The Break-in Religion...

[synclastica_86]

After reading so many different types of break-ins and all having no problem... I have a feeling that it really doesn't matter.

[Great White]

Religiously for me and there´s a reason for it too.

I once did not break in a 535 E34 and bang went the engine within 500 km (312,5 mls).
We could seriously go into the why´s and how the engine is correctly lubricated, material temperatures with expansion coeffients, of tension formation at different revs, temps & pressures affect the motor, the gaskets bla bla bla... what I´m getting at is that there is a reason all mechanical parts in all machines have a breaking in period. I can´t really think of a reason why they would invent such a stupid reason for the car otherwise to driven in, you ?
The manufacturers have a reason for it and yes if you mess up your motor the DME will tell tales and BMW will do this:

[synclastica_86]

Well... this might sound out of this world... I'm no consipracy theroist... I just want to throw this out there:

Is there the slightest possibility that BMW invented the break-in period to avoid responsibility for defects? I'm sure you've heard form some post in this forum that a member had a damaged transmission but BMW didn't agree to replace it only because the customer didn't follow the break in correctly. Also, the other break-in method offered by some of the posts here does indeed sounds logical.

[M-Maika]

Religiously for me too.
Except that one or two times i misshifted and got past 5.500 rpm. Uupsss

Best Regards, Maika

[Sticky]

Originally Posted by synclastica_86

Well... this might sound out of this world... I'm no consipracy theroist... I just want to throw this out there:

Is there the slightest possibility that BMW invented the break-in period to avoid responsibility for defects? I'm sure you've heard form some post in this forum that a member had a damaged transmission but BMW didn't agree to replace it only because the customer didn't follow the break in correctly. Also, the other break-in method offered by some of the posts here does indeed sounds logical.

No, it does serve a purpose. It is protecting you as well as them. You don't want someone going out and seeing how fast it will go and then the engine lets go at 160 mph. If something is to go wrong, better it be at low revs and low speeds.

[synclastica_86]

so instead of making the the engine better and more reliable... it's just a safety measure?

[Irb Digital]

I'm sticking to the book as much as possible. Only times I've been over 5500 is during a shift where I free rev'd to much in between shifts, maybe twice or so, I might have touched 6 or 6.5k not under load. I have done a few full throttle attempts though. I didn't realize this was a part of the procedure until I read the manual, but I've limited my full throttle applications since then. I did do a full throttle 5500 rpm run in a few gears til I got to about 105 though. Which is right at the speed limit stated in the manual. Hopefully this won't be an "epic" fail.

If it wasn't for the tattle tell equipment, I would be much less by the book. I'm a firm believer in an aggressive break-in. I don't mean drive it like you stole it from day one, but I believe the whole rpm range should be accessed during break in. It might not last as long, or hold oil as well, but a lot of performance guys believe an engine will have in best performance in the range that it was broken in. Which means, if you want peak performance, babying it during the whole break in isn't the best way to go. So I don't feel to bad with the occaional full throttle romp, or slightly going over the rpm limit. After 1200 though, I'm letting out the beast.


Here's a question, if break-in is so important and something that could void a warranty, and they have a specific way of doing it, why don't they just break the engines in from the factory. To me this would eliminate a lot of reliablity issues and save some warranty claims.

Also, some guys claim that bike manufacturers use break-in as a way to keep noobs slow for their first 1k miles on the bike, so they don't wrap themselves around a tree during their drive home from the dealership, etc...

[eagletangogreen]

I drove the car straight to the dyno where we broke her in (using a load base dyno "Dyno Dynamics"). We used the same break in runs we used to break my other built motors with.

[sayemthree]

[jbeene]

I had an 1100 km road trip to bring her home but I did manage about 160km of city driving before hitting the highway.

Once on the highway I varied the revs shifting up and down from 3rd through 6th trying not to go below 2000 and rarely going much over 5000. I used 1/4 to 1/2 throttle the entire time.

This was an exceedingly painful process on a 10 hour drive...

Then when I got home I did almost entirely city driving, almost never over 5500 (except maybe twice and only to about 6500 to dispatch a jitbag no merge clownface) until I got to the 2000km mark.

In this time it used about 1/4 litre of oil. Took it in for the break in service and I wonder if they even changed the oil as it reads at exactly the same level as when I took it in

I'm now at about 2500 km and have taken up to 8000 or so a few times, it's pretty hard not to. I read the secondary break in in the manual as saying that you shouldn't run it wide open for long periods until after 5000km. So I don't feel so bad about winding it out every now and then. The toughest part seems to be finding enough open raod ahead of my to let her rip

I'm planning on changing the oil again at 5000km's and then going to 10000km intervals, though at the rate I put mileage on it will probably turn into and annual oil change instead.