"supposed" to be like?...maybe its a good thing I went with the extended warranty..lol

 

just take it easy the first 1000 miles...i switched my oil after the first 1000 miles also. everyone has different answers.

2 seconds after i pull outta the lot with my new scion i raced my brother (who dropped me off) and redlined every gear. the second race i went, 1st, 2nd and then accidently went into 5th and revd the ____ outta it so if anything, your fine with whatever little thing you did.

 

Depends on who answers you.

Me, i went hard the first 20 or so miles. Then drove it normaly to the 200 mile mark. I changed the oil/filter to get the loose metal out of the engine, and installed regular dino oil again. Went another 1K miles, and did another oil change, which i went with Mobil 1 5W30. Running synthetic will allow me to have the oil changed every 6K miles.

The break in theory is new, and has worked so far for me ( i have no noise at all from the engine bay, cept the intake taking its last breath when i turn the car off ). The changing of the oil every 6K miles, i have done it this way to countless cars over the past 15 years, and havent had any problems to date. Hope this helps.

 

[quote="showpaojoe"]just take it easy the first 1000 miles...[quote]
WRONG!

You are supposed to vary your driving as much as possible during the first 1000 miles.

 

Correct HOWEVER, the break in period is almost considered a thing of the past anymore. I still do it religiously to any new car I get but you are right.
Durring the break in period it isn't recommended that you sustain any RPM for an extended period of time, however it is also NOT recommened that you run your car to redline at any time and that is done on a regular bassis by about 50% of the drivers on the market without problem.....

 

I personally drive the hell out of it no matter how many miles it has on it. I always have and I always will. Never had a problem yet.

 

There is literally no break in period on an engine of this type. This is coming from years of race motor experience and a LOT of knowledge of the inner workings of motors. Would I redline every gear out the dealer parking lot... No way... that is just stupid. I would take it easy for the first couple hundred miles and not redline every gear till I broke 1000 and changed the oil the first time.

Change the oil after 1000 and use dino Juice the first couple times you change it.

Most of the posts on this thread seem to have little or no real life experience.

 

RTFM--if you don't know what this means...I'll help out a little.

READ the ------Manual

 

The owner’s manual is written based on information provided by the engineers who created the engine. The company has every reason to want you to have a trouble free ownership experience. Common sense tells me to listen to what the manual says, at a minimum.

I traded in a vehicle with 205,000 on my xB. I'd drive that car cross country today, since it was still reliable and ran well. I changed the oil religiously every 3,000 miles.

I've had my xB eight days today. I have driven it gently while varying rpms as recommended. I've never gone over 70 mph and typically operate around 60. I'll change the oil and filter between 500 and 1,000 miles in an effort to clean up from the engine build. It's probably overkill but makes sense to me.

You can get on any automotive related site and you will always find heated debate on two issues, break in hard or soft, and dino vs. synthetic oil. I have read this stuff until my head ached because I wanted to make the right choice to get the most (dependable) life out of my vehicles.

Here's my 2cts.

The school of thought that says run it hard from day one, or break it in like you'll drive it, usually bases that logic on race vehicles. A race car engine is built, warmed up and ran hard so why not a personal vehicle. I think the first thing to consider is race vehicles get tear downs and rebuilds (maybe) every couple of races. Logic tells us that hard running of any machine reduces longevity. That's why race cars need frequent rebuilds. Breaking a car in IAW the "book" allows for component settling. One of the reasons cylinder walls are scuffed and moving engine components have some built in slop is to allow for those unique (to that engine) components to wear each other in smoothly, rather than with force which causes stress and shortens component life.

On the topic of oil I'd like to throw this in for food for thought and not to change anyone’s mind who is committed one way or another. Like I said I read about this until it hurt, including writing letters to oil companies asking questions. Oil is a consumable. The idea that oil stays in the engine (provided there are no leaks) in its original quantity is incorrect. Lots of things happen but essentially water, and fuel gases returning to a liquid state, etc. all mix in appearing like no oil has been used, when the dipstick is checked. Oil doesn't necessarily wear out but the important additives in it do.

I decided to go with traditional (dino) oil vice synthetic. I change my oil every 3,000 miles. The manual says every 5,000 but I like the safety margin. Synthetic's only advantages in water cooled engines, as I see it, is its longevity between changes. OIL GETS DIRTY. It doesn't mater if it is synthetic, dino, or some newly invented space oil, it gets dirty.

For my purposes I had (in my mind) two choices. I could use expensive synthetic and do oil changes less frequently or I could stick with dino and my current schedule. BTW, I have never received a clear straight answer when I asked the oil reps how synthetics could stay clean longer. Note that Mobile 1 no longer advertises using those big numbers between oil changes as they once did.

If none of this is convincing bear this in mind. If you're under warranty, the first time you miss the Scion REQUIRED 5,000 mile oil change, you are up the creek if you suffer engine damage. Common sense will tell you what an uphill battle that will be to fight, even if you don't think the late oil change was a contributing factor.

I'm not a synthetic oil hater. I use semi synthetic in my air cooled shovelhead engine, since it handles heat fluctuation and high temps better. Much less of an issue in water cooled vehicles.

I apologize for the length of this post. This board has been very helpful to me and I thought I might share something worthwhile in return. Like I said in the beginning, it is just food for thought and I'm always open minded on this topic.

SGF

 

Not exactly. Its written by lawyers. Lawyers are there to protect the company. The book tells you to vary your speed and keep it under 55 MPH for the 1st 1000 miles. The quote I got from my lead tech was "Cliffy, a monkey could drive that thing and not screw it up. Just go easy on the brakes for the first couple hundred miles while things get seated."

 

it does not say to keep it under 55. It say to vary your speeds, and to not run the manual in a high gear at a slow speed.

 

I agree. The owner's manual has been "lawyerized". I read it cover to cover and the obvious attempt at law suit avoidance is almost sickening. If we didn't have such a sue crazy society we'd get a sensibly sized owners manual.

I won't challenge the mechanic's opinion but I suggest you consider this. The information in your manual came from the (in part) engineering department, probably got reviewed a zillion times, mostly by lawyers. Technical writers did there thing and it got approved some more. If you follow or exceed the information in that manual the Toyota/Scion corporation will stand behind their product. If they don't you were provided with a booklet that tells you how to get lemon law help in any state.

If you follow the mechanic's advice will he do the same? I assure you that you will absolutely violate your warranty if Scion can prove you did not follow "Scion's" break in procedure. If I were going to actually follow his advice I’d get it in writing. I promise you will never get that signature.

Having said all that, he may be 100% correct and just giving you his opinion. I realize he isn't suggesting you beat the car and is only telling you the break in rules are overkill. That may be true but I would rather follow the process than replace a new car's engine at my expense. On a positive note it’s great to know someone in his position has such confidence in the product.

 

Good points SGF. I tell my customers to refer to the manual for the official word on "break in" periods. I also tell them the opinion of my tech and stress that this is only his opinion.