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YACT - breaking in a car

S

superjohnyo

Senior member
Ok, so I just bought a new car - a Saturn Ion 3 Quad Coupe. (pics). I asked the salesman how long I should break it in (me thinking, how long do I take it easy on my car?). He says, "5000 miles." I'm thinking, thats kinda long, but not too bad. Then he says, "Run it like hell, that's all the computer will remember. If you want it to always have plenty of up and go, run it hard. If you want a grandma car, be nice to it." I say, "what?" and he says, "yup."

Is he right???
 
BWAHAHAHAHAHAAAAHAHAHAAA.... ahem, sorry.

Absolutely not. If you want an engine prone to untimely failures, do as he says.

Personally, I do NOT agree with this advice (reminiscent of the whole CPU "burn-in" controversy, but somewhat more plausible). But even if you do, your salesman's bit about the "computer" is still downright laughable.
 
I build engines to feed me and pay my bills. I break in my cams with dino oil and a cheapo fram filter at 2500 rpms for 20 mins. Change to amsoil and napa gold filter. RIde it like i stole it after that. Any other way is just stupid. SUre rings need to be seated over time.. WHo cares. They do that regardless of wha rpm and how much load is on the engine. If my engine breaks, i want it breaking in the street outside the shop, not across the country in my customers IH.
 
I've been breaking in my cars pretty similar to the mototune site. According to the dyno, and oil usage, seems to work pretty well. 😀
 
Originally posted by: AStar617
BWAHAHAHAHAHAAAAHAHAHAAA.... ahem, sorry.

Absolutely not. If you want an engine prone to untimely failures, do as he says.

Personally, I do NOT agree with this advice (reminiscent of the whole CPU "burn-in" controversy, but somewhat more plausible). But even if you do, your salesman's bit about the "computer" is still downright laughable.
Click to expand...

i'm split on this one. I've always been taught to slowly break in the engine for ~500 miles, and it even says to do so in the manual of my father's '99 gmc yukon... but my aunt's '02 trailblazer has the newer computer system, and takes forever to shift into 2nd and 3rd when i drive it - supposedly because the computer remembers her driving style, which is slow and steady... I have no idea why a computer in a car would need to know that, though - slightly better gas mileage?

 
just be gentle on it until the first oil change. you should be fine after that. reason being is that since the engine is new there are bound to be little pieces of metal floating around in the oil after the first few uses. once you change the oil it'll clean all that out.
 
The 2005 GTO owner's manual says to drive the car for the first 1500 miles (before the first oil change) at varying RPMs; that is, try not to drive consistently at the same engine RPM for a long period of time.
 
Originally posted by: Astaroth33
The 2005 GTO owner's manual says to drive the car for the first 1500 miles (before the first oil change) at varying RPMs; that is, try not to drive consistently at the same engine RPM for a long period of time.
Click to expand...

The varied rpm has held true through the years I've only heard varying milage amounts from 750 to 3000.
 
Originally posted by: Pciber
Originally posted by: AStar617
BWAHAHAHAHAHAAAAHAHAHAAA.... ahem, sorry.

Absolutely not. If you want an engine prone to untimely failures, do as he says.

Personally, I do NOT agree with this advice (reminiscent of the whole CPU "burn-in" controversy, but somewhat more plausible). But even if you do, your salesman's bit about the "computer" is still downright laughable.
Click to expand...

i'm split on this one. I've always been taught to slowly break in the engine for ~500 miles, and it even says to do so in the manual of my father's '99 gmc yukon... but my aunt's '02 trailblazer has the newer computer system, and takes forever to shift into 2nd and 3rd when i drive it - supposedly because the computer remembers her driving style, which is slow and steady... I have no idea why a computer in a car would need to know that, though - slightly better gas mileage?
Click to expand...
If anything, wouldn't the "slow-and-steady" style mean the opposite--quicker upshifting thru the gears to the top gear, without giving you a chance to ride each intermediate gear to higher RPMs?

I think this might just have more to do with the feel of that model versus others you might be more accustomed to. If you could get your hands on another comparable Trailblazer and note a marked difference, you might be on to something.
 
Originally posted by: superjohnyo
Ok, so I just bought a new car - a Saturn Ion 3 Quad Coupe. (pics). I asked the salesman how long I should break it in (me thinking, how long do I take it easy on my car?). He says, "5000 miles." I'm thinking, thats kinda long, but not too bad. Then he says, "Run it like hell, that's all the computer will remember. If you want it to always have plenty of up and go, run it hard. If you want a grandma car, be nice to it." I say, "what?" and he says, "yup."

Is he right???
Click to expand...

He is sorta right. Run the gammut of RPM's , drive at 2k rpm for a few mins, then pop it up to 5k rpms, then 4krpms, move it all over, dont take any long highway trips at 3k rpm's or it wont break in as well as it could.... 5k miles is a bit much, more like 1500 miles
 
Its CPU is a neural net processor; a learning computer. 🙂 You can drive it harder than grandma drives it so you'll still have some power. I first learned about these "learning computers" in cars with my dad's MPV a few years back after we took it back to the dealer with a different problem. First few months it learns... drive it how you want it to learn... just don't gun it...
 
It's not like you can't reset the computer.

And the computer is constantly learning, so if someone with a different driving style begins driving, the computer will adapt.

It takes like 2 tanks of gas or something.
 
Originally posted by: dxkj
Originally posted by: superjohnyo
Ok, so I just bought a new car - a Saturn Ion 3 Quad Coupe. (pics). I asked the salesman how long I should break it in (me thinking, how long do I take it easy on my car?). He says, "5000 miles." I'm thinking, thats kinda long, but not too bad. Then he says, "Run it like hell, that's all the computer will remember. If you want it to always have plenty of up and go, run it hard. If you want a grandma car, be nice to it." I say, "what?" and he says, "yup."

Is he right???
Click to expand...

He is sorta right. Run the gammut of RPM's , drive at 2k rpm for a few mins, then pop it up to 5k rpms, then 4krpms, move it all over, dont take any long highway trips at 3k rpm's or it wont break in as well as it could.... 5k miles is a bit much, more like 1500 miles
Click to expand...
RPM variance is a longstanding tenet of engine break-in. IMO simply telling someone "run it like hell" carries a much different connotation than that; a permanently wide open throttle does not a long-lived engine make 🙂

 
Originally posted by: rh71
Its CPU is a neural net processor; a learning computer. 🙂 You can drive it harder than grandma drives it so you'll still have some power. I first learned about these "learning computers" in cars with my dad's MPV a few years back after we took it back to the dealer with a different problem. First few months it learns... drive it how you want it to learn... just don't gun it...
Click to expand...

That's very neat. Got a good source on the interweb?
 
It shouldn't take a few months to learn how long to squirt the injectors, etc. After resetting the computer, maybe 5-15mins.

We broke in my friends RSX Type S by driving the crap out of it, and it runs great 15k later.
 
Originally posted by: Viperoni
It shouldn't take a few months to learn how long to squirt the injectors, etc. After resetting the computer, maybe 5-15mins.

We broke in my friends RSX Type S by driving the crap out of it, and it runs great 15k later.
Click to expand...
lol...

Come back in 150,000 miles.
 
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