how to properly break in a new car

[Quiggs]

I'd say, cane it... it will help you get a good portion of the carbon deposits out and run a little better. If it breaks then you should remove it,...

That's great if you just want to clean it out. But that won't let you have the rings seated the way you want.

[h00t_h00t]

Either way, unless you have a Ferrari or another extremely powerful car I doubt it would make a noticable difference.

[Quiggs]

Very true, but you may also change how the car acts under cold start up conditions. Of course that has more to do with actual piston selection.

[MitsuEvoX]

Hi guys! I recently bought a brand new Lancer during the last few weeks of August; I think it was the 22nd I bought it. For the first few days, I babied the car, then on the third or fourth day, I revved the car to about 5000 RPM, and I kinda felt bad for doing so. I think I did that two more times after, (on different days), but that was it. Then I took the car down the Mountain at 120km/hr @ 2000-2500 RPM. I drove down the mountain a few times by the way. I've had the car for about a month, and I didn't really have problems with it, but tonight I began to hear this weird vibration coming from the right side of the dash when I gas up from a slow speed. It still runs fine, and the idle noise sounds okay, but I just want to be sure. Have I damaged the car severely? Is there anything wrong? Please help!

Lance

[Rockefella]

Hi guys! I recently bought a brand new Lancer during the last few weeks of August; I think it was the 22nd I bought it. For the first few days, I babied the car, then on the third or fourth day, I revved the car to about 5000 RPM, and I kinda felt bad for doing so. I think I did that two more times after, (on different days), but that was it. Then I took the car down the Mountain at 120km/hr @ 2000-2500 RPM. I drove down the mountain a few times by the way. I've had the car for about a month, and I didn't really have problems with it, but tonight I began to hear this weird vibration coming from the right side of the dash when I gas up from a slow speed. It still runs fine, and the idle noise sounds okay, but I just want to be sure. Have I damaged the car severely? Is there anything wrong? Please help!

Lance

It could be one of many things. I'd check with a trusted mechanic or dedicated Mitsubishi/Lancer board.

[whiteballz]

ah, Its okay - its just your "holyshitireallyshouldhaveboughtaWRXinstead" has vibrated loose.

[Ferrer]

ah, its okay - its just your "holyshitireallyshouldhaveboughtawrxinstead" has vibrated loose.

RoFL...

[Matra et Alpine]

ONly thing I can add ( esp. after WB's classic ) is the obvios of "did you follow the manufacturers recommended run-in procedures" ?

Some have some and some don't.

In general it's never a good idea to make an engine struggle pulling low revs. Equally spending all the time at rev limit not healthy either till all the surfaces have "aged". One of the WORST things to do to a tuned engine is to hold constant revs -- risk of harmonic vibrations causing higher wear/stress to individual parts.

Get it to the dealer .. it's under warranty after all

I do concur with WB, it's most likely just something loose behind the dash and neds re-clipped or moved ... OR turn the radio up louder, you're now tuned to the sound and makes it seem worse

[hightower99]

Matra: What do you mean by "all surfaces have aged"?

[derekthetree]

I see a fight brewing... LOL. I doubt Matra meant proper aging, maybe bedding in

I've always read that you should follow the manufacturers recomendation, after all they don't want loads of unecessary warranty claims..

[Matra et Alpine]

Showing my "age"
Bedding in too

Old school Bedding in was wehre a surface was wearing or building up the desired finish. Aging when an aspect of chemical or heat interaction is accelerated at the start.

AND sometimes a manufacturer has special case ... eg the RX-8 rotary engine has a coating whcih has to build up good seal with the rotor tips and chamber walls. So follow what they say

[hightower99]

I don't know how Mazda says to break in the RX-8 but, if there is a special coating that has to make a good seal then you need to get the seals pressed against the walls. The Wankel engine is a bit of a special case because not all the seals are supported by combustion (as opposed to piston ring seals). I would still break a rotary engined car in along the lines of the mototune article.

[G35COUPE]

These are my experiences with breaking in two engines on one car. When I first bought my G-35 Coupe, the original engine it came with was burning serious oil, even without breaking it in. Nissan had problems with poor manufacture of internals. They replaced my engine under warranty for free. All VQ35DE engines, will burn some oil regardless of how you baby the car. These engines were designed to burn some oil while accomodating insane levels of abuse. It would seem to me that a car that is designed with abuse in mind, will burn oil, and yet be capable of abuse from day one. So, i expect cars like Porsche 911 turbos, Nissan GTR's, and every sophisticated sports car out there to burn oil, and be abuse ready from day one. So, breaking them in, may really be out of the question here.

Nissan/Infiniti builds a system into their car that holds the car back from being over-revved for the first 500 - 800 miles. If you try to rev the car way too hard in the first 500 miles, the car will stop you from doing so by hesitating for a few seconds. Nice safe guard.

In the second engine, I waited until 800 miles to start flogging the car. By 3000 miles, I switched to full synthetic, and have never looked back since then. I have been flogging the car since 3000 miles till this day. I love the response and behavior fo the engine.

Its harder to get a new engine to reach redline. I kept trying and it took close to 15,000 miles before my engine was happy to hit redline all day long. I have been driving the car like a thief since day one.

Yes, the earlier you start to drive the car like you stole it, which is my philosophy, the more responsive the engine will become. For example, Nissan says in their manual that the engine can hit 60 miles/hour maximum in 2nd gear. But I have routinely clocked 62-63 miles/hour in 2nd gear. I beleive the early torture process had helped the engine slightly exceed the manufacturers intentions.

Some engines should never ever be babied, else you can equally reduce the reliability and life span of such engines. The VQ35 DE engine is one of those engines. Never had a problem with it with daily flogging, and now i have 48,000 miles on it. I would never baby any porsche engine, BMW engine, Nissan GTR engine, Corvette engine, etc. You may end up killing those engines over time.

I know what i am saying because the only time i ever had a light pop on my dashboard of both cars I have, where periods when i babied both cars. When I reverted back to driving both cars like I stole them, they were all fine.

Just my thought.

[f6fhellcat13]

What?

[ampretty001]

I'd go for the easiest way..lol