nizzle

hi all, im very new to cars and after reading all these posts on engine break-in periods im pretty paranoid.

my white tc has about 10 miles on it, but i NEED to get it to a place 240 miles away. the route there will have a lot of hills and steep inclines around mountains. but almost 80% will be a regular highway with speeds around 70-80mph.

i don't want to potentionally harm my engine. what should i do? shoould i drive extra slow or vary speeds?

Milhamscion

No worries!! Just vary your engine speeds. 70mph shouldnt be a problem. Congrats on your tC!!

EVILDAVE

Don't worry your car will be fine it's better to break it in that way rather than babying it.

mikochu

Your car will be fine. Just get your first oil change at around 1000 miles to get all the metal shavings and gunk out the engine...

tcwannab

vary your speed... in the manual it says not to go to higher speeds during the first 500 miles i believe... if i were you and there isn't alot of traffic up ur butt... id go between 65 and 50 but hey thats just me

fearturtle44

Since three of the oil changes are free, oil change at 1000 is okay but you can really wait until at least 3000 miles until the first oil change. After that, according to the manual, you only need to do every 4-5,000 miles. Anything less and you are just wasting your money. Kind of like putting in higher than needed gas octane.

Kevin

blkshrk81

I have been around cars a lot during my short life. I don't know anyone who breaks in an engine by driving slow. I know I won't drive my tC any differently to break in the engine.

Just my .2

VanillaRice

Have I been being lied to all my life about engine break-in or is this ^^guy^^ the one who has been lied to?

Mediocre_Generica

Yea, the best way to break in an engine is actually to hold it at redline for a half hour or so

blkshrk81

It's sure not going to hurt your engine when you drive slow or careful when you first get a new vehicle. I know people that have laid the hammer down pulling out of the dealership when they bought their car. I don't personally know anyone who has had problems with the engine because they drove it too hard when they first got it either.

svt331

The best way to break in an engine is to drive it like you stole it. I have driven my new vehicles harder during break in than my average driving style. It always worked out great. I have seen writeups by engine builders that show tear downs of engines that are babied durring their break in and engines that are beaten durring their breakin and the beaten ones always look better after they have been torn down. Everything seats better. Good luck! I would change the oil around 500 miles myself.

chris0

I'm too lazy to go out and recheck the manual but I'm pretty sure it only says to keep it under 4000 RPM during the first 1000 miles. I did that (mostly) and mine is fine. during the break in period I got it up to 95 MPH and it was only at about 3800 RPM.

a buddy of mine told me when I first got it to break it in like I'm going to drive it later. this guy has worked on cars for many years, so if you want to do that it probably won't be bad. I, however, decided to follow the directions that came with my car.

as I said, it seems fine to me. it accelerates quite quickly, either from a stop or from 30 to whatever. I don't think new cars are as fragile as older cars were.

you're not going to get a unanimous answer that agrees with what makes sense to you so...it's up to you. do what you feel is best with the $18,000 investment you just made.

its_ikon

existing thread in the tech/faq area about engine break-in

https://www.scionlife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1574