Thoughts? Personal feeling is that provided engine is warm it can be thrashed from new. Others (HJ) say treat it with kid gloves for the first 10,000 miles.
I'm firmly in the first camp and hit the red line at 40 miles old today, and still got 61 mpg into work.
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The FM will give you some advice.
IIRC for ours it was to avoid high revs very early but more particularly to avoid long periods at constant revs. But that was a Cit Xantia in 2000; the world may have moved on since then.
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Engine should take what comes its way.
Brakes and other moving parts may benefit from not being ragged to death for a few hundred miles.
Kid gloves approach can cause glazed bores, excessive oil consumption and potentially a tighter, slower, less efficient engine.
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I wouldn't thrash a new engine any more than i'd thrash a fully run in engine if i wanted it to have a decent service life.
I would allow it warm by gentle driving, and if turbocharged allow it to simmer gently for a short while before shutdown, but again i do that with every mechanical object.
Once warmed thoroughly would drive it fairly briskly across the entire rev range but without maximum throttle high revs until its covered a decent mileage, variable according to its type.
I don't expect anyone else to do this mind, its my way and the way i shall continue till i peg out.
Last edited by: gordonbennet on Sun 20 Jan 13 at 20:09
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I remember reading (an American) theory that it should be thrashed within the first 25 miles of its life to fully bed-in the rings. Gentle driving during early life resulting in oil burners.
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I remember a thousand and one theories when we were all worrying about our FS1Es and AP50s.
Ultimately it seemed that the ones that were thrashed to within in an inch of their life seemed the higher performers in later life.
Not sure that would necessarily say that would hold true for a 4 stroke though.
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ISTR the "Foot Off the Throttle" every once in a while being mentioned as it creates low pressure in the combustion chambers and causes oil to be sucked up the bore towards the underside of the pistons. It may be a figment of my imagination
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I have run in, hmm, probably 12 or 13 new cars int he last 40 odd years, Each has been sensibly enthusiastically used from the time it fell off the transporter. Each quickly gave all the best it could offer me. (in the case of Rover that included electrical problems, and rust from the Fiat)
Constant revs and labouring (ie low rumbly revs) are the things I avoid.
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I occasionally make driven deliveries of brand new cars (only to destinations under 100 miles away - over that distance they get transported) and I treat them gently but not too gently. I don't use the cruise control for the reason above of not wanting to sit at steady revs for an hour or more.
EDIT: >> sensibly enthusiastically used
Yep, exactly this.
When I do a new car handover (with usually <10 miles recorded) I remind the driver that it's on new tyres and new brakes and therefore won't grip or stop fantastically well for the first couple of days. Most customers are surprised and say they hadn't considered that.
The handbook of the only brand new car I've ever had (minicab Skoda Octavia in 2001) said the correct method was to gradually stretch its legs further and further over the first 1,500 miles, treating it as fully run in from that point on. I followed that advice but spread it over 5,000 miles because I knew I was going to keep it for 200k+.
Last edited by: Dave_TDCi on Sun 20 Jan 13 at 20:50
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The first ten days and 1,500 miles of my Ceed's life was spent well laden (four adults plus kit) touring the Scottish highlands and islands. It was driven normally with lots of firm acceleration and varied speeds on all manner of roads, many single track. During that time it used half a litre of oil but has not used a drop since between services.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Sun 20 Jan 13 at 20:56
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Advice I've been given over the past 10+ years and 5 new cars was not to do anything particularly special but to gradually extend the engine and to make sure that you DO take it up near the red line every now and again. In practice I tend to keep diesels to around 2K RPM or petrols to around 3K rpm for the first couple of hundred miles and then gradually increase such that I am occasionally and deliberately giving a warm engine most of its max revs once in a while by the time it hits 600+ miles (1000 km). An observation I would make is that in modern powerful cars it is actually quite difficult to find the opportunity to do this legally in normal motoring.
