Mobile

After doing a forum search, I could not find any concise, easy to reference thread on proper break in technique. The racingbeat method I have seen referenced is just a very conservative guideline for those who are unsure of how to interpret Mazda's official recommendations. Racingbeat says so themselves: "The Mazda guidelines are reasonable and prudent. If you have any questions or uncertainly regarding the break-in period, we suggest you follow these official recommendations."

Here are Mazda's official recommendations, along with my expanded verbiage. If anyone has anything to add, this would be a good place to suggest it. The break in period is 600 miles or 1000 km.

Don’t race the engine. Avoid any sudden acceleration. Don't be afraid to rev the engine, but do so in a smooth, controlled manner.

Don’t maintain one constant speed for long. You want to be loading the engine, don't get up to speed and cruise along at a constant rate. You want to be moving up and down the rpm band. This band slowly increases in breadth as you put miles on your engine; working your way up to 600 miles and 9500rpm.

Don’t drive constantly at full-throttle or high engine RPM for extended periods of time. Quite simply, don't stress your motor. Your car should feel like it's having an easy time with whatever it's doing. Don't bog the engine by leaving it in too high a gear and no aggressive acceleration. The range of acceptable workload for the engine increases as the break-in period progresses. Your object is to slowly work the engine in. You don't want to baby it for 600 miles, then shock the hell out of it when you hammer it because your break in millage is over. This is a rotary engine, you are not doing it any favors by putting around at 2500rpm. You want to ease the car through the break in, but not baby it.

Avoid unnecessary hard stops. This is more for the break-in of your brakes. Yes, your brakes need to be eased into themselves as well. Your brakes need time for the pads to properly mate to the rotor, so be gentle with them whenever possible.

Avoid full-throttle starts. Again, this all comes down to not stressing the engine.

swoope

iTrader: (5)

wow,

you have combined the owners manual and a year old thread and the rb website...

pick one?

the link to the thread in a ? about break in would have more use..

beers

NgoRX8

iTrader: (1)

i think an admin should just sticky racing beat's webpage on break-in procedure and it would be totally understood already...

i.e. more words=less readers

ken-x8

IMHO, 600 miles is kind of short for a break in. I kept mine under 4000 rpm for the first 600, then gradiaually raised the rpm limit until I hit 2000 miles. Just what I've done with every new car I've bought.

Never understood that for a rotary. My understanding is that varying speed for a piston engine ensures that there will be lots of time when the engine is "breathing", which draws oil up past the rings. But a rotary's seals aren't lubed that way.

I followed that anyway, but can someone explain what it does for a rotary?

Ken

Gotian

After 1k miles I drove the car how I plan to drive it for the rest of it's (or mine) life. Which is having fun and the car is very solid. Going on 16k miles now.

Bad_Bob

I used the Brick + gas pedal method...

Mobile

The whole point to this thread was consolidation - not to "pick one". I was surprised this forum doesn't have a proper how-to thread for engine break-in. If we had an easily searched thread to answer questions on break-in, we wouldn't be seeing so many new questions on the subject. RacingBeat's break-in is ridiculous - they are giving you a break-in period that is almost 4X longer then Mazda's recommended specs for no good reason. Plus their instructions still don't give you a good sense of how to break-in a car. I don't understand why it's referenced so much in this forum.

94 engineer

From the 07 manual during break in period( first 600 miles). "Don't drive constantly at full throttle or high engine rpm (over 7000 rpm) for extended periods of time". That's right Baby 7,000 RPM not 4,000 like what alot of people says. At the end its your car do whats most comfortable for ya.

truemagellen

Crowbar?

Wilson

I thought it was going to be a class on how to use a Bump Key or that tennis ball trick.

machfive

This was my break in procedure and was based on nothing but former car break in experimentations. (No car but my 8 ever revved THIS high though)

0 - 400 miles : Up to 4500 rpm's
401 - 600 miles : Up to 6000 rpm's
601 - 800 miles : Up to 7000 rpm's
801 - 999 miles : Up to 8000 rpm's
1000+ miles : 9000 + rpm's

With every car I've previously bought new, I've gradually increased the Rpm's closer to the redline as I approached 1000 miles. By the time I get to 1000 miles, all motor parts should have been seated properly. I then changed the oil at 1000 miles to get rid of any tiny metal shavings that may have been produced by the parts seating in. I also avoided any real yhard stops to seat the brakes in and any hard starts to make sure the driveline was broken in too.

Like I said, there is no proof that this is right or wrong. Just my way of doing things carefully and progressively.

c41250n

iTrader: (5)

drive it like you stole it

ranmcc

I followed the Racing Beat method.... then after 1000-1200 miles... I drove that puppy like I stole it...

can I get an amen?

Trekk

The break in on most motors (if not all) on new cars is about 2k miles of normal driving. I was doing 70mph on the way to work and back the day after I got my Rx8, I just did it w/o putting the rev's much past 4k area.

It's really only if you rebuild a motor that hasnt run, that you'll need to baby it.
Change the oil like crazy and slowly build up the revs.

ken-x8

Don't forget that more than the engine needs to break in. Mobile's synopsis includes the brakes. All the running gear needs to break in. Even the tires - don't do anything bizarre with new tires until they have some miles on them.

On my 8, even the shift linkage needed to break in. It took a couple of thousand miles before it became buttery smooth.

Ken