Breakin In
08-15-2007, 03:34 PM
#1
My baby's name is Pearly!
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Location: Seattle, WA (206)
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Breakin In
How Do You Know When The Car Breaks In? I Just Got An 07 Tl-s And So Afraid To Drive It Over 80mph Or Rev It Pass 3500rmp. I Heard After 1,000mi, The Car Is Broken In. But How Can You Feel It, Anyone? Hehe
08-15-2007, 05:00 PM
#2
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You should take it easy and vary your speed the first 600 miles (owner's manual). Between 600 and 1000 miles, I would recommend to still go pretty easy with it, but progressively arrive at your "normal" style of driving by the time you reach 1000 miles. As for the brakes, avoid any hard stops, hills and braking, and long braking for the first 200-300 miles.
There are basically two schools of thought about breaking in a street engine. One says to take it very easy and progressively move towards your preferred mode for the first x-number of miles. The other school says to drive it like you stole it from day one. For one of the best explanations as to the "why" of all of this, do a search on Road Rage's input regarding this topic.
As for me, I favor the easy-to-normal-over-time-and-mileage approach and I do have sound reasons for this.
Oh, and if you have a manual transmission and find yourself commuting on interstate highways or similar roadways, shift between 4th, 5th, and 6th every few minutes to force the engine to turn at differing speeds. If you have an automatic, you can do this by using the "manual" shift mode.
As for revving the engine past a certain RPM range, it's good you are cognizant of this. I would suggest trying to stay below 3500 RPM for the first 100 miles. After that, you can shift normally but still go easy on it and don't take the engine up too high.
There are basically two schools of thought about breaking in a street engine. One says to take it very easy and progressively move towards your preferred mode for the first x-number of miles. The other school says to drive it like you stole it from day one. For one of the best explanations as to the "why" of all of this, do a search on Road Rage's input regarding this topic.
As for me, I favor the easy-to-normal-over-time-and-mileage approach and I do have sound reasons for this.
Oh, and if you have a manual transmission and find yourself commuting on interstate highways or similar roadways, shift between 4th, 5th, and 6th every few minutes to force the engine to turn at differing speeds. If you have an automatic, you can do this by using the "manual" shift mode.
As for revving the engine past a certain RPM range, it's good you are cognizant of this. I would suggest trying to stay below 3500 RPM for the first 100 miles. After that, you can shift normally but still go easy on it and don't take the engine up too high.
08-15-2007, 05:36 PM
#3
Registered Member
Now the why.
Automobile engines are built from a variety of metal alloys which expand and contract at different rates. Also, even though modern engines have tighter, more exacting tolerances than engines of the past, their components are still not 100% concentric or symetrical. They will be a little off. Add to that the fact that any machined component is going to have asperities which need to be smoothed out in a controlled process (breakin).
As I mentioned, Road Rage does a far better job than I just did so check out his postings for a better description of all of this.
Automobile engines are built from a variety of metal alloys which expand and contract at different rates. Also, even though modern engines have tighter, more exacting tolerances than engines of the past, their components are still not 100% concentric or symetrical. They will be a little off. Add to that the fact that any machined component is going to have asperities which need to be smoothed out in a controlled process (breakin).
As I mentioned, Road Rage does a far better job than I just did so check out his postings for a better description of all of this.
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