I didn't do this on my Audi 170PD and it drank oil, everything else has used hardly any oil between services - perhaps as a result of 'my' running in regime..... but then again maybe not.
Advice in this thread about taking it easy on the brakes is very sensible as is the advice not to labour the engine in any gear and I have been told to avoid usage of full throttle during the initial period too.
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i have seen posts about bedding in engines on new cars in various forums and can only conclude that there are very polarised views.
one crowd say drive it like you stole the car and the other crowd erring on the side of taking it easy as the miles clock up then open it up more.
i have researched this quite a bit when i brought my brand new car nearly four years ago.
i wish a proper engine designer could pop on these forums and say what is best for engine life.
its not like the world started making car engines yesterday.
so the only real advise that we have is from like minded people (on this and other forums).
i do however think the problem we also have these days is that a car is expected to last longer in miles.
you wouldnt worry so much these days buying a car with 70,000 miles on the clock compared to the 1960's when the engine with this mileage would be at deaths door
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I've driven my current car how I choose to drive it. After 12 months only just done 10k miles (and a bit but you get the idea). In the first week I wasn't busy so drove it quite a bit for the sole purpose of driving - I rarely do but enjoyed some routes like Snake Pass, Cat and Fiddle, etc. I did more in those two weeks than some on here do in months I think - certainly more than 1000 miles.
Since then mpg has been constantly what I'd expect. Sometimes I decide to floor it and suffer mpg as a result :-) And if anything mpg has improved a bit. Oil level is unchanged in all this time. And the first service will be around October 2013 (so about 18k miles or 2 years).
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I would do the same as Mr bennet.
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I drove the 320d completely normally, except I stayed under 3000 RPM. That meant bursts of hard acceleration, plenty of cog swapping, and still a top speed of well into three figures.
17k on it now, does mid 50's mpg in daily use, goes like stink, and still reading MAX on the oil level indicator. I've never even unscrewed the filler cap.
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Makes no difference in my view. Other people run in cars for me any way they like: they just keep going after I buy them...
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>> I drove the 320d completely normally, except I stayed under 3000 RPM.
I did that with my 330d, even keeping revs lower than 3K RPM (say 2.5K) for the first 200 miles it was still considerably faster than anything else I'd driven, must admit that when I did get the chance to open it up it was ferocious ;-) It didn't use oil and requested its first change at 22K miles IIRC.
Hence my comments about not being able to extend modern powerful cars 'legally' in normal driving.
With the current (more prosaic but still 160PS) Golf, the DSG/auto kinda dictates the revs and unless you use sport or manual mode it changes up very early for economy.
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Back in the day when "Sixteeners" such as the Yamaha FS1E were all the rage among the yoof my local dealer told me that over 50% of new sales came back in the first month with either crash damage or seized engines from Italian Tune Up running in techniques.
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So what was the fastest that anyone got out of a Fizzie? I swear I hit 60 on the flat, but others swear they got over 70 out of one.
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>> So what was the fastest that anyone got out of a Fizzie? I swear I
>> hit 60 on the flat, but others swear they got over 70 out of one.
>>
>>
From memory they were good for about 55 top whack with a tail wind, but allowing for speedo error and youthful exaggeration anything up to eighty was regularly claimed.
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A following car told me I was doing over 40 on a Mobylette (downhill, with a tail wind).
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The only scooter I actually owned was a Zundapp Bella, 200cc I think and supposed to be able to do 70. It also had four speeds and an electric starter. Its main problem though was the foot gearchange which was thoroughly jiggered and made the thing a bit dangerous and embarrassing. However if you got it to stay in top gear it could go quite fast, but not 70 I think. The brakes weren't all that good.
Without helmet or protective clothing of any sort, any speed seems a bit much to me these days and would be illegal. Not then though. Fortunately I survived.
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70mph? Yeah, in neutral off a cliff.
I had the DX (front disc brake, don't ya know). And it occasionally registered upto 55, but I doubt it ever actually made 50mph whilst in gear.
