FRS Break-in guide

[initial]

Originally Posted by Dizz1e

"Run it hard from hour 0" is wrong - here's why

The "run it hard" opinion hit a resurgence with a website from an air cooled motorcycle mechanic. Aside from the page being focused on motorcycle engines, his hard break in technique for the street only takes the bike up to 65 mph - that's fast for a bike but not much for a car. Bikes are also thousands of pounds lighter than cars so the engine doesn't have to work very hard if you're driving "normally". Some of the misunderstanding is that one person's babying is another's beating. The advice also says that the critical window of opportunity is only 20 miles or 9 dyno runs, then it becomes 200 miles for the street - which is it? It also says that power loss from an easy break in could be up to 10% while the gain in power as a result of using his break in technique could be up 10%. Call me a skeptic - car makers have done full price + taxes buybacks when horsepower was 5% lower than advertised (RX-8) and it's well known that many engines are underrated in their actual power (335i N54).

The engine in your new car really isn't a brand new engine either - it was already tested at the factory, had its first oil change, driven on a dyno at the factory, on/off the transport, and then around the dealership. In some cases the car was driven to another dealer and test driven by other people. Some high performance cars are even driven hard on a track at the factory for quality control. If the first minutes of engine break in determine the rest of engine life and performance, you already missed it.

Engine break in goals are proper heat cycling, mating of parts, and stress reliving accomplished by incremental increases in varying rpm and load. You definitely don't want to baby the engine but you don't want to beat it hard either. The most important goals are avoiding excess engine wear, idling longer than you normally would, steady rpm, and high load on a cold engine."

Taken from: http://www.myturbodiesel.com

I was thinking the same. I would intuitively think that manufactures would go through some process of making sure that owners have a functional car; promising the car's performance in order to avoid legal litigation.

If 'breaking-in' were a part of the new car process, the fact is, most consumers wouldn't know. I would believe auto makers wouldn't take the consumers ignorance for granted due to, again, litigation.

Very informative thread btw, with great educating discourse. This is why I come to these forums.

[FRSRAVEN]

I've driven every car I've had like I stole it right off the dealer lot, and never had an issue. My last car I took to 125K miles before selling it. It never used a drop of oil. Never needed clutch work, etc. Was dead on reliable for the entirety of its operation.

My FRS had 40 miles on it when I took it for the first test drive. I'm sure everyone of those miles was being driven by someone who didn't give a rats ass about "easy break-ins". When I got back from my test drive, the car had over 60 miles and about 1/8" less rubber on the rear tires . Car runs fine....great actually.

Cars are tough...they'll take the abuse, as long as you maintain them. Don't fret, just drive. And if you are really waiting a whole 1k miles before cracking 4k RPM...I'm sorry for you. That's a long time to drive without getting the chance to enjoy the car.

[carbonBLUE]

Originally Posted by FRSRAVEN

I've driven every car I've had like I stole it right off the dealer lot, and never had an issue. My last car I took to 125K miles before selling it. It never used a drop of oil. Never needed clutch work, etc. Was dead on reliable for the entirety of its operation.

My FRS had 40 miles on it when I took it for the first test drive. I'm sure everyone of those miles was being driven by someone who didn't give a rats ass about "easy break-ins". When I got back from my test drive, the car had over 60 miles and about 1/8" less rubber on the rear tires . Car runs fine....great actually.

Cars are tough...they'll take the abuse, as long as you maintain them. Don't fret, just drive. And if you are really waiting a whole 1k miles before cracking 4k RPM...I'm sorry for you. That's a long time to drive without getting the chance to enjoy the car.

this is toyota's version of "don't drive the car hard so you can learn its handling characteristics OR YOU WILL BLOW UP THE ENGINE" its so they see less crashed FRS/BRZ/GT86 right after they are bought cause people don't know how to drive RWD

[rx3]

FWIW.
My car had already 200 km on it, when it was newly imported and the average fuel consumption read 15.6l/100 km after I drove it off the lot (which is 15 mpg).
So, someone between the factory and the dealer must have pushed it pretty hard.

