asj2024

Not sure this is where it should go...please move if not for here.

Will be driving new car (PHEV) around 1000 miles from dealer to home.

Does anyone have any recommendations on how to properly break in the car during that time, especially with regards to highway driving? Thanks.

arentz07

I would honestly just drive it as normal for the most part. But, if you are going to be cruising on the highway for long periods of time, you could try varying your speed. Having the engine "hang out" at one specific RPM for a long time is not desirable during break-in. Also, it's probably a good idea to avoid putting the pedal to the floor or having the engine RPM get to redline, as well. I wouldn't stress too much, though. Congrats on the new Lexus!

Margate330

I would need to know the mfg and model and preferably a pic to be able to help.

I made that up! Lol

What did you get?
Let's see it!

SW17LS

Just drive it normally

geko29

I agree with this for regular cars, but for a PHEV I don't know if it really applies. The gas engine should rarely--if ever--be driving the wheels directly, and even when it is the eCVT is going to do its thing and balance power flow between the engine, motor, and battery outside of the driver's control.

arentz07

Hence why I said not to stress too much. To be honest, it probably doesn't matter at all apart from avoiding full throttle for a while.

Stroock639

which car btw? generally speaking during a break in period you shouldn't exceed a certain speed or rpm, nor should you maintain a constant speed for too long... at least that's what used to be recommended lol

does the manual have break in tips or procedures?

timmy0tool

iTrader: (7)

hmm with this being a PHEV, the gas engine might not even be used until the battery is depleted! thus is 1000 miles enough?! i would consult with the dealer or at the least your owners manual.

i think most folks here are using the rule of thumb for ICE and not necessarily PHEV. curious to know what the true answer is!

BayeauxLex

^ this. A lot of myths out there.

PHEV owner here. I will be your guinea pig. The dealership tank of gas last me 3,325 miles and I ran it empty to see what happens (you can drive in EV mode with no gas). I didn’t get the first oil change until 10k miles. It took me 6k miles to go through the previous tank of gas. Now I have 16k miles. It still runs fine.

This may be all bad advice but works for me.

Lwerewolf

If you're worried about the cylinders, the factory hone and pretty much every recent good hone removes the sharp peaks before the rings ever touch the bore, and the car has probably been tested at full throttle at the production line. Just drive as you would. If you're REALLY worried, perhaps hone it somewhere when it's sufficiently warm (i.e. accelerate more aggressively but without tyre spin / drama, no need to break limits or to generally be a nuissance), but definitely don't get yourself in potential trouble.

Striker223

When I used to buy new cars I always made sure to do heavy pulls once oil temp was good followed by slow cooling cycles. Make sure to engine brake down to a near stop as well. You get much better ring seating that way and more power/MPG and no oil consumption later in life. Same break in procedure race engines and factory performance engines go through.....I've also done the same thing with every engine replacement and rebuild I've done on cars for the same reasons. Drop the oil out before and after the process and then 500 miles past that, use the best filter you can buy as well.

The main thing to be careful of when the whole car is new is to not mess up the transmission break in, so use manual shifting and limit it's shifting events to where you aren't on the power at all. Change the diff oil as well once you are done with break in.

Modern engines are usually very well machined from the get go though unless you have a Hyundai/Kia or VAG 2.0 engine....the Mercedes 4 cyl engines also sometimes have debris inside. Those are a dice roll

Striker223

They don't test every car/engine, only enough to QC unless you have something special/hand built.

I've only ever had one car/engine I know for a fact was actually live run (firing for real) at the factory before being installed in the car. Everything else was just air checked or MAYBE one of the ones to actually be road tested for QC and then shipped off. The air check process usually only happens on every engine for high end cars and while it's a great check it's not the same as a live run

Oro

This is best-practice from what I know, taking advice from experts smarter than me. This is about how HD breaks in new engines; they do this in the factory on rollers (or at least used to). Road process after a rebuild was hard 30 to 60 full-throttle roll-ons, decent cool downs, repeat 10 times (basically the reverse of a proper pad break-in). Dump oil. Ride as normal after that, dump oil 500 to 1k miles, then go to normal service interval. Diff oil too, like you say (important).

I’ve not built *many* engines but followed this and never had an issue.
@Striker223 (is that your CMP userid? (Joke)) has it correct.

That all assumes you have full control of the engine, IDK how PHEV regulates that.

Lwerewolf

WOT pulls it is, then. Sad.

asj2024

RX450h+

And thanks for all the other replies. Some very knowledgeable people here!