New Vehicles

[Z()LTAN]

Howdy all,

Do new vehicles come 'run in' when you buy them brand new?

i.e is the engine, and gearsets 'run in'?

Anyone know if the general run in procedure is ok for newer vehicles or are there newer tricks nowadays.

Cheers

Vehicle in question - '11 VDJ79 Landcruiser

[uglystik01]

i work at a ford dealer in bundy and its my understanding all engines are run in ie no k's on the clock so most likely done during assembly of engine (well probably after its put together) that said id clock up a few k's before really pushing it, just a personal opinion

[tehekho]

Flog the shyte out if it.

Do anything else and you wont get optimum ring seal. That's why ex-cop cars seem to go harder.

[bru21]

Mate I have looked after mine for about 3k then mid until 5k the drive it normally. I think there is more to it then ring seal, like main bearings etc.
That said all the mine ones love it when they are abused. A mate of mine works on the mine toyotas and said rape it!

[tehekho]

Mate I have looked after mine for about 3k then mid until 5k the drive it normally. I think there is more to it then ring seal, like main bearings etc.
That said all the mine ones love it when they are abused. A mate of mine works on the mine toyotas and said rape it!

This always gripes me when people say this - why?

Your main bearings (or any journal bearings, for that matter) should not need any 'bedding in'. Yeah, sure, minor high spots will be worn away, but once there is oil pressure, there should be zero contact between these surfaces anyway, so why do they need bedding in?

Like your mate in the mines said - flog the ring'ole out of it!

[bad_religion_au]

i work at a ford dealer in bundy and its my understanding all engines are run in ie no k's on the clock so most likely done during assembly of engine (well probably after its put together) that said id clock up a few k's before really pushing it, just a personal opinion

car manufacturers claim this, but anyone i've known that works on the lines tells me that nothing has changed in the line proceedure from when manufacturers recomended a run in period... it just seems that the problems don't crop up in warranty, so the manufacturer doesn't care too much if they are run in properly or not

[chunderlicious]

toyota have a free service at 1000K, this also co insides with their recommended "run in" period. high revs, no load is what was recommended to me, now 63,000kms later no oil issues, no injector issues, nothing, just a brilliant car.

[Northside 4x4]

Most of the running in is done in the first 50km's.
The only thing that really needs time to settle into place are the compression rings. Due to the hatch of the bore being a coarse finish when the motor is new, it take a little time for the rings to basically cut any sharp edges off and create a good seal.

If you look at a bore under a microscope when its just been honed, you can pretty clearly see how jagged and hi/low the finish is.
After 50kms or a couple of hours of running, the bores are much smoother.

This is the reason it is a good idea to keep rpm to a medium level and provide a good amount of load to the engine for the rings to expand as much as possible (load), but not create to much friction (rpm) while it is new.

[dillza_69]

i work at a ford dealer in bundy and its my understanding all engines are run in ie no k's on the clock so most likely done during assembly of engine (well probably after its put together) that said id clock up a few k's before really pushing it, just a personal opinion

I work at the Ford factory in geelong and i can assure you no engines are "run in", all engines are hot tested but thats it.

[uglystik01]

lol righto by the time the customer gets it the car has usually clocked between 5 to 10k any way. it great when you hop outa a new car after a pre delivery run and all you can smell is the paint burning off the exhaust

[80'sman]

A bloke that i know builds all engines including race engines. he says drive it how you normally would every day from day one. that sets them for your driving style. I have had an old cruiser ute that i bought off an old farmer, he owned it from new. It took me three months to teach it to go over 80km/h without crying for help.

[hulsty]

On Dads VDJ79 he has had his tool trailer behind it since day one, now up around 50,000km uses about 100ml-500ml oil per 10,000km and goes great.

[Hamo]

To answer this qestion proply
1 needs to know how long do you intend on keeping it
IE: is this a long time keeper or is it a car to be sold off in a couple of years.

