CRB

Maybe, does it matter.

People who baby a car likely aren't the type to want to extract maximum performance anyway. The car publications basically go the other way, abuse green cars in the interest of numbers.

Brian231

I would be smart and keep things below 70mph during at least the first 500 miles and do not jack-rabbit start or slam on the brakes if possible. Common sense should dictate your driving style at break-in. You just want to make sure the car wears in properly and you do not need any excessive wear during your first 1000 miles.

JKA.nyc

I see, that's pretty much in line with what I've heard from most people. And it's not that I don't want to push my car or "extract maximum performance", I just want to make sure it's ready when I do.

juice14

A lot of good/educated posts, hehe nice.
I added a poll. So please vote this is getting pretty interesting

BoOst3d

iTrader: (1)

ive built a few motors (500+ whp honda motors). all of them have been broken in on the dyno WOT and driven hard there after. once a motor is tuned, its tuned and all you have to do from there on is drive it. driving it hard helps to seat the rings faster and tighter from my personal experiences. some people have their own theories and I cant tell you which one is right or wrong but as i said, once its tuned, its tuned unless u have a crappy tuner doing the work.

IceZ

l a z y

JKA.nyc

so it seems there is an equal amount people who say the car needs to be babyed for the first 1000 and those who say that it does not. What I feel like it comes down to is who is more qualified to make such statements. Those who believe the car should/shouldn't be broken in, do you mind stating your qualifications? i.e. are you some kind of professional racer or engineer or build engines etc...

blake0387

iTrader: (1)

There seems to be a similar number of people supporting both break in techniques, which means to me that it's likely that there is little conclusive evidence for either case. It also seems that if there is a difference the actual change in HP due to driving style is miniscule. Then again, I'm not an expert so to each his own.

lobuxracer

iTrader: (2)

I've built a lot of engines for street and competition. Baby it and it will never make full power. It will use more oil, and it will never be as efficient as it should be. I've been doing something like this for years. In fact, here's mine. Here's another discussion of mine.

So, baby it and expect bad things IME.

Mark350

So what exactly does this mean, that if I don't redline the car every time i drive it's going to get slower? Im all for spirited driving but gas is also 6 bucks a gallon here, so what to do?

lobuxracer

iTrader: (2)

No, not at all. It only means you need to put a load on the engine and methodically increase it until you've applied full load to get it broken in. Once break-in is complete, we're done with it until you need to burn the carbon out of it from babying it.

passnu2

iTrader: (33)

I have always been aggressive on my new cars and the Techs at the dealer have agreed with this. I personally have never had any troubles.

HaveBlue

Most gears and bearings take a few hundred miles to work harden and wear in. During break in they run hotter than they ordinarily would due to increased friction from the slightly mismatched parts. Running them hard right off the bat tends to overheat them. That's my experience from rebuilding axles. Beyond that, the use it or lose it principle does apply. If you don't run the motor and drivetrain at 100% occasionally, it will slowly carbon up. On the other hand, running a motor at 100% all the time will rapidly decrease it's life. Racer will say run it hard from the beginning but they might not be trying to get 200K miles out of the motor. They want it to perform at 100% for tomorrow's race.

tonyc9928

Drive it Like You Stole It!

tonyc9928

Did I mention?


Drive It Like You Stole It!