Maintenance plan question?

[Hydaral]

Originally Posted by babylobster

My dad tried explaining to me in super dumb layman terms. Something about how a new engine has to be "broken in" kind of thing so running the oil "smooths" it out, hence the bits of metal fragments that comes off from the smoothing process.

Unless your dad currently works at a Japanese engine manufacturer, I wouldn't put much stock in his advice.

Not trying to insult in any way, it's just that engine manufacturing, engineering and tolerances, as well as lubrication technology have improved so much in the last 10-20 years that any "advice" based on experience older than about 5-10 years is pretty much useless.

The engines are run to redline in the factory, it's in Toyota's/Subaru's interest to try and kill any bad engines before they go into cars. Yes, there will be a little more wear as the rings seat in the pistons, but today's lubricants are so good, that even an engine with some decent mileage on it will still show the cross hatching from the initial cylinder boring/honing.

As for metal shavings in the 1000 mile oil, I have heard "stories" about this, but pretty much all of them were from rebuilt engines (which is to be expected), not factory engines. Your filter should catch them all anyway, if you are getting so many metal shavings in the filter that it is clogging it, then there is a much larger issue with your engine that will probably show itself before the warranty is over.

[stugray]

Originally Posted by babylobster

My dad tried explaining to me in super dumb layman terms. Something about how a new engine has to be "broken in" kind of thing so running the oil "smooths" it out, hence the bits of metal fragments that comes off from the smoothing process. You don't want the metal fragments being run all over and potentially messing up the insides which is why you swap it out so early on. Don't know if that helps anyone or if someone wants to explain in normal car terms HAHA.

Originally Posted by Hydaral

Unless your dad currently works at a Japanese engine manufacturer, I wouldn't put much stock in his advice.

Not trying to insult in any way....

I'm sorry, but regardless of whether (or not) this person's dad is an automotive engineer: The statement is 100% factually correct.
And I am not an automotive engineer, but I DID sleep at a Holiday Innn Express last night.

The engine still DOES break in, which DOES include mtal wearing and things SMOOTHING out.
And you DO change the oil sooner than a typical oil change interval, but not TOO soon.

[Maritime Storm]

Hot Lava; It's entirely you're choice, every new vehicle I've owned has had the break-in procedure followed and it's first oil change at 1500Kms(1000mi). I've never had an issue with any of my vehicles engine wise to date.

[billyk]

This topic has been discussed in great detail in this forum. Here's a thread that closed this discussion for me, as the conversation is based on empirical evidence from recent oil analysis reports from FRS owners.

Here's how I summarized the topic from what I learned...

Very informative for those of us with new FR-Ss wondering about when to do our first change and with what oil.

For me, there seems to be solid evidence in these results that the factory fill is good stuff. There is also a strong pattern of owners being encouraged to go longer on their oil change intervals - like 7k- 10k. Unless I've missed something in this thread, or in other related threads, there doesn't seem to be any evidence of Blackstone telling owners that they should have gotten that initial fill out of their cars earlier due to poor oil performance.

I appreciate the concern of owners who do early changes and I have been firmly in that camp with previous cars. But, newer oil technologies make me lean more towards the standard 7500 mile initial interval. Also, the OEM TGMO seems to get good press here.