[91Mav]

Have a read of this: http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The site's real old school and is aimed at motorcycle engines mostly but his ideas still apply. Some people agree with him, some don't - it's an interesting read anyway. I've got a couple of cousins that race bikes and they load the engines up in a higher gear / low - mid revs to get good ring seal / compression and they swear by it.

Back to that site though, if you type a fake email address in to the bottom of the page, you can access some of his other info. The high velocity porting is an interesting read as it also goes against what a lot of us have been taught.

[thehanko]

engine break in is yet another one of those subjects where you can find every opinion and info on the net to back them all up.

I would suggest do what makes you feel most comfortable - or what toyota advise.

The only vehicle i've had which was recommended to run in was a bike - yamaha said don't go over 1/2 revs, dont labour it in low revs and dont sit on the highway for longer periods at a static rev range - vary it about.

ford said - nah its good to go. i still was kind to it for a few thousand.

Its probably one of those things that in modern engines is less critical due to improved accuracy in manufacture - and as such it doesnt matter too much what you do, hence why everyone has different opinions and all are happy with the results.

[mmaaxx]

i work at a ford dealer in bundy and its my understanding all engines are run in ie no k's on the clock so most likely done during assembly of engine (well probably after its put together) that said id clock up a few k's before really pushing it, just a personal opinion

I work at the Ford factory in geelong and i can assure you no engines are "run in", all engines are hot tested but thats it.

Hot tested is what they do.

Same at toyota. Engine comes off the line and gets fitted to a test bench. water and fuel hooked up....engine started up and idling whilst operator sets up the next engine.

comes back to first engine, revs it a few times and listens for anything not normal......loads it up and holds it on the limiter for a few seconds...if anything is gonna go wrong it'll be there from the start at high revs/load.

engine comes off and goes into vehicle.

always been this way. as long as the manufacturing process is right and everything built/assembled correctly you wont have a problem.

[Yom]

i have broken in 3 new vehicles now. woot for me lol, downside is the new car smell is not that exciting..

07 crd 3.0L TD patrol manual. took it up the highway to rainbow beach and around mt mee. just normal driving. has only needed the sump topped up once in its life between oil changes, that was between the 110,000km and 120,000km services, may not have been filled up properly. no engine issues, runs well enough with 135,000km now. usually is hooked up to a 2.8t tow combo with horse and float.

08 golf GTI dsg (2.0L FSI turbo). pretty much drove it hard from new, lots of hard acceleration in mid range rpm with plenty of redlining, compression braking etc. So so much fun. I had it for 36,000km or something and used about 1L of oil in the first 15,000km (that was its first oil change).

08 JK crd (2.8L turbo diesel, VM Motori donk) auto. drove it fairly hard for a 4wd, lots of highway running, 4wding on the first weekend i had it etc. It used 300ml of oil in its first 10,000km, 400ml to 20,000km and then from 30,000km onwards i think it pretty much stopped using any really noticeable amount of oil.

I have been informed alot of modern vehicles have a non standard oil blend from the factory to help run them in properly and changing this oil too soon can cause issues. also been suggested to me the differences in initial break in for run of the mill cars would not really affect useable lifespan anyway. who knows.

[bakerboy]

Tom i travel leach hwy every day for work and see the old farts driving the toyotas to the dealers, i promise you that you wont have to worry about driving it hard, they flog the shit out of them, so much to the point if i ever got a new toyota id be telling them to get fucked and ill pick it up from the docks and ill drive it how i see fit

[jaztaz]

My VDJ79 did a lot of towing from new & got driven normal to hard the whole time. Got around 17lts/100k up until 50k (also on 35s with a 5" lift) then dropped to around 13lts/100k (33s with a 2" lift), gearbox also freed up around this time. Uses no more than 1 lt of oil in 10k service interval. When Toyota used their own oil the consumption was higher. Use Fuchs oil now & no problems. I get better fuel economy towing my 1tn boat with the VDJ than my AU Fairmont 6cyl, about 6lts/100k better in fact.