Tips for Break-in Period - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

SuperGoop · 05-25-2006, 01:27 PM

My 07' Camry V6 manual says the first 1,000 miles (1,600 km) should be driven gently. No hard accelaration, hard braking, etc. We should also not stay on any one gear for prolonged periods (at any speed).

I have an 100 mile cross-town trip coming up, all highways. This would mean staying on the 6th gear non-stop for about 1.7 hours.

I have already driven ~600 miles gently during this break-in. Would it be ok to go on highway trips now, or wait until I have passed the 1000 mile break-in?

What other "break-in" tips do you have?

camryfour · 05-25-2006, 02:30 PM

I have heard of 500 miles break-in on new cams and rebuilt engines. I think you should be good now. I think the 1000 miles is just a safe point that toyota puts out there, meaning normal driving after 500 miles you should be good.

02whiteLE · 05-25-2006, 02:38 PM

I bought my '02 camry, and then a week later, drove it to Miami. 1,300 miles, straight down I75, around 75mph with the cruise on. Not a problem. That stuff is purely precautionary.

94camryxle · 05-25-2006, 02:39 PM

Yeah, I've heard mixed things about break-in periods. One Toyota salesperson said 500 mile and another said 1000 miles. Go figure, I guess you can't be too safe breaking the new car in for 1000 miles.

Gary_602Z · 05-25-2006, 04:11 PM

Drive it like you stole it!

Gary

mw817 · 05-25-2006, 04:48 PM

The technicians at the shop where I bought mine said drive it like I normally drive.. Don't worry about a break in. So basically that's what I did.. I never cranked the RPM's to any excessive level.. Just drove 70 and 80 when the highway speeds required it. I haven't have any problems but just now at the 1800 mile point in my '07 XLE V-6 Auto.

I've found that on the way back from Tallahassee to Orlando last week I was getting just a little over 27.5 MPG running 80 MPH. I topped off the tank just before I hopped on I-10 heading back. So there was no city driving or creeping around to jack up the numbers.

I think at 65 MPH or so the milage would be pretty close to the sticker's advertised of 33 MPH I think it was.

I'm headed to Northern Alabama in 2 weeks so for a family gathering and I'll be putting somewhere around 1500 or so miles on it if not more. Everyone is asking why I'm drivng this time because its free for me to fly (airline employee) but I'm just going to show off... lol

DarkMastyr · 05-25-2006, 05:21 PM

Just drive it normally. Take it to redline a couple times early on just to make sure your piston rings seat properly, just in case they weren't seated well at the factory.

kenny1773 · 05-25-2006, 06:03 PM

http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

This guy is a bit extreme, but he has a point even seasoned engine builders can't argue. You HAVE to run an engine through its paces early on to get everything seated properly.

The worst thing you can do is run at the same speed at the same RPM in the same gear for longs periods during break in.

I would say once you have passed 500 miles, it doesn't matter *as much*.

You can drive on the highway and vary your speed as well as manually control what gear you are in (meaning take it out of overdrive some of the time). How much you want to do this is up to you.

Your first 500 miles are gone (and I hope you weren't too gentle) and those where the most critical to make sure you constantly put the engine through accel and decel cycles as often as possible.

GrkBallaG · 05-25-2006, 06:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DarkMastyr

Just drive it normally. Take it to redline a couple times early on just to make sure your piston rings seat properly, just in case they weren't seated well at the factory.

mw817 · 05-25-2006, 06:14 PM

Running it like you would normally makes perfect sense. Think of all the racecars and how often or not so often they blow motors! They usually start each race with fresh motors if I'm not mistaken. Not totally fresh but definately not broken in for 500 or 1000 miles!

Please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

Tarzan · 05-25-2006, 06:36 PM

Drive slow, don't speed, no hard accelerations. All until 3000. What my dealer said.

mw817 · 05-25-2006, 06:43 PM

I think that's what they all say... But I think that article at http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm makes a lot of sense...

camryfour · 05-26-2006, 08:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mw817

Running it like you would normally makes perfect sense. Think of all the racecars and how often or not so often they blow motors! They usually start each race with fresh motors if I'm not mistaken. Not totally fresh but definately not broken in for 500 or 1000 miles!

Please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

Racecars blow their engines mainly due to all the performance they have in them. Performance makes heat. Heat wears and stresses parts. Not to mention they drive them like they stole them. Look at topfuelers, they go through several clutches just in one race that takes less than 5 seconds.

Old Dood · 05-26-2006, 08:39 AM

You mean I should not have been running my 07 Camry at 80mph for the first 1000 miles? Damn it...hehehe

Seriously...I was real watchful on my speeds...making sure there were always different speeds....even on the freeway I would bounce around from 55-75mph. However, when I bought my car it did have 412 miles on it...that does make you wonder...I know it was driven up from another dealership in Ohio to Michigan. Then again I see dealership swaps on the freeway all the time. They seemed to be older drivers in them and they are not racing them around.

pjp · 05-26-2006, 11:34 AM

Now I'm very confused. My first new car and I'm not sure if I should drive it gently or as if I stole the car for the break in period. Changing the RPM sounds very locgical. My car has 400 Kms (about 180 miles) and I have never gone over 3000 RPM. What should I do?