Father-In-Law Wrung It Out

[MJmcnabb]

When told about the break in period my GF's dad simply challenged me to a race in his wife's SLK 280 the second I hit 1600km haha any predictions??

[RRnold]

Originally Posted by fritzy

I let my father-in-law drive the car this evening at 390 miles. I've been careful to follow the break-in procedure despite being 90% sure that it was written by lawyers, and let him know to keep it below 4k. He drove it about 20 miles, mostly over 5k, down his favorite motorcycle routes, with a few 7k runs.

I'm not terribly happy about it, but obviously the car did just fine. Now, do I bother continuing with my "easy break-in?"

You know he did you a favor and now you owe him a beer! :happy0180:

[ryude]

The best cars I ever had were driven hard right off the dealer's lot. I had a mustang gt that I redlined with 20 miles on it and took it to the race track every other week from 100 miles. Finally took it to get dyno'd and put down much more than others dyno'd at that shop. Now I know dyno numbers aren't a good representation of reliability/performance. But that car is still running today with over 100k miles and ran quarter mile times faster than any other car in my area with the same mods.

At the end of the day, I really don't think it matters how you break in the car. I don't think my break in procedure had anything to do with how it performed or how long it will last. I think I just got lucky with a good motor and that's that.

[DarkSunrise]

If it makes you feel better, there are thousands of cars out there whose owners have intentionally -- or unintentionally -- flogged their cars since day 1, and those engines/cars are just fine. I wouldn't worry about it too much, although it sounds like your father-in-law is an a--hole.

[MmmHamSandwich]

The more I read about break-in periods the more I suspect they aren't so much for the engine as they are for other components.

[Fenrir]

Originally Posted by MmmHamSandwich

The more I read about break-in periods the more I suspect they aren't so much for the engine as they are for other components.

Like the owner's peace of mind they followed an ancient tradition

[phattyduck]

Have you ever heard the saying: "If you loan someone $100 and you never see them again, it was worth it."?

Now you know how he respects your feelings and possessions, and you can act appropriately from now on...

As for test driving someone else's new car - I'm with most of the guys here. I wouldn't ask, but I don't say no if offered.

I actually got to drive my best friend's new BRZ (at about 400 miles on the odo) and he told me to drive it harder when I was only taking it to 4k.

-Charlie

[MR2turbo4evr]

Originally Posted by res

I pretty much agree with this response...

Your father-in-law is a major as*h**e. He really needs his as* kicked, but kicking his a** would land you in jail, so...

I would probably just get into his favorite car and hold the throttle down bouncing the tach off the rev-limiter, until I smelled/saw smoke... making sure he was watching as I did it of course.

What an infantile response. First off, the OP never once mentioned that he asked his father-in-law to drive the car under 4000rpm. For all we know, he might've handed the keys to him and never asked him to be easy on the car. He might not have known how many miles are on the car and that you have to drive the car below 4000rpm during break-in (debateable).
The "your father-in-law is an a**hole" comments are just plain childish, especially since we don't know all the details and circumstances.

[ABQautoxer]

Chalk it up as a lesson learned as there is no nothing you can do about and you don't want to get between a daughter and her dad (or any other direct family member). Now you know if he wants to use/borrow anything of yours, you know how he will treat it and you can decide a lot better than you could before. Personally I don't think he hurt your car at all but I definitely can understand being pissed, it's your item and it should be treated the way you asked. While all the revenge ideas are funny/cool, if you want the marriage to be easier I would just let it go but that's a lesson I've learned with age and 10 years ago my answer would have been different.

[ABQautoxer]

Originally Posted by MR2turbo4evr

What an infantile response. First off, the OP never once mentioned that he asked his father-in-law to drive the car under 4000rpm.

Ummm...

Originally Posted by fritzy

I let my father-in-law drive the car this evening at 390 miles. I've been careful to follow the break-in procedure despite being 90% sure that it was written by lawyers, and let him know to keep it below 4k. He drove it about 20 miles, mostly over 5k, down his favorite motorcycle routes, with a few 7k runs."

[vividracing]

Do you really follow the break in? Have you not even once pushed the gas pedal down to fast?

[Shizuma]

The 1000k mile break-in honestly is bs really so I wouldn't worry about it, an engine breaks in around 20 miles as that's how long it takes the rings to seat, and honestly babying it then and not getting the RPM's up causes the rings to not get as good of a seal reducing the power of the engine. My last car I did a proper (aka hard) break-in, 90k miles later it never had a single engine problem, so it definitely didn't have any detrimental effects to the engine.

[jeebus]

I put a Cobb AP on my Forester XT and was at the track doing 1/4 mile runs before the car had 300 miles on it.

Break-ins are BS.

[Sportsguy83]

Originally Posted by MR2turbo4evr

What an infantile response. First off, the OP never once mentioned that he asked his father-in-law to drive the car under 4000rpm. For all we know, he might've handed the keys to him and never asked him to be easy on the car. He might not have known how many miles are on the car and that you have to drive the car below 4000rpm during break-in (debateable).
The "your father-in-law is an a**hole" comments are just plain childish, especially since we don't know all the details and circumstances.

Signed, The Father In Law.


JK :happy0180: