breakerboy

So, I have about 500 miles on my car taking it pretty easy not going over 4krpm, although a couple of times it went to 5.. I heard somewhere that after 1200 miles or break-in your car gets more power.. Not sure how exactly(if its pre-programed into your ecu or something..) But is there any truth to this?
-Thanx

Phi-1002-

Every car loosens up a bit as it racks up more revolutions of the drivetrain. Kinda like you can get arthritis as you get older but thankfully it doesn't make the car suffewr pain but rather increases fuel economy and performance. Eventually it'll wear out and may start to burn oil but, if properly serviced, that shouldn't plague a VQ for well over 200,000 miles.

You may have noticed if you paid close attention to the computer that the car got horrible fuel mileage in the first 100 miles. Mine hung at around 15-16 mpg on the readout. Now I'm averaging 21-21.5 with quite spirited acceleration. It's the same type of "break-in" as that. If you look at some of the car mags long term test wrapups, the cars will generally be slightly faster @ the end of the 30000 miles or whatever distance they drive them.

So get out there and break that sucker in! You'll be glad you did in the long run.

jelledge

I would say yes, after breakin the engine felt significantly more powerful then say at 600miles.

I was really surprised as I have owned several new cars and never experienced this before. However I know the VQ engine has very tight tolerances and does tend to loosen up a bit.

So finish the breakin and then let her rip....

JonsilvZ

I have about 3400 miles and my Z definitely got quicker. I know its not completely broken in yet. Soon my 2nd oil change is coming up. I'm going for synthetic oil, better gas mileage, less wear,and might slightly increase performance.

Intrepid

Don't you think your Z completely broken in by now?

mcduck

I can echo what others have said here. After the 1200 mile break-in the biggest power rush I had was experiencing the full range of RPMs.

Now, with over 5000 miles on my Z, I can say that it feels quicker than it did when I first opened it up. I have dynos from around 4000 miles. I hope to dyno again before doing any performance mods (around 8000 miles) to see if there is a difference

JonsilvZ

Dont get me wrong. I put my car to its full potential. Ive read that the experts say the engine gets fully broken in until like 10,000 miles.

Alang

iTrader: (1)

I have heard claims from some pretty knowledgable sources that the ECM changes some of its parameters after 1200 and again after 5000 miles that increases performance. I have no details or confirmation from official sources. Just passing info along.

jelledge

Alang, that would pretty interesting if it was true. I know that after 1200 miles the car really did get faster. I just passed 5k miles and can't say that I can noticed a difference.

If that is true then alot of the car magazines reported times would be slow compared to after the car is broken in.

Intrepid

I would be surprised if this was true. I haven't read the entire service manual, but I've seen no mention of this yet.

Shogun

My first 850 miles were limited to city driving. Departed Denver for Florida with a digital kitchen timer set at three minutes and shifted to a different gear to change rpms. At 1150 miles, pulled off in Kansas for dinner and the car had much, much more power taking off from the stop sign at the end of the ramp.

Yeah, fifty miles to go but the small rib-eye is 22oz.

Joe

Soma

I was told by my dealer that the ECU runs the car rich for the first 2000 km , then leans the mixture. This results in more power!

mcduck

I wouldn't be surprised if this was or wasn't true.

If it is, I would not be shocked that it is not in the service manual though. The manufacturer may have the ECU programmed specific ways to increase the longevity of the motor. If so, these are probably not things that can be reset or changed or need maintenance. So why would they be in a service manual?

Again, I'll dyno my car again when I get closer to 8000miles. My first numbers (taken around 4000miles) were much lower than I anticipated when looking at the averages that others have experienced.

Boomer

2000 km equals 1200 miles, if its true its the most bizzare breakin procedure I've ever heard of or even considered to be fact. Can an ECU be programmed to perform such an action? Sounds like snake oil to me. Every engine "loosens up" with more miles on it and doesn't need a electronic trigger to monitor and change feul mapping at a certain mileage.

Mythological salesmanese.