I've always wondered about this... What purpose does varying your speed serve? I would have thought that maintaining a constant speed (just keeping a stactic load on the engine) would be easier on it?

 

What are some signs that the 600 mile break-in on an AT wasn't followed?
I got my new car with 276 miles on it. The dealership drove it 2 hours to transfer from a sister lot. Plus it was test-driven at the sister lot. Test drivers don't usually know about the break-in period. Heck, my salesman urged me to push it when I test drove their vehicle they had for sale. That's why I didn't want to buy that one.

I'm noticing (with 1100 miles) that the car seems to suddenly slow down a second when I punch the gas pedal, and then the car takes off.

 

I followed the racing beat procedure and was glad i did. it went by quickly.

I drove the car home from Columbus OH (over 500 miles) the day I bought it. Just varied RPM and speeds by shifting between 4th and 6th. Could still hit 85 while following the RB procedure!

 

My car had aprox 130 test drive miles on it when I got it as well. I know they were encouraging people to rev it up on the test drive (heck, they told me to rev it up, but I knew better) These engines are well engineered and built. I'm convinced that it will be just fine in the long term. (and if not, that's OK because I did put the 6 year 100k mile extended warranty on it! If it starts giving trouble before 100k, I'll just have to trade it!)

 

There are two schools of thought when it comes to breaking in reciprocating engines with very little room for wiggle between 'em:
Drive 'em like you stole 'em (no, not borrowed from above, but heard elsewhere)
-or-
BABY THAT THING!

I've always believed in a mix.

How does that apply to a Mazda rotary?
I don't believe that it does. The wearing parts are the apex and side seals. They bed in quickly and are wearing in parts- they aren't subject to the same forces, and bed in quickly.
Just drive the car according to the recommendations in the manual- and everything'll be fine- compression won't be any better or worse than any other way. Bearings? There weren't really any high spots to begin with (modern manufacturing techniques: having rebabbited and filed several bearings, I'm glad for modern techniques!) but it's nice for shafts to get "used" to the bearings on which they sit- but I can't imagine that to be very long.
After reading and thinking about it, though- the owner's manual recommendations for break-in follow all recommendations I've ever heard about simply driving: don't rev the engine very high for very long (fast engine wear in ALL cases!). Don't do full throttle launches (unless one likes to replace clutch disks/flywheels). Drive gingerly (better gas mileage, don't-cha know?)

On an engine like this, break-in isn't that big of a deal. Now, the Moto Guzzi's I've owned, or even the BMW R1200RT...

 

holy back from the dead batman..


beers