I have a 3 month old 05TL (4500 miles). I was driving with care (60-65 mph) in the break-in period up to 3000 miles. Last week I went to NY throu I-95, so I was driving in 80-90 mph range. But some people told me that we shouldn't go beyond 70 mph up to 5000 miles .. Is this true ? or my NY trip may affect the engine ..?

need your valuable suggestions ..

 

RTOM (Read the owner's manual). Sounds better than RTFM, but achieves the same purpose. I don't usually say this, but here I have to do it because you have been needlessly suffering for 3,000-4,000 miles when you could have been truly enjoying your TL. And I feel bad for you having to go through that.

The break in period is only 600 miles, after that, do what you want.

Go out and floor it, rev it up, hit the redline a few times, jam on the brakes and experience the antilock effect.

In other words, drive it like it was meant to be driven and enjoy yourself.

 

Im far from a mechanic, but I think alot depends on if you are leasing or buying. You would be hard pressed to see the negative effects during a 36 month lease. Personally I drove my car from the dealership directly onto the highway for a 2 hour road trip..........and then I got a new transmission 19K miles later . But that was because of the recall

 

lol break in period. Never will. Car is either gonna break or it isn't. When i was in germany for awhile in my life, they never believed in this. the philosophy is that the way you drive it at the beginning is the way it will perform the rest of its life. but who knows. One of the best mechanics i know bought a dodge dakota rt and from day one drove it like he was 16 and hes 54. And he just got rid of it at 110,000 miles and really no problems and performed great (for a dodge).

The widely accepted theory is that the piston rings don't fit the cylinders absolutely perfectly when the car comes off the assembly line. Because the spaces in between the two are tens of thousanths of an inch. So the break-in period is supposed to be a time in which you drive gently and allow the rings to "seat," or mold themselves perfectly to the exact shapes of the cylinder walls.

Manufacturing technology has improved so much over the years that the rings (and all the other engine parts) come off the assembly line fitting pretty well.

 

My last car, which I bought used with about 15k miles, consumed oil all time I owned it. I have strong suspisions that it was result of improper break-in.

 

i began abusing the crap out of my car after 300 miles. today at 8,000 miles my car drives real aggressive, down shifts t ohit vtec range wit ha lsight push of the pedal.

 

If you own the car its worth waiting the 600 miles. Better safe then sorry with a 35k car. Plus that give you time to play with the electronics.

 

Don't sweat the small stuff.

Just run the piss out of it from day one. There is not metal to metal contact in an engine. That's why they use assembly lube.

Cheers!

 

This is not true, but I have posted on this so many times that I have no more air to waste on it. Read up on asperities (also check up on boundary lubrication, which exists in all engines until hydrodynamic lubrication from oil pressure is built up) - asperities need to be honed, not sheared off, to ensure the smoothest surface (which helps reduce wear during boundary lubrication period) Also, to ensure the least amount of damage to adjacent surfaces from chards of metal. Although the ring/cylinder wall interface is the most critical, there are all sorts of mechanical components in the drivetrain that need some time, heat cycling, etc to offer the best performance. Most gear mfrs have a recommended procedure for ring/pinion sets, which involve heat cycling and several drain cycles. This is of course too much for the average Joe's among us, so gearsets from the factory are often "filled for life".

I suggest that expediency and convenience do not make the case very often for the best practice. The good news is the quality of products from Honda allows a lot of allowance for "non best practices", including "drive it like you stole it" science.

Many engines do not use assembly lube anymore, by the way. The AMG assembly of engines for M-B is done with engine oil - saw it myself.

Why would you guess does Honda recommend a minimum break-in period at all? Given that people these days like simple answers, forever drain intervals, etc, would it not be in Honda's best interest to forego break-in periods completely? The answer is obviously, Yes! So the fact that they have a minimum 600 mile break-in period must be doine for somne reason. It does. That reason is to minimize engine failures and/or engine parts costs during the warranty period. Honda knows engines, and those of us who have studied this topic in school at professionally kinow the underlying engineering principles.

Anecdotes about "who drove what car how" are nothinhg but stories - so those who posted about Uncle Ed's Hudson or whatever have supplied nice stories, but nothing to base an educated opinion upon.

Every Eurpean car of which i am aware has soime sort of break-in sequence. My last BMW M3 had a graduated period - first 1000 miles, next 4000, etc. Again, this is not done to be client-friendly.

While it is certainly true that while precision machining, improvements in parts tolerances, improvement sin lubricants, etc have made this topic less of an issue, it has not eliminated it, esp for those who look to get the most out of their engines for the longest possible time.

