Breaking in your car
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Breaking in your car
Does anyone here read Motor Trend? In this months issue there is an article about breaking in cars. It says that some people (who build cars for a living) think that it is better to break your car in by almost beating it up. Well, the throttle that is. I'm curious if anyone has done this with their civic, and noticed anything different compared to other owners. Sometimes I hear of big differences in 1/4 mile times with almost the exact same car, it just makes me wonder if this method of breaking in a car can actually help performance or EPA. But then again, driving technique is going to be the biggest factor in these differences. I tried to find the article on MT's website, but no luck. If anyone has read this, or has thoughts on this, I'd be interested to hear them.
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Yeah, you want to put enough pressure on the rings to properly seat them.
Going up a steep hill works, and don't forget when they break in an engine at the Dyno. They pull it hard. If you baby the engine, you'll get a glaze on the cylinders and the motor will never seal as gas-tight as it should.
Going up a steep hill works, and don't forget when they break in an engine at the Dyno. They pull it hard. If you baby the engine, you'll get a glaze on the cylinders and the motor will never seal as gas-tight as it should.
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Originally Posted by tinman
Yeah, you want to put enough pressure on the rings to properly seat them.
Going up a steep hill works, and don't forget when they break in an engine at the Dyno. They pull it hard. If you baby the engine, you'll get a glaze on the cylinders and the motor will never seal as gas-tight as it should.
Going up a steep hill works, and don't forget when they break in an engine at the Dyno. They pull it hard. If you baby the engine, you'll get a glaze on the cylinders and the motor will never seal as gas-tight as it should.
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Originally Posted by Manthatguysfast
reheheheally (ala ace ventura)? would the same go if you're breakin in a clutch?
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A good read, someone posted this on the forums a while back and I bookmarked it in case I were to buy a new car (or a motorcycle) in the near future. Now those dreams are dead and gone, LOL. I'm just trying to keep gas in the tank and food in the belly.
A good read, someone posted this on the forums a while back and I bookmarked it in case I were to buy a new car (or a motorcycle) in the near future. Now those dreams are dead and gone, LOL. I'm just trying to keep gas in the tank and food in the belly.
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Rep Power: 0 but does anyone think that it is possible to take 2 of the exact same car, say both stock, and have one perform noticably better than the other based solely on this breaking in technique?
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Rep Power: 337 idk. i bought mine at 55 so it was broken in enough. i go a little rough on it sometimes. not so sure about the 2 same cars with different break in, cause your supposed to wait like 5k miles on a new car, then you can redline, and accelerate fast.
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Originally Posted by invrtdsa1nt
but does anyone think that it is possible to take 2 of the exact same car, say both stock, and have one perform noticably better than the other based solely on this breaking in technique?
Ok, so if your owners manual gives a break in procedure, which the manufacturer wrote, don't you think they know whats best for breaking in the engine they designed, built and tested? I'm a bit skeptical because I would assume the engineers that designed a frickin car would know best how to break it in. Seems to me that when a company spends millions of dollars designing and testing an engine, they are going to have a bit of data on break-in and how it should be performed. I would love to see some scientific evidence that this rough break in procedure is better for the engine in all aspects of performance and longevity.
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Ok, so if your owners manual gives a break in procedure, which the manufacturer wrote, don't you think they know whats best for breaking in the engine they designed, built and tested? I'm a bit skeptical because I would assume the engineers that designed a frickin car would know best how to break it in. Seems to me that when a company spends millions of dollars designing and testing an engine, they are going to have a bit of data on break-in and how it should be performed. I would love to see some scientific evidence that this rough break in procedure is better for the engine in all aspects of performance and longevity.
Well, I'm not sure on where to get scientific evidence. In the article this was brought up. Some say that maybe manufacturers do it to keep the speed down, so when people go buy new cars, they aren't speeding everywhere. And you know if most car buyers do this, for sure there will be more accidents, possibly lawsuits against manufacturers, etc. Like I said it's in the Motor Trend for this month. Check it out the next time you're at the store if you feel so inclined.
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Rep Power: 812 well mine had 80 miles so people broke it in. usually test drives involve gunning it a few times i guess thats how it goes with most cars.
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Rep Power: 475 i didnt floor it or go over like 80 for the first 400 miles or something like it said in the manual but idk if it did anything, but i havent had any problems for the 2 years ive had my car, only has like a little under 20,000 miles tho
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Rep Power: 339 I think this depends on the car also...... I read somewhere that some Evo owners beat up their cars during break in and those ppl end up burning more oil later on. When I broke in my car, I never floored it, but I did put some load on it.
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Rep Power: 255 It's a good thing I had to drive up a giant-*** hill right after buying my car. That thing runs like a champ . . . even though I'm overdue for my 30k tune-up.
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Rep Power: 279 when I bought my car brand new, right when they handed me the keys they told me "drive the hell out of it, theres really no brake in period". 104k miles later, I havent a single problem with it...she still feels like new.
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Originally Posted by JP375
Ok, so if your owners manual gives a break in procedure, which the manufacturer wrote, don't you think they know whats best for breaking in the engine they designed, built and tested? I'm a bit skeptical because I would assume the engineers that designed a frickin car would know best how to break it in. Seems to me that when a company spends millions of dollars designing and testing an engine, they are going to have a bit of data on break-in and how it should be performed. I would love to see some scientific evidence that this rough break in procedure is better for the engine in all aspects of performance and longevity.
Last time I had this much fun some furniture got broken!
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Rep Power: 361 My sister is going to probably buy a new TSX. I told her I am going to drive it at leat once. So before 1000 miles on the car I will take it to my favorite roads and run it through its paces. I wont do full throttle like in the civic, but it will probably be just as fast at 1/2.
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Originally Posted by mandangalo
what would a hill do to it to break it in better? more stress on everything? or what?
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Rep Power: 0 The hill thing is probably a good idea, but just going out and thrashing the car to being with is probably a bad idea. If they are broken in from the factory it doesnt really matter then. I know a good general way to break in an engine that is new or rebuilt is to leave it somewhere around half or below its redline on a dyno. The dyno is going to put a big load on it so thats where the hill thing is probably coming from. Im on the FSAE team at my school (we run the CBR's F4i) and if an engine gets rebuilt and not broken in on the dyno, after people go about and trash it new it never runs as good as it was supposed to. Breaking in an engine is really important it makes sense that honda does it because no one would ever break it in right.
