Drove it like I stole it after picking it up with 5 miles. 4xxx miles and it runs great. :ughdance:

Why would you break in (prep) an engine like grandma was driving before letting it rip? Makes no sense.

I agree with the above. break a car in slowly and the rings will fail to seal properly and you will have a slow car.

can we read the OWNERS MANUAL once again can we read the OWNERS MANUAL :tup:

I have seen american V8s torn apart with 1500 easy miles and ridden hard with 1500 miles, the rings seat lower in the easy break in and when you ring it's neck the rings smack the lower"slow break in" seats in the cylnder walls resulting in lower power. I do not know if this applys in these modern tite clearance engines.

I will be running in my 370 when i get it, just how I ran my old XR6 Turbo (Aussie Ford)

1) Make sure engine is warmed up before going over 3000rpm
2) Alternate loading the engine up (full throttle) in 1st, 2nd, 3rd upto about 5000rpm, then back off and let it coast down, then repeat back up to 5000rpm. E.g 1st gear a few times, 2nd gear a few times etc (yes its very tedious)
3) do the above on roads with hills, so you are really loading the engine up.

When I did this on my old car, when it was stock, it had more torque than all the other same model cars on a dyno day I attended.

The car then was modified to 540hp with 750nm torque and had no oil problems at all.

Why do people have to drive it "hard". Are they not able to experience all the other pleasurable sensations from just driving and enjoying the car. There is noo need to kill the car.

If it were 130k this might be an interesting facet of information. But 13k is not an impressive amount of time.

The mentality of most who would buy a car like this is to drive it hard. That is why they find it difficult to restrain. Its like a 30 day countdown until Christmas for a child.

And no, I'm not poking fun at anyone here. I'm in the same boat. I can't wait to take the beast to work to show it off, and take people for rides. But not being able to floor it with them in the car? That would be aweful! I think I'm going to have to wait until after break-in before taking people with me. The pressure would be too intense. I would feel as though I have to take it to red line at every shift to show them how powerful the car is.

To be on the safe side, and to keep your warranty, go by the book, dude.

Oh, I know that I will. I was merely explaining the mentality.

on the drive home after the engine was all warmed up I gunned it to 110mph, played with the paddle shifters to throw around RPM at different speeds. and continue to drive it hard on hilly roads. I changed the oil first at 300Miles, installed a magnetic drain plug and a magnetic oil filter (FilterMag), ran it hard again and will do another oil change at 1k. I use regular oil and will switch to synthetic at a later time. My personal pref. do as you wish.

I dont know if this is comparable, but i have a 97 civic, that was properly broken in for the first 1,000 miles. And now it still running strong, no burning oil of any sort, and now has 218,000 miles. So take it for what its worth...

Honestly, I think its' a way that manufacturer's can avoid infant mortality. Drive it gentle for XYZ miles, and that's XYZ miles less they have to worry about you taking it back to the dealership due to a manufacturer defect.

i currently have a 2000 tib and had it since new.. after the first 200 miles, i'v been driving that car hard. it has 200K miles on it now. still runs smooth, no oil burning, starts everytime. i still remember when i first got it that if something should break it is going to break when i am running hard, red line through the gears. Thats when you use that warrenty. and have them correct the defect, as it would have shown up eventually and might not be in warrenty and then your stuck with the bill to fix it.

so 10 years and 200K miles later....

sill runs good, no oil burning, and i bet it can go for another 10 years with no problems. but it is eventually going to get traded for the 40th ann.

I give my cars 200 miles, mainly for a TOTAL vehicle break in, not just the motor, build things up, some 75% ish throttle, couple down shifts, some harder corners etc... then start to get on it more and more, oil change at 500, then balls to the wall, another oil change at 1500, then every 1500 I change the oil, after three changes I go to FS, usually Redline, for earlier changes its just good ole 5W/30 conentional.
My two STi's I gave it full bore after 200 miles, they never missed a beat, but got beat, thats was for sure.

i got an 07 civic SI that i've run str8 to 8500 everyday...not every shift, but i def take it there everyday. i started all that on day 1 straight from the dealer and 41k later..it's still runnin perfect.

Civic SI, man that K series is the ****, I looked at one prior to my Z purchase just for the sheer fun of it

Aluminum is not magnetic.

:D

yea. i love that engine. it takes a beating and still pushes hard. i got a friend that threw a turbo on it..with 10lbs of boost and made 411whp. at 20lbs it hits the 500's..all stock internals.

man, they love big turbos, they got all that RPM to eat up...lol HONDA do make a great lump

:iagree: the 1 mod i wish i woulda of done was a reflash..the vtec kicks in at 6100 stock..and after 8500 it wont go anymore. with the reflash you hit vtec at 4500 and it'll rev past 9..don't know how high it'll go cuz the guage only shows 9.

Yeah a number of people have really gotten a hold of the VTEC system and made some great imrpovements

:iagree:

Guys,
I bought my car off the lot with 50miles on it. No idea how those 50 miles were driven.

I have driven it quite "normal" since I got. However, two times I punched it on the highway and the RPMS hit 7000 for a brief period of time, say 2 secs both time.