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Mind you, on a KH250 down the Fairmile into Henley, I swear I got 105.
(can't be sure, bit difficult to see with vibration-induced double vision and your face resting on the fuel tank)
Last edited by: No FM2R on Mon 21 Jan 13 at 17:21
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Anything over 70 was hair raising on 1970's Japanese tackle. They were putting ever more powerful engines into frames that a racing cyclist would have dismissed for not being stiff enough.
Last edited by: Robin Regal on Mon 21 Jan 13 at 17:28
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I think it was the Suzuki X7 (might have got that wrong) which was the first of the seriously light-weight machines.
That was a couple of years after my time though. Suzuki Hustlers and Kawasaki 250s were more my line.
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I owned a piece of machinery a long time ago.
It had - I think - a two stroke 50cc engine and it bolted on the back of a push bike. The engine drove a roller which operated directly on the back tyre. If gradients and winds were in your favour, you could get the thing to four stroke and then it went quite quickly.
Heavy tyre consumption, though.
Minimota? Does that ring a bell?
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Reminds me of the Solex.Small engine fixed on the front wheels very cheap to run and could be used as a bicycle.
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>> Reminds me of the Solex.
You can still buy them Dutchie. Nice quiet thirsty little 4-stroke, purr along at 20mph... I wish I could afford one myself actually. Not that I would have used it today.
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>> I owned a piece of machinery a long time ago.
>>
>> It had - I think - a two stroke 50cc engine and it bolted on
>> the back of a push bike. The engine drove a roller which operated directly on
>> the back tyre. If gradients and winds were in your favour, you could get the
>> thing to four stroke and then it went quite quickly.
>>
>> Heavy tyre consumption, though.
>>
>> Minimota? Does that ring a bell?
>>
IIRC this is what I had in mind.
tinyurl.com/amtr6hs
Last edited by: Duncan on Wed 23 Jan 13 at 10:08
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Yamaha YDS3 was the dogs whatsits I recall. Later there came the Suzuki "Super Six". Faster, maybe than the CB72 Honda. I rode a friends Yamaha 100cc twin: couldn't get the hang of the narrow power band, but when it was at the right revs it went impressively for a tiny engine. Of the two-stroke breed the Bridgestone 350 was my favourite, not that I could afford one. M.R. Wigan roadtested it for the respectable magazine.
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Shame about the demise of the two stroke. They sounded dreadful but were shedloads of fun to ride, particularly off road and were simple to fix when they broke. I spent two years being paid to ride a Suzuki TS185 on bridleways and river banks during the early eighties.
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Some sounded, if not good, impressive! tinyurl.com/am9rgtq
Phil Reed, '67 Yamaha 4 cylinder 250cc. Recommended at full volume, but maybe not in an office:)
Last edited by: NIL on Tue 22 Jan 13 at 12:28
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>> and were simple to fix when they broke.
>>
Are you mad? :-)
There is nothing more frustrating than troubleshooting an iffy two stroke. How something so simple can be petulant and unreliable is something that's always puzzled me.
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>> So what was the fastest that anyone got out of a Fizzie? I swear I hit 60 on the flat, but
>> others swear they got over 70 out of one.
Analogue clocks over read.
I've seen 158 on my wife's CBR600, Bike magazine reported 144 at the time when it was new though I suspect they were using timing gear and not relying on the clock.
My car shows 137 on the speedo when it hits the red line in 5th, GPS on my phone matches Volvo's 130 claim.
When I bought my bike last April the booklet said 7,000rpm limit for the first few hundred miles then 10,500rpm for the next 500, book it in for a service (oil and filter change) the use the full rev range. The programmable rev light indicators helped keep that in check, three orange lamps in 500rpm increments up to the programmed limit and a bright white light signalling limit hit.
Last edited by: gmac on Tue 22 Jan 13 at 18:14
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What's wrong with good old valve bounce?
KIA's got a carb and dizzy.
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Running in - Bromptonaut
