55 and 70 MPH. Doing so will allow your engine to rev anywhere from 2000RPM to around 3500RPM.
5. Oil changing is a highly debated topic. Acura recommends changing oil every 10,000 miles. If you change it more often it will not be a problem. It is also debated whether the oil that comes in your brand new TSX is a special oil blend to help with the engine break in. The argument is that if you change the oil too early then you will deprive the engine of the "special" oil before the break-in period is complete. On the other hand, during break-in the engine sees higher stresses and some higher temperature hot-spots which break down the oil faster. During brake in metal-to-metal contact may cause metal particles to shave off and be suspended in the oil. The argument for changing the oil sooner is to get rid of the oil with the metal particles sooner so that it doesn't negatively affect the performance of the engine. You will have to make that decision yourself. Just know that you can't go wrong following the manufacturers recommendations.
6. "Redline shifts". This means, as you accelerate, not shifting to a higher gear until the engine RPMs reach the "redline" (i.e. the band on the tachometer marked in red). This takes the engine through its entire RPM band.
7. "Chirping" This usually applies to driving a manual transmission. You know how you can "peel out" from a standing stop? Well, "chirping" means "peeling out" not only in first gear (from a standing stop) but also between gears (i.e. shifting gears from 1st to 2nd and from 2nd to 3rd). In a manual transmission when you shift from 1st to 2nd you actually have to step off the gas, push in the clutch, shift gears, release the clutch, and then step on the gas to change gears. When you release the clutch and step on the gas really quickly and you give the car enough gas, the power to the wheels will be enough to cause them to break traction with the road and spin (just like a peel out). This doesn't last very long and therefore the sound that it makes is not a long "squeal" but rather a short "chirp" until traction is re-estabished.

I noitced that you are new to this board (only 5 posts). Try searching on some of these topics and you'll find a wealth of information.

Hope this helps.

 

Thank you so much for your wonderful explanation. I didn't realize there was more information on these boards, so I'll look for it.

Yes, I'm new to the board. I joined last week when I was ready to buy my tsx, joined up with 3 other people on this board, and the 3 of us made a discounted group purchase two days ago. So, now I have it and need new information than I was looking for last week.

Thank you so much for lending your expertise to those of us who are starting out!

 

Yeah, almost 6500 threads, over 96,500 posts, some of them even useful. Congrats on the new wheels and welcome to the board. You'll love driving MY car around.

 

jlukja-

Thanks for all that detailed information...I too am a new owner and found it most helpful!!

'04 TSX, Premium Pearl White, Parchment, 6MT ,non-navi

 

Yes, I see we have the same car

I just spoke with the Acura dealer where I bought the car. I read her the break-in instructions that you linked to. She said that those instructions are for manual transmission. She stated that for automatic transmission, break-in happens in the first 600 miles. During that time, she said you shouldn't use the cruise control, no fast acceleration, no hard stops, and vary the speed, driving as long as you want. Is she right?

 

Yes and No. No in that the engine is the same, regardless of the type of transmission, and so engine break-in considerations should not be different for different transmissions. Yes in that her recommendations will achieve similar results.

Don't use the cruise control because the cruise control keeps the car at a constant speed, without shifting gears, and therefore a constant RPM. Constant RPMs over long periods are what you want to avoid during break-in. Varying the cars speed will vary the engine RPMs.

No fast accelerations is also a good recommendation. You should "baby" the car initially. Per Clutch's post, over a period of time you should allow the RPMs to drift progressively higher and higher. The whole idea is to vary the RPMs and SLOWLY get the engine used to turning higher RPMs.

I have an AT but I used Clutch's recommendations. I used the sportshift feature to go between 4th and 5th to vary the RPMs on the highway. I also used it to rev the engine to progressively higher RPMs. Without sportshift, if you don't accelerate agressively, the AT will upshift before the RPMs reach the desired level. Once your car is warmed up (after a few minutes of driving) when you come to a stop shift it into sportshift mode. When you accelerate do it slowly but let the RPMs build a little higher (Clutch says in increments of 200RPM) before you manually shift sportshift into 2nd gear. Maybe the next day after your car is warmed up you do this again. Over the course of driving the first 600 miles you should have revved the engine to around 6000 a couple of times. Over this time your acceleration can get more aggressive as well.

After around 2000-3000 miles you'll notice that the engine runs a little smoother, not as noisy in the higher RPMs, and your gas mileage will imporve.