[rx3]

Here's an article from a German magazine that also claims that 'soft' break-in procedures are not favorable:
http://www.heise.de/tr/artikel/Wie-g...t-1369325.html
According to IAVF engines which were broken in 'softly' showed 50% more wear later on: http://www.iavf.de/en
The IAVF guy says to just wait until a new engine is warmed up before pushing it on the 'Autobahn'.

[Supermassive]

I say do what you want with your car/truck/motorcycle/go-kart. If you want to be the rube who wastes time driving this car under 4k rpm for 1000 miles go for it. If you want to scream out of the dealer lot sideways bouncing off the rev limiter that's fine too. The science behind engine break in is not an exact one. The one thing that has been proven is that loading your piston rings by running the car up to high rpms and engine braking delivers more complete ring seals and a smoother cylinder which reduces friction. This leads to more actual horsepower.

The reason manufacturers give these idiot proof break in procedures is to keep people from breaking stuff while the engine is cold. Most people don't let their car warm up to operating temps before driving out of their driveway and off to work. This is the norm so in an effort to keep people from breaking stuff in the first 1000 miles they tell you to be gentle as a blanket rule to keep you at lower rpms while the engine is cold. There is no safety benefit to this, it's not to let you learn how the car handles, it's not gonna guarantee that your car will last longer. It's just to compensate for the people driving this thing cold that don't know that a car needs to be warmed up before pushing it. Common sense isn't common and this is a way for Toyota/Scion to account for the inevitable idiots out there.

So whatever you want to do is fine, but don't kid yourself thinking that the prescribed break in is there to increase longevity, it's there to keep the idiots who don't know better from revving to the limiter when the engine isn't up to temp.

Of course after your break in period, if you rev to the limiter when the engine is cold...well you're still an idiot.

[vick]

Supermassive has given the most sensible break-in advise.
Modern manufacturing technics and metallurgy, produce engines with excellent mating surfaces and which ever way you drive, engine performance and engine life is not affected.
The only way you can do damage is by abusing a cold engine.
Just keep the revs around 2000rpm until engine reaches operating temperature and you and your car/bike will be fine.
This applies to all modern engines.

[Flufffyninja]

On a fully instrumented bench the differences in break in can fairly easily be detectable. Poor break in will result in increased blow by gas results indicating poor sealing rings and potentially also increased oil consumption results (although so many things impact that it can be hard to isolate poor break in as a cause short of multiple tests and trending results). A typical good break in will normally have a few minutes being run at light throttle loads and low speeds to get everything warmed up. You'll then go into a standard break in pattern escalating rpm and loadings until you're at flat chat WOT. For a mass production engine you'd probably do that over an hour but for a development engine that may be as long as 10-24 hours to get as consistent results as possible

Obviously this is totally unrealistic on a public road. Therefore the instruction is to keep things low and gentle initially and then building up. In a perfect world that build up would include, after a few thousand miles, going balls to the wall to get maximum loading but again not necessarily something you want to insist someone does (look at some of the emotion in some of these posts when people think they've done something wrong).

I hate to bust a myth but most or almost all engines will not be factory broken in. Typically most engines will have been started for checking in the factory producing them. The bench won't be loaded, is unlikely to go above 3-4000rpm and will run for no longer than a minute or two. Some modern ones don't even fire the engines. They exist purely for noise checks, making sure the con-rods don't make a bid for freedom and that oil doesn't soak the floor first time the engine turns over. Once the engine is built into a car it'll be started and get a brief run on a rolling road but again no more than a minute or two although much more likely to go to red line in at least one gear. Then it's only delivery mileage on the car. That's driving to dispatch yard and on and off transporters. The Odometer will be connected at that point so you'll know the number of miles your car has done above that and its unlikely to be above say 6-10 miles (although I have known some get as high as maybe 30miles if some special check is carried out). Hardly run in!