I have tons of info in my E-school texts, and have kept a few URL's of interest to other eng'g oriented folks - here is one on asperities that gets to the relevant topic on how metal to metal occurs on "fresh" surfaces.

http://www.fltuk.com/pdf/Gleitmo.pdf

Anti-wear additives in the break-in oil that Honda uses are high in molybdenum - an effective addtive which specifically deals with smoothing the "lands" between the asperities, and reduces friction which occurs at the asperity/ring interface. This temp can be many times higher than the temp of combustion, by the way, leading to a phenomenon similar to galling and welding (which are well-known or understandable to laymen).

Here are some posts that deal with general scientific concepts, but the pictures may help illustrate how "unsmooth" "smooth" metallic surfaces are:

http://www.fltuk.com/pdf/Gleitmo.pdf

 

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

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by HiG4s

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

Gotta love the

"Warning: This is a very controversial topic !!"

at the top

and the Budweiser ad at the bottom


Otherwise as some other folks have already mentioned, it's best to break-in the motor to the manufacturer's recommendations.

Back to the original question concerning his higher speed driving and break-in, he should be OK and have no problems what so ever. He was well past the suggested 600 mile break-in.

 

Thanks for the info and links. I had the oil changed with the usual 5W20 in my 05 TL non-navi the day after delivery due to 3 failed catalytics that were replaced. Dealer says break-in oil cannot be ordered - factory fill only. Are there any aftermarket anti-wear additives that would replace the break-in oil?

 

Yes - this has been covered in the RR Journals - current suggested additive is Valvoline Synpower Oil Treatment until break-in is completed in several thousands miles.

 

So how can manufacturers put synthetic oil in as a factory fill (M-B, BMW, Corvette) and still recommend a break-in? I don't know a single oil producer that recommends synthetic for break-in.

I think lots of the break-in information on the mototune website is in the other articles.

Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

I respectfully disagree and run mine hard from day one (always have).

Cheers,

Don

 

I have heard that after a short period of relatively gentle break-in (like 600 miles) that you should actually drive the car hard at varying rpm's to help seat those rings. That's what I did and my VR6 hasn't consumed a drop of oil outside of oil changes since 2001.

 

BTW, after break-in, there is a ring-seating procedure I alluded to above. It was recommended to me and goes like this:

1. Find a long stretch of open road at night. Put it into 3rd and let the rpm's drop to the low thousands. Floor it to 5,000 rpm or so (it depends on how much road you have and how fast you're willing to go keeping safety in mind). Kinda like a dyno test.

2. Take your foot off the gas and let the engine speed drop back down to 1,200 rpm or so. Step on the gas again until 5,000 rpm. Take your foot off the gas and let the engine speed drop back down to 1,200.

3. Rinse and repeat at least 5-7 times but no more than 10. This will put thermal and mechanical stress on the rings helping them to seat. Repeat this late night ring seating session once every 300-400 miles for about 4-5 times. This will seat the rings pretty good.

4. Don't do this until AFTER your break-in period! And don't forget to change your oil at 3,000 miles to get all the metal particulate out of circulation.

And yes, I did this to my car. Seems to work. Haven't used a drop of oil since I bought the car (2001). No negative effects on my engine.

 

It amazes me that the mototune thing is taken by people as gospel, even though the supporting info, and even the owner's manuals of the last Honda bike I read, is woefully absent. We do not even know the guy's credentials. I personally would not give advice, or take any, without some knowledge of the advisor.
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What about the salient points previously stated? Ignoring them and throwing in one of those "well how come other cars come from the factory...?" questions does not strike me as a cogent argument, but merely a change of topic.

Anyway, your trying to make a point about break-in by waving the factory fill of some cars which come with synoil is triangulated logic, and does not help resolve anything. Mfrs that have the cars come with synoil do so for a very practical reason - namely that the cars were EPA certified with it, and that is done for a variety of reasons which are irrelevant to this discussion.

But based on my connections with Bowling Green, my auto journalism network, my discussions with pwoertrain engineers at SAE conventions, and personal experience and the Corvette community (I have a Vette resto business and have done several ground up restorations, and owned 7 Corvettes since they first came with factory synoil), there is no doubt in my mind that they do take a bit longer to reach oil consumption stability, as well as reach full power potential.

Again, let's stick to Hondas - the break-in procedure in question here relates to Honda engineered engines - and barring changes in engineering know-how, engine design, etc, I cannot fathom why people would want to second guess Honda Engineering, as I stated previously in this thread.