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Engine break-in all wrong :(

jackalope

Ready to race!
Location
Austin
Breakins aren’t as much of a thing as they used to be. They do some pre-breakin at the factory and things are machined a lot better than they used to be. You should be fine

People always say this and I have no idea why. If anything the closer tolerances of modern engines would make break in even more important
 

jackalope

Ready to race!
Location
Austin
It's in there. My sales guy told me there wasn't a break in period any more. "Just drive it." I had a 300 mile highway trip home from the dealer.

Then I checked the book and it mentions taking it easy up til the 800 (?) mile mark and then easing into more throttle up to 1k, whatever that means.

I lost patience and launched it at 700 miles. But I do give the oil until 200 degrees before any proper flogging. That may or may not be more important than the "break in." Makes sense to me at least. I will err on the safe side there for those pesky 10 minutes of warm up.:cool:

Sales guys seem to always say "there's no such thing as break in" I'm guessing because they don't want to scare away buyers.

The manual says to drive the car easy for the first 1000 miles or whatever
 

joneze93tsi

Passed Driver's Ed
Location
MIDWEST
Break in:
Get oil up to temp.
Lots of WOT pulls, followed by lots of engine braking back down. Never burnt any oil in any of my VW/Audi's taking this approach.
 

Hoon

Autocross Champion
Location
Rhode Island
People always say this and I have no idea why. If anything the closer tolerances of modern engines would make break in even more important

It's not so much about tolerances as it is about the quality of the machining.

Everything today is much smoother right out of the box than it was years ago. There are fewer burrs, peaks, valleys, etc that have to be smoothed out by use.
 

Splashalot1

New member
Location
Australia
Further to the rumoured break in map, my GTI's fuel consumption suddenly decreased by around 12% at somewhere around 1600 to 1800kms. Same conditions, same driving characteristics, the only change was the reduced consumption. It has remained at the lower level since. Make of that what you will, but to my mind it suggests the car runs richer break in map up to a designated mileage.
 

Aelwulf

Ready to race!
You're fine man the vast majority of people who buy these cars don't even know what a "break in period" is, they just drive the car. The vast majority of that vast majority presumably does not experience any issues with their cars that could be directly attributed to their break-in technique.

If one of my salespeople is to be believed even some of the VW service techs don't know. I asked about it, and he said he was told by a tech that there isn't one anymore. I told him then the tech needs to contact VW corporate to get it taken out of the manual as both the Tiguan and GTI have a 600 mile break-in followed by a 1k 'easy does it' period in there.

Overall agreed, so long as not 1k miles of cruise control and/or drag racing probably fine.
 

TechGuy32

Ready to race!
Location
My Place
Further to the rumoured break in map, my GTI's fuel consumption suddenly decreased by around 12% at somewhere around 1600 to 1800kms. Same conditions, same driving characteristics, the only change was the reduced consumption. It has remained at the lower level since. Make of that what you will, but to my mind it suggests the car runs richer break in map up to a designated mileage.

Not likely there is a richer break-in map as the AFR is designed for optimal efficiency and emissions. More likely your engine rings seated in fully and the initial high friction of a new engine decreased as the rubbing components burnished in to each other.
 

roundle1979

Ready to race!
Location
DC Metro
Car(s)
2018 VW GTI SE 6MT
I'm sure your car is fine.

Most would say that avoiding high load, high engine speeds (especially at low temp) is best during 'break in'.

Good to vary engine speeds and loads. Bring RPMs up a bit more each week as you build up miles. Let oil temp hit 180f before you get on it.

And once broken in, suggest you flog it--after getting oil up to temp--often :)
 

Rockstar08

Ready to race!
Location
Burbank, Ca
When I bought my 2019 Rabbit Edition out of state it had like 16 miles on it and when we got home 3 days later it had about 920 miles on it. I have yet to use cruise control and varied my speeds while on the freeway anywhere from 70mph up to 90mph on open the highway at times. Now everything I have read regarding brand new engines and as far as seating the rings properly you need to do that at or before 100 miles have even been put on the car because after that the rings are basically set. So when I was around the 80 to 90 miles on the car I did a few good pulls and then also got up on the freeway and ran it up to 85 mph for a few miles. After that again varied speeds so hopefully my rings are set in good and I will have no oil leaks at all...time will tell..lol
 

TechGuy32

Ready to race!
Location
My Place
There is no magic 100 mile point for ring break-in. It's a gradual process. Varying the throttle causes the rings to move in the ring groove to burnish them into the cylinders. Constant highway speeds and WOT doesn't promote ring movement in the piston groove which is why frequent changes in throttle on/off is recommended. High loads such as WOT on a new engine with tight clearances isn't recommended. VW, Porsche and other's recommend 600 miles of common sense driving to properly break an engine in for best results and long life before WOT operation.
 

Rockstar08

Ready to race!
Location
Burbank, Ca
There is no magic 100 mile point for ring break-in. It's a gradual process. Varying the throttle causes the rings to move in the ring groove to burnish them into the cylinders. Constant highway speeds and WOT doesn't promote ring movement in the piston groove which is why frequent changes in throttle on/off is recommended. High loads such as WOT on a new engine with tight clearances isn't recommended. VW, Porsche and other's recommend 600 miles of common sense driving to properly break an engine in for best results and long life before WOT operation.

Yes but that gradual process from everything I have read most say typically up around the first 100 or so miles. Yes I know it’s not a magic exactly 100 miles, could it be over and done with at 110 miles, 125 miles or 150 miles sure but that gradual or setting of the rings I would say is definitely long done before 600 miles! Their is a very short window and yes no one knows exactly per engine or per manufacturer what the mileage mark is but I am betting all rings are completely set in say before 250 engine miles on most any massed produced car manufacturer. With all that being said does it really make a difference probably not as long as you vary engine speeds up and down for the first few hundred miles. When I did my engine pulls I also didn’t do WOT mine were from low speeds probably half throttle to 3/4 throttle a few times until 60-70mph and then back down. From there I did some higher speed runs once we hit the freeway ramp and varied my speeds up and down for quite awhile. I bet my engine will not leak a drop of oil or burn any oil from what I believe to be properly broken in, guess we shall see. All in all the car runs smooth and strong so far!!
 

T7 AHR

New member
Location
Stockport
I think it’s also important to let the engine warm up correctly and warm down slowly - I drive gently until I see 70 degrees on the oil temp and let it warm down on idle for about a minute before turning off. Believe it’s good for the engine in general and especially the turbo.
 
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