Just some quick yes or no's will do

[droogie]

I am picking up my wrb 04 on fri. Was planning to drive to NJ, which is like 370 miles away. Is this a bad idea to do with a new car? I did do a search on engine break in, and they talk about varying rpm's and speed. It is all highway miles, this will be hard to do. What do you guys think?
Mike

[is2scooby]

No probs. Just don't set the cruise control. Ebb and flow, ebb and flow.

[KanosWRX]

I drove 250 miles after picking up my car, I tried to go from 4th to 5th gear about every 15 min and tried to vary the speed 5-10 mph as well every couple minutes. Got close to 12k miles now without any engine problems, besides some weird fluttering noise when the car is cold and its less then 50 degrees out. Engine sounds great in the summer though, I am loving it.

[verbal]

Somebody asked this a while ago and somebody replied and said that part of the break in process is the cooling down and warming up. If you're doing long drives while breaking in, stop once and a while and let the car cool a bit. Maybe once and hour for about 15 minutes or more. They say the best would be to let it fully cool, but these cars take a long time to cool off, depending on weather.

[dark_rex]

Originally posted by KanosWRX
I drove 250 miles after picking up my car, I tried to go from 4th to 5th gear about every 15 min and tried to vary the speed 5-10 mph as well every couple minutes. Got close to 12k miles now without any engine problems, besides some weird fluttering noise when the car is cold and its less then 50 degrees out. Engine sounds great in the summer though, I am loving it.

i have that flutter too when it's really cold out.

Originally posted by verbal
Somebody asked this a while ago and somebody replied and said that part of the break in process is the cooling down and warming up. If you're doing long drives while breaking in, stop once and a while and let the car cool a bit. Maybe once and hour for about 15 minutes or more. They say the best would be to let it fully cool, but these cars take a long time to cool off, depending on weather.

the main purpose of the break in is to break in the rings. while the fact is, the rings are sealed from the factory, the variation in engine rpms helps mate the rings to their new home and seat them there for hundreds of thousands of miles to come. but it is really the temperature change that does the majority of this work.

it takes a car 8 hours or so to cool all the way down, so unless you're willing to stay over somewhere, i don't think stopping is going to do you much good for varying temperature, especially that deep in the block.

will a 250 mile trip ruin the longevity of the car? probably not. is it ideal? probably not. but it's certainly not anything to worry about. go get your new baby.



dR

[whitefish]

after about 1000 mi I drove mine to Wyoming and back. No problems at all. personally I think the break in period in a carry over from the 50's when engine specs weren't an close. now the dealers use it to get you to baby it for at least 2000 mi to waste that much of your warranty.

[RexMobbin']

nice avatar droogie, reminds me of MisterX, whatever happened to him??

[swipe112]

Go for it! =)

I drove from LA to San Francisco (roughly 375 miles) with just 700 miles on my odemeter. No problems so far. =P