I would have to say that is false. I have a TDI Jetta (turbo Diesel) and even it needed a breakin. Being diesel it gets a bizzare breakin then a normal gas engine.One of the guy's who knows alot about cars and races them said on the Solstice forum no break in is needed on the Turbo's. I don't know how true this statement is. Can brentil or someone who knos for sure shed some light.
I know MANY people with the Supercharged ION Redline who did their first oil change at 3,000 miles, driving it pretty hard most of the time, and the oil came out crystal clean and clear. These ECOTEC engines are built to take beatings. QUOTE]
Hence my saying: "The reason you get many different things on this subject is because different engines will get different results. Take for instance, if you fail to break-in a toyota or honda engine, you may not feel that much difference, because they are built so well, so one might get the impression that they did not need to break-in the engine because they didn't and the engine was fine." The supercharged ion is a four cylinder so it would not need that much of a break-in period. Also, everyone's idea of "running good" is different. Some people think that as long as it runs and smoke doesn't come out the back, it is "running good". I am more picking and prefer to stumbles, or rough idles either.
I tend to work more to the safe side when I spend $30k for a car, I am not one that would see how close to the fence I can get before falling over....
And that's really the best advice. If at all possible, it is good to be nice to the car when you first get it. Better to play it safe and get more 's'miles out of it in the end.I tend to work more to the safe side when I spend $30k for a car, I am not one that would see how close to the fence I can get before falling over....
That like saying that the whole reason to loose weight is so your legs don't rub together....I do not want to start a holy war but the whole idea of breaking in an engine is not to get the oil spread thru the whole engine, it is to wear in the best possible seal between the cylinder walls and the piston rings.
That being said I am not an expert but I have always felt short runs where I push the car hard to be the best, ie push the car hard enough to really work the engine but do it for a short enough interval to minimize heat and related cylinder wall glazing.
You can probably find alot more sources on the net to give a more in depth ideas about breaking in a car engine.
Also note engines built today have the cylinder walls honed to a much finer finish and I think how you treat the engine during the first hour you drive it probably has a larger effect on engine and oil consumption for the rest of the cars life than almost anything else you do during the engine breakin period:thumbs:
Looked at from that standpoint a dealer demo unit with a few hundred miles on it might be the best possible engine breakin, since it would probably consist of many short 5 - 10 minute drives where the car is pushed hard, about perfect since it would be likely that the car would never really get a chance to completely warm up so there would virtually no cylinder wall glazing.![]()
Of course then I would have to get a new car someone else had already driven :banghead:
Also don t baby the motor too much because the rings have to seat and they do need a little stress some people baby the motor so much the rings never seat well and then the motor could be a oil burning / low compression motor down the road.