That said the tolerances are significantly tighter meaning that early abuse is much less detectable by a customer and will have significantly lower impact. In summary RTFM and apply what it says
Don't get too paranoid about not being perfect though.

By the way I love the motorman website. One day I'm going to author a web site shouting the benefits of thinning the oil down with bleach or the power benefits of putting sugar in the petrol tank to see how often it gets quoted (I'd advise against both of those unless you want things to get expensive). I'll be generous and not call some of the things on there outright lies but he definitely misrepresents the truth meaning I can't trust anything posted on there.

[FT86gasm]

This may have been said before, but I'm too lazy to read through the whole post.

Anyone else think it would be a good idea to run a magnetic drain plug like the one GReddy offers for the break in cycle? Not sure if the stock drain plug is magnetic or not, probably isn't... Toyota cutting every corner they can for the American market...

[Flufffyninja]

Pointless. It comes fitted with an oil strainer and filter as standard

[GeorgeJFrick]

I'm no mechanic; this is just my sales experience. When I was purchasing the car I asked to tour the shop and meet whoever was in charge back there. For Subaru City in Milwaukee, I was told this was 'Gus'. I got to meet him and ask some questions.

The first thing I asked about was break in. He said go easy for 1,000 miles and then bring her in for an oil change. His concern was more with me documenting any changes I make to the engine, keeping receipts, and a work log - so that my warranty would stay intact and they could better diagnose any problems.

On a personal note; multiple people mentioned the break in is basically to idiot proof the owning process. You probably should work your way up to speeds if this is your first RWD. It is mine, and if I'm the target market for the break in; then so be it.

After driving my car through a parkway for hours, I learned quite a bit about the feel. That was followed with a 300+ mile freeway drive (varying speed/rpm and getting off at intervals to enjoy country roads).

I am comfortable with the manual suggested break in process, especially having heard it from the dealership mechanic and knowing that it caused me to spend some time getting to know the car at low power.

You could argue that people simply tend to justify what they already planned to do. You could also argue that an engine tuner is more responsible for his engine and more inclined to make the type of decision to break it in hard (for better or worse). Those of us who aren't tuners have to start from a lack of knowledge and try to make good decisions as we learn. The manual seems to be the best decision for anyone whose knowledge level doesn't make it abundantly plain to do otherwise.

[chulooz]

Originally Posted by GeorgeJFrick

You could argue that people simply tend to justify what they already planned to do.

And there you have it, a summary of this topic.

[OrbitalEllipses]

Originally Posted by chulooz

And there you have it, a summary of this topic.

After so many pages of back and forth, I'm waiting for someone to step-up with a break-in guide. You know, slim-jims, hot-wiring, etc..

[Suberman]

The purpose of following factory break in procedures is to ensure good ring sealing. The conflict is between high loads needed to properly seat the rings and high friction temperatures caused by high loads and the high rate of initial ring wear.

The solution for most drivers is to keep the rpm below a certain level, usually around the rpm at which peak torque is developed. Peak torque loads the rings most of all, referred to as bmep.

The only reason to keep rpm down during break in is to stop the rings getting too hot from loaded friction. You'll appreciate that the bedding in process of the rings actually grinds off a little metal until ring pressure equalizes against the cylinder bores.

Heavy loading of the rings for long periods also overheats them.

Finally, as you complete the break in period you MUST run the engine progressively to redline to ensure that the no wear ridge at the ends of the piston travel (TDC and to some degree BDC) is as far up and down the bore as those rings are ever going to travel. This means that the last bit of break in is the most fun.

Having said all of that, there is no way a few redline shifts or a few full throttle low rpm runs are going to damage the rings as long as you keep them brief. Hence the "emergency" exception. If you need to floor the engine and step on the gas while breaking in your engine it's ok to do so briefly. Keep it all cool and all will be well. Do NOT baby your engine during break in, that's not what keeping cool means. Just don't run high rpm AND a wide open throttle together for more than a second or two.