New car engine break-in period -- should I even care/worry?
 

I have a broad question: anyone buy a BRZ and drive it a long distance home?

I'm currently debating on this, and frankly I don't care too much if I get the most out of my "new engine". To me, there's plenty of other ways to monitor engine health beyond a 1000-mile break-in period, such as periodic oil analysis, dyno runs (for monitoring engine power output), gas mileage tracking (I do this with virtually every vehicle I own), etc.

Constructive comments welcome.

-alex

(P.S. I'm well aware that it is suggested to have a break-in period for a new car, but the same type of recommendation also tells you to break in brake pads over a 200-mile period with no hard stops. Anyone that has ever run new pads/rotors would know this is not how you break in pads/rotors... so I generally take the recommendations with a grain of salt.

Drive it hard right away. I'm experiencing some oil consumption and I fully believe it's because I babied the shit out of the car in the first 1k miles.

I have driven every car that I have ever owned the same way from the beginning until I parted with them. I have never had any engine or transmission issues. If you are doing a long trip for your first drive ensure that you run it through the RPMs and stretch you cars legs from time to time. Bottom line IMHO is that you should break it in the way you intend to drive it.

If you're worried about ring seals or whatever can't you just go WOT while in a higher gear and seat the rings well without breaking the recommended RPM limit?

Breaking in is bullshit. Ignore it. Seriously.

Just don't abuse the brakes or bounce off the redline right away, common sense.

If driving for hours on the highway, don't stay at the same speed/RPMs for too long, fluctuate your speed slightly every few minutes.

This is what I believed caused a lot of ECU problems other than coding. People would baby the first 1k miles and then the car would freak out after the first 1k and the ECU flipped out. Basically I drove exactly how I drive daily. I do not redline at every light, I am a little heavy on the throttle and shifts are in the 4k range usually to avoid the torque dip in between shifts. Drive it how you wanna drive it every day. Keep it away from red line though. That is just common sense.

i remember we had a discussion about this some time ago. Someone mentioned that engines are built much better, and come out of the factory with better quality assurance than 20-30 years ago. When break ins were about getting the optimal lubrication and allowing the gaskets to go through several heat cycles for seating. But today, getting oil through the engine and getting it lubed up is almost instantaneous, and OEM gaskets seat better after it rolls out of the factory.

When i do rebuilds on my rx7, or some other engines I do a pretty extensive break in period. But I wouldn't do the same on a newer vehicle like the BRZ.

I'm sorry to say this but your statement above is pretty hypocritical! You say breaking in an engine is bs and to ignore it but than say that you should fluctuate rpms.....that is BREAKING in an engine!

NOOOOOOOOOOOO! This is about to get ugly.

Haha......not trying to start anything. ;)

ive owned 2 brand new cars so far and i just drive it how i normally would. except i dont abuse it till after 1k

I drove my car back from Colorado (live in Tempe AZ) which is about a 800 mile, 16 hour drive. I kept it under 4000 (most of the time ;) ) as suggested, and have had no problems with it what so ever. Honestly, I would be more concerned about VARYING the RPMs rather than keeping it under 4000. Last thing you want to do is set it on cruise and drive at the same speed / RPM for an extended period of time. But that's just my 2 cents. Take it for what it's worth.

Warm the car up fully, then vary your RPMs and drive the car in the same manner as if you had owned the car for a year. All this babying, never letting the RPMs go over a magical number, slow turns, slow shifts - it's all useless. If you watch any of the National Geographic mega/ultimate factories episodes where they make cars like Camaros, Corvettes, BMWs, etc. these cars roll right off the factory line, go to a dyno while the car hasn't had time to really warm up.

Also consider how these cars are loaded onto the ship from Japan. Do you think dock workers have time to start each car up, let it reach operating temperature and slowly, gently drive your car into position on the ship? Hell no. These guys are on a schedule.

v0v

I've taken mine over 4k a few times, but only for brief moments. I made an effort to drive side and back roads (in addition to DD duties in the city, obviously), so the RPMs have been varied more or less constantly and I figure every part of the car gets a decent workout. This weekend I'll break 1k and then it'll be all high-RPMs all the time on nice roads. Toot!