fentanyl

I've heard before that it is recommended that with a new car you should not rev the engine to near the redline until it has had a "break-in" period of 300-500 miles. Any thoguhts? I've just purchased a '03 Aegean Blue CL-S 6 spd and I'm wondering if my lead foot will damage the engine in the long term. It's hard not to wind up the engine!

Type S

acutally i gave my cls a 1000 miles break-in without reaching 3500 rpm and do not push the gas pedal too hard or brake too hard.u do not want to have squeaky sounds in the future.do u??..and ofter your break-in..give it a oil change..use mobil 1 5W~30W....
that is pretty much it..

6speed

I've been told different things. Best advice is to be conservative the first 1000 miles. You can push once in while but don't make a habit of it. One thing I have heard is not to maintain the same speed too long, vary it.

fentanyl

1000 miles? Sheesh! I only drive about 7-8K a year. It would take me almost 2 damn months!

DDT-TypeS

I'm pretty confident in this CLS 6-speed. For me, I rode the bitch up to about 1100 miles already and that's in 7 days!!!!

Unbelieveable. But I varied the speed and I went thru ALL THE GEARS on the highway. I never stayed on 6th for long. Just shift up and down, down and up. I floored it a few times here and then. I did the same with my old integra and the car lasted more than 97k miles before I sold it.

It's so hard not to rev hard in this 6-speed!!! I can't help but speed shift at times..just to practise my manual driving skills (or lack of)

JRock

If you can last 750miles without V-TECin' it or jammin' on the brakes, you're golden.

EricL

Yes, that would be nice...


Do try to vary the revs...

Don't WOT the sucker

You can slowly bring the revs up little by little with time (not under WOT).

1000 miles won't kill you and your engine will thank you...

You might want to bed the brakes after you hit 750-1000 miles to help with the "warp" issue....

EricL

Welcome to the low-mileage per year club...

fentanyl

I'm not sure where this "wisdom" of a slow break in period for engines comes from. The manufacturer does not mention it. Any engine mechanics out there who can offer up an explaination?

My last car was a '98 Honda Civic EX Coupe, 5spd that I bought new. I beat the living shit out of that car from day one. I revved it right to the red daily from the first day I got it and never had to spend a single $ on a repair. I never keep cars much longer than the warranty period, so I figure that any engine failure would be covered under warranty.:wackit:

EricL

1. It's not so much Slooooooow...

2. It's varying the revs. There are wear patterns that change with rpm -- this is important. I'm getting ready to drop, or I'd find the link for you on engine break in (the subject was about going 5K miles with the "mystery oil" from Acura. And I have a few comments about that (one size doesn't fit all -- in a nutshell).

3. During the initial break-in, you probably want to avoid WOT; I've always brought the revs up through the break-in (there is no rule). However, having had some rather nasty high-compression engines that were over bored and were so tight, after the bore job,, that the engine wouldn't even spin 1/4 rev at shut down, With a very, very "tight" engine, you can feel the engine loosing-up by rpms (each day a bit higher – no kidding). I kept "probing" into higher rpms as time went by. You can certainly vary the rpms and load. The main think is to keep from doing the stomp-on-it special from second one. You will probably get a "loose" engine with low friction, but too loose is not too great.
VARY the revs and load…

4. The rings of the pistons are trying to seat and "polish" the walls of the cylinder sleeves and if you just WOT from second i, you can get some blow-by and it doesn't help. Also, the "extra" weenie factor shit is especially nice if you if plan on making power out of the mill for a long time (as in a ton of miles)…

Go to: http://www.bmwrt.com/faq/breakin.htm

(This info is a bit too extreme for me, but it has the basic ideas. I have worked on a lot of car engines and don't need BS points and have some friends who have done some serious race stuff, so, it’s another point of view... 1000 miles is not that long a while to wait before stomping on the sucker. (And yes, others have done the drove it like a wild man from day one… YMMV)

BTW, don't forget the brakes -- they need to be "bedded in"

Look on Google and search on: "seasoning" "rotors" and/or "green fade" and/or bedding in brake pads...(THE BRAKES NEED ATTENTION TOO)

good luck...

-gone-

EdgarFanCLS

The users manual for your car does list (or at least the 2003's do) break-in info. I'm too lazy to run out to my car to get it, but I believe Acura says for the first 600 miles:
- No full throttle starts
- No "hard" braking

I'm not sure if it mentions that you should vary the RPMs, but that is also a good thing to do with a new engine. And keep the RPMs down for the initial period as well. No redlining.

I remember when I asked my dealer about the break-in period he told me that there wasn't one. I promptly ignored him and looked it up in the manual.

6speed

Best idea yet. Salesman think they know about cars.:sqnteek:

SiGGy

All of the cam bearings, crank bearings, and especially the piston rings need to seat themselfs. If you beat the hell out of it before the rings seat properly you could have some oil blow by, and or a bad seal. In my experiences it's not good to drive it like a complete grandma. Some solid (not WOT) acceleration is good. Keeping the RPMs at one specific spot during breakin for long periods of time could cause uneven seating, or odd wear on bearings during the initial stages of the bearing seating itself same with your piston rings. However I have pulled heads back off and engine barely ran for 300 miles with moderate driving, and I really think a lot of the breakin period has to do with how well the machining/tolerances are spec'd on the specific engine that is being broken in. Some engines I have seen have taken better to a stronger driven breakin period.

EricL

Grandma driving, didn't say that...

Yep, all of those thinks seat, but the piston rings/cylinders sure are important and I wouldn't want a car that was driven with a manual at 1200 rpm for 1000 miles. Also, would want to BUY a "demo" (short for demolish-strator) that every one did burnouts at the dealer -- "hey, go ahead. It's broken in, stand on it... It can take it..." Unless I owned STP stock, I'd take a pass... (plan on lots of STP Smoke Treatment )

And they do make gapless rings (for better sealing, don't they?)


The bearings are pretty well set -- I'm more concerned about make sure there is enough gas pressure to let the rings take a bite, but not so hard to blast hot gas past them...

Hey, want to get technical, despite protests to the contrary even the tranny teeth will mesh a bit better with time…


I also wouldn't want to have a long term "keeper" that had someone jamming their foot into it (I “worked” on and noticed a number of the “WOT school of break-in/-down cars getting uneven compression and blow-by pretty early on... but then, that was a while back and of-course the cars were driven like that the rest of the time (no kidding). A leak-down test with noise coming out of the dipstick and oily plugs was not a good sign…

And


When you get a "tight" engine to break in, believe me -- you'll know it... When you hear the starter groan and then watch the engine stop like a clamp was locked on the flywheel, you know it was built "tight"... (it doesn't mean driving with an egg under your foot -- it means staying off WOT at low speeds and "mixing it up"... Hey, want to go crazy -- hit a dyno [with speed/load program] and let 'em break-it for you...


AS for this engine -- who knows, the tranny(ies) will go before the engine anyway... (well, at least the manuals have a shot...)

codehead

Same here--I waited for 600 miles before winding it up a bit. It took restraint

With modern cars the break-in period is not so critical. But most people like to be extra safe. 600 miles is a reasonably safe amount--probably plenty more than it needs. I wouldn't immediately start beating the the heck out of it at that point, but you can stop worrying about taking trips at sustained speeds and occasionally winding the rpm's up.

SiGGy

heh, ya totally agree with ya.

I really do think the clutch packs take a good 5000-10000 miles to fully break in. Both of my trannys have shifted better after 5000 miles or so...

pcarigna

I say thrash the engine at will. If you have any problems it will be covered under warranty. I buy a new car every 3 years.

nd9ta

:sqnteek: ...and my family and friends wonder why I would NEVER buy a used car.

hughesne

The mechanic at the dealership told me when i bought mine to watch the breaks for the first 600. I got it on a thursday and took a road trip to chicago that night (300 miles each way). I got mine in April and i just turned 5K. It runs better now than it did at 3K. Oh yeah, ive run the hell outta it since day 3. 13MPG City. hehehe

nd9ta

LOL! Your nick should be WOT :P

That's almost the same mileage I get with my TA driving in the city and with lots of thottle

So far - while break-in the CLS, averaging around 16 mpg, and we are at 260 miles

Dailow

Sorry for bumping such an old post, but this has me curious. I stumbled upon another article similar to the one linked to by EricL, which also suggests driving hard during breakin on a new engine.

http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

I guess it works judging from some of the responses here?

cltypeSLOW

that guys research seems to be pretty solid i just dunno if im gutsy enough to try it.

Dr. Kill

An acceptable break-in period lasts from the parking lot to the street.

Well no, the dealer told me 600 miles on my ’03 CLS 6spd. I observed it – planned a whole roadtrip around killing off the 600 miles 3 days after I picked up the car.

Noahkk17

From different resources I've heard of on this topic, the thing I pick up most on is that we are in the year 2005!!! Cars are not like they were 20--30 years ago...No where close. The piston rings and cylinders SHOULD seat themselves properly as soon as a car is started for the first time...

That being said, do what you want, but if you want to be careful my only advice to you is to vary RPM's

NiteQwill

Drive it like you stole it.... the first day.

Brady6226

apply full loads at low rpms. do this with in the first 50 miles. dont do it every time. just a few times a drive. you will build an extremely fast motor. kinda like producing a factory freek. by buddy did this on his 01 ss camaro m6. went 12.9 at 108 with 320 whp and 325 wtq stock. right down to the airfilter.

Joe5.0

Or you'll damage the rod bearings, too much load at low rpms will do that.