I know the manual says not to go over 3000 rpms, so is this a potential issue if I touched 7000 rpm if only briefly?

I just don't want any oil burning issued down the road. My last care burned oil and it was a nightmare.

Stupid to ask now, you already drove it to 7,000rpm despite knowing what the manual says. Why?. You should buy a few cases of oil now since you'll be adding a quart every 100 miles. :shakes head:

Actually I did not know untill now.
When I drove off the lot the dealer told me that there was no need to break in the car. I went with what he told me. Only after reading around when I got home did I find out. It was after the fact that I found out, I went with what the salesmen told me.

Do you have some evidence to back up the claim I will be burning a quart every 100 miles?

Also, my car still only has around 200 miles on it.

Your car was probably redlined the second it hit the US shore. When I lived in Charleston, we'd sit down at the port and watch them unload the BMWs from the ROROs.
Those guys would come flying off the ship, sideways through the gravel, full throttle across the parking lot (few hundred yards), skid it into a spot, jump out, slam the door and run back and get another one. They were *not* concerned about proper break in procedure...

That is my whole point. Unless you buy a car with zero miles, a few people would have driven it. And most would be driving it hard. Yet the manual says to go easy.

Plus, people test drive etc and I am sure they push the car hard. Hopefully, those test drives don't lead to problems down the road.

I doubt a few test drives, or one abusive moment is enough to ruin a car during break in, or there are any special rules for break in... just common sense. The over all day to day use of the car at a earlier point I think can have a positive influence on the car, or at least get you some to see if everything works right.


I've had my car almost a month, and waited until around 1150 miles to finally get on the car, wouldn't rev past 4k, or do any very aggressive driving. I babied it, let people pass me, and took the time to really get a feel for the clutch, do mostly driving in traffic, cruising around, and familiarizing myself with the feel of the car...

That is how I have felt about the subject. Drive it right over 95% of the time during the break in period and it should be fine.

Yes, I have tons of evidence to backup my claim. In fact, I have 3,000 binders full of documented and certified proof from Mr. Nissan himself. :shakes head:

Did you actually believe my comment? I guess so since you believed the sales person about no break-in required. No offense to you, this isn't personal, but it makes no sense why you would buy a new car and run it almost to redline prior to reading the manual. You already drove it to 7k so why even ask now? What difference would asking the question make?

Will it damage anything? Probably not...but it wasn't a very smart thing to do in the first place. ;)

You are right...it does not make a difference now and no offense taken.

My car is a auto. All I did was punch the gas for a second and the car took off. I wanted to see how quick it accelerated. This was during my test drive. I remember the rpms shooting up to 7000 before coming right down as I slowed down right away. I just find it amazing that you can buy a car without driving it and testing to see how it handles and how much power it has etc.

When you guys test drove your cars, did you not drive them somewhat hard?

As for the salesperson. Yes I did believe him. I had no reason not too.

Drive it like you stole it. Thats how you break it in. I got my evo with 25km on it. Wen to the drag strip that night. Just past 4000kms and did my first time attack race the other night and the car runs amazing.

Nice to hear! Good luck with her!

If that's all you did should be fine. And no, I don't trash new cars when I test drive them regardless if I end up buying one. It doesn't belong to me.

How to properly break in a new car:

Most of the break-in you are doing is for the gears in the transmission, and rear-end as well as the wheel-bearings, clutch, and brakes.

Avoid "shocking the driveline for about 1500 miles. This means no clutch-drops or power-shifts.

Avoid taking the car above 4-5K rpm for about 500 miles.

DO travel at varying rates of speed and through all gears, applying various acceleration/decerlation loading. A perfect example is light traffic in a 50mph city-zone, using engine-braking to aid in deceleration. Or you can get on the free way and do 50-70 sprints/decels in various gears, taking care not to rev the engine to hard for the first few hundred miles. The brakes and clutch will not benefit much, though.

This will allow the brakes to seat, the rings in the engine to seat (no, they are not fully seated from the factory. My Z06 burned a bit of oil for the first couple-hundred miles, now, not a drop in over 2500). It will also lap in the gears in the transmission and differential.

The clutch will break in at different mileages depending on stop-go traffic. You make have it broken in in 25 miles if you went through Houston when they were working on 59. You make not have it broken in int 2500 miles if you do a cross-country drive on major highways leaving it in 6th the whole time.

The reason for loading the driveline in acceleration/deceleration is because this creates a vacuum in the cylinders, sucking the rings to the wall. It also makes sure both faces of the gears in the driveline are lapped in and mesh well with each other.

This is how I broke in my Z06, and it shifts smoothly, doesn't burn a drop of oil, and works great.

My mechanic broke in my mustang gt's new crate engine by letting it idle in his shop for 30 minutes and then beating the crap out of it. It burned 1qt of 15-40 oil every 800-1000 miles.

Nice post, rational and thought out. The best one in the thread. Read and heed.

I never said trash new cars. Everyone test drives a car before they buy it. Not "trashes it".

Some people are just born angry I guess.