Running in oil

So I should go for a 150km drive up the motorway and back in my van to bed in the new discs and pads I just fitted to it, never touching the brakes?
Putting a mileage on this is ridiculous. Ten minutes on a twisty road on your new tyres is far different to 500km trundling along. If people want to spend ages "breaking in" their rebuilt engine, tyres and brakes, go for it, but plenty of people on here have had excellent results doing otherwise.
Anyone with a nouse of mechanical feel can tell when an engine doesn't want to rev, be it a stone cold motor on a winters morning or a newbuild. The same with tyres, you take it easy until you can feel that they are gripping properly. These guidelines are for those who cannot tell the difference.
The absolute best running in bullshit I ever read was an Australian journalist who noted that the test 3CL he got from new, with a very tight motor, had lower revs at 100kmh as it loosened up.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Rob
...
Ford Focus 2011: ..., new brakes 150 kms in city/1500 kms on highway
...

-Jouni
I think this is actually quite true for passenger cars.
If I have opened brakes from some passenger cars shortly after replacement of brake pads, this is coarsely the moment in when
the whole surfaces of the pads are touching the discs.
Local overheating is less like in heavy breaking when the whole surfaces of the pads are touching the discs.

Personally, I take this referential. It is not stupid to know even thought I can tell the difference.

-Jouni
 
Last edited:
Just out of curiosity I looked up some recentish owner's manuals today; Porsche, BMW, Ducati, Honda, Suzuki. All pretty shady companies of course. And guess what.... they do advise to 'use it, but not abuse it' for the first couple of hundred to thousand kms. Engine, brakes, tires even. And yes that's with average driving/riding conditions, neither track nor trundling down the highway, explicitly mentioned even.

Somehow the guys dreaming up all the stuff that makes it into those booklets that nobody needs must be getting it wrong all the time. Makes sense. Why get an engineers' degree and work your way into a design department? Anybody with a nouse of feel will know better, won't they?

This conversation seems to be turning into a pissing competition of opinions rather than facts. I'm out.
Tom
 
Last edited:
Back
Top