What's your engine Breaking-In Period plan?

[tomahawk72]

I plan on taking it easy for the first 1,000 miles then drive it like I normally do (we drive fast in Maine). I plan on getting an oil change at 5k miles to give the engine enough time to break in.

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[Kenny]

Currently I have about 600 mile on my 2.0. Sometime after 1000 miles, I plan to replace the oil with Mobil 1 full synthetic, advanced or extended performance 5W-30 oil. That's all I run in everything any more, even motorcycles. From then on I'll follow the regular 1 year or 10,000 miles.

 

[Evil2ltr]

2k for first service. No need to baby these things for the first 1k.

 

[kw86er]

I’ve been in the automotive racing industry building race engines and manufacturing Tier 1 components for over 30yrs. With today’s plasma coated piston rings and very smooth surface finishes on the cylinder bores, piston sealing is almost instant with the engine on a dyno under a light load. Oil is changed after this short break in period and recorded pulls and tuning are done. Your daily driver was engineered for the average know nothing schmuck to abuse all maintenance rules. Drive like you normally would and change the oil at the recommended interval.

To add to this: break-in period recommendations are written by the legal team, not the engineers. New cars do not need to be broken in. You need time to learn how to drive your new