Break in process

[JF1GD2]

i've tried my best to get this car broken in and for some reason it feels like it's holding back.......

every time my friend takes me around in his 02 wrx (has roughly 40k on it) his feels a hell of a lot faster. we've got roughly the same mods (up + dp)

If anything i've got more mods because my downpipe inculded a midpipe with it.

what gives here? i have managed to put 3500k on the car and my only guess is I'm not all the way broken in?????

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[el~sharko]

Originally posted by JF1GD2
i've tried my best to get this car broken in and for some reason it feels like it's holding back.......

every time my friend takes me around in his 02 wrx (has roughly 40k on it) his feels a hell of a lot faster. we've got roughly the same mods (up + dp)

If anything i've got more mods because my downpipe inculded a midpipe with it.

what gives here? i have managed to put 3500k on the car and my only guess is I'm not all the way broken in?????

A lot of poeple swear their wrx didn't fulled extend its legs/wings until 10,000. I have to agree with this, the car just feels "looser". Even still its not gonna make much of a difference, its prolly more in your head than anything, have you had your friend flog your car while you ride in it?

[JF1GD2]

thank you for the response

i think ill have to try letting him drive it to see if i can't feel the same effect i do in his car.

for some reason i want to believe that his is better broken in

[heffergm]

Mine didn't feel terribly great until 10k miles or so either.

In fact, the one I test drove on the lot, with about 10 miles on the ODO, felt like a complete dog.

[merlot]

10K seems to be the magic number. I called SOA for their advice on when I should switch to synthetic motor oil. They said either the 2nd oil change (which is 7500 miles) or 10,000 miles, since the engine will be fully broken in.

[HoOn]

Some people swear by about 5k or 10k.

I just reached approximately 9000 miles and I can definitely say it feels better now then when I hit



- John

[heffergm]

I called SOA for their advice on when I should switch to synthetic motor oil. They said either the 2nd oil change (which is 7500 miles) or 10,000 miles, since the engine will be fully broken in.

BS.

If that's the case, they should have indicated such in the manual. It makes no such statement. The manual only indicates that you can use synthetic after the break-in period provided it meets the indicated service levels.

[ride5000]

cars always feel faster when you're not the one doing the driving!



just something to consider.

ken

[wonny]

Originally posted by ride5000
cars always feel faster when you're not the one doing the driving!



just something to consider.

ken

I agree. My wrx felt faster when my friend was driving it, even with two other people in the car. Something about being behind the wheel subdues the "fast feeing."

[LotusDriftx]

Originally posted by heffergm
BS.

If that's the case, they should have indicated such in the manual. It makes no such statement. The manual only indicates that you can use synthetic after the break-in period provided it meets the indicated service levels.

You can use synthetic from day one, it wont hurt anything, maybe even the contrary. But classic wisdom would ramble about seals settling properly etc etc.

I think right after the break in is a safe bet to switch to synthetic. But this argument is the same as the break in period argument; it will never be settled, and the manufacturers written word should just be taken literally.


A car always feels faster from the passanger seat.

[electricpork]

Originally posted by ride5000
cars always feel faster when you're not the one doing the driving!

true. food also tastes better when its not yours.

[JF1GD2]

Originally posted by electricpork
true. food also tastes better when its not yours.

[the JigGa mAn]

hey guys...new here...just wondering aprox how many miles did you wait till you went WOT?? dont have a wrx yet...im workin on it thou...lookin to get a 2004 java black pearl WRX ...as you can tell im pretty excited about it

[hotrod]

--- Oh about 200 yds !!

Actually thats the truth. Going full throttle and staying under 4000 rpm is possible, just takes a bit of self control.

You need to get some good WOT time right from the start to get a good breakin, just do it very briefly and give everything time to cool between "events".

Hold to the manufactures rpm guidelines for the first few hundred miles then gradually raise them a couple hundred rpm every couple hundred miles and you'll do just fine.

Larry

[SubNub]

Originally posted by hotrod
--- Oh about 200 yds !!

Actually thats the truth. Going full throttle and staying under 4000 rpm is possible, just takes a bit of self control.

You need to get some good WOT time right from the start to get a good breakin, just do it very briefly and give everything time to cool between "events".

Hold to the manufactures rpm guidelines for the first few hundred miles then gradually raise them a couple hundred rpm every couple hundred miles and you'll do just fine.

Larry

This information is not what the MY04 manual specifies. I says not to "race the engine" and any sort of WOT even staying below 4k on the Tach would justify "racing the engine". It gives the disclaimer of "except in emergency" and I hardly call "I want this damn new car to start going fast today" an emergency nor is it worth not properly seating everything during breakin. It is true that you should vary speed (engine and vehicle) during breakin period so taking a drive through some windy roads in the mountains is great if you can control yourself to keep off the WOT and just cruz along using corners as a chance to slowly brake and change gears etc. Follow what the manual recommends.

[hotrod]

Who said a good breakin (for maximum performance) had anything to do with the factory recomendations.

The factory recomendations for breakin are to ensure a minimum of warrantee repairs for folks who have absolutely no common sense. It does not ensure a maximum potential engine break in.

It is aimed at the sort of folks who take a new car and on the first day see if it will really do 148 mph, or show off to their friends with 7000 rpm clutch dumps and 4 wheel burnouts.

That is not!! what I was advocating.

This has been debated in depth many times, a quick search would show you probably a dozen threads where the high performance breakin approach is expained in detail. The starter of the thread was complaining about a lack of performance. As mentioned above the car comes alive around 10,000 miles. Until then you need to manage high load driving to prevent damage to the car, but that does not mean you should avoid putting the engine under heavy load at moderate rpms. That is absolutely essential to properly breakin and seat the piston rings, and to get proper breakin of the gear sets.

Larry

[WRX03]

Also keep in mind. Even though 2 engines come from the same casting and assembly period, doesn't mean they will run the same.

[ride5000]

fwiw, larry knows what he's talking about.

i took some wot blasts as soon as i got my hands on the car (and as soon as it was properly warmed up to temp). you can go about 100mph without going over 4krpms, you know...

the fact is, i get a shockingly low amount of oil consumption and a very small amount in the intake tract. going on 19k miles soon, and one year of ownership.

once you understand what's going on during a break in process, you can make your own decisions as to what is good and what isn't. automobile owner's manuals are written to the lowest common denominator, which consists of some pretty ignorant people, and they are written in such a way as to ultimately save the manufacturer money (it is clearly in their best interests to do so).

jm2c
ken

[mlambert]

22k miles, break in was very aggressive (both by me and the people that test drove my "new" car before I even got to touch it for 153miles), oil consumption is as close to zero as you can get. Even after 5000 miles on mobil1 5w30 I dont notice any drop in oil level via the dipstick, just checked a few days ago.

[hotrod]

Same here, agressive (with common sense) break in, and I cannot detect oil consumption. By the time I change oil I am typically about 1/4 quart from the full mark and I usually do not fill it all the way full during the oil change.

I have the fastest Stock turbo WRX in Colorado ( at least on the registry) at the moment.

On my second day of ownership I went on a 300 mile highway trip for lunch, pulling 3 mountain passes. On one I was pulling a grade at 11,000 ft that slows many cars to 45 mph at 95 mph in 5th gear, but the day before I carefully laid the ground work with several progressive short break in drives. The next week I took a friend to lunch in Laramie Wy (from Denver).

Breaking in a car is a lot like breaking in shoes. If you never bend them they never loosen up and get comfortable.

Larry

[WRX03]

Don't you all know by now all your engines will grenade at 100,000 miles because you didn't follow the manual word for word. All 5 pistons are going to be shooting out your wheel wells any moment. You just ruin your motors, better sell your cars before its too late. My favorite reply went like; Subaru engineers designed the car so they must know the best method to break-in the engine. When I bought my car I just held the throttle down while sitting in the dealer lot for 15 minutes, I had to make sure I had a good engine before buying it. Funny I tested 5 cars before I found one that didn't end up going clunk-A-clunk.

[Hit Man X]

I did get on it a few times during the break in process but I am anal about oil changes in this first time frame too. As soon as I get a new vehicle/new motor home I change the oil. There's lots of crapola in there. Then I change again at ~500mi. Then 1500mi. Mobil 1 swap at 2500miles.

Car runs strong and no oil losses noticable.

There was a big site I read a while ago regarding break in process and stated basically that driving it like how you usually will does lead to the best results in performance. They were two sport bikes tested. They did all sorts of comparisons and even tore the motors down later showing the one hammered on when new had the rings set better and less blowby...more to think about.

[ElTorrente]

I didn't break my car in.

I bounced off the rev limiter several times the first night.

I changed oil at 1000miles, then 3000miles, and every 2500-3000 after that.

I've been WOT for the last 30k miles, hard launching, high speed, flying around corners- never had any tranny/clutch problems.. nothing. Runs like a champ!

[JF1GD2]

Originally posted by heffergm
BS.

If that's the case, they should have indicated such in the manual. It makes no such statement. The manual only indicates that you can use synthetic after the break-in period provided it meets the indicated service levels.

whats funny is mitsubishi uses synthetic in the evo from the factory...................so i suppose that car never breaks in then?

[bailey454]

we've got a break-in debate with a secondary debate in synthetic. if we could just get someone to bring a BOV into it, we'd have the 2.0L turbo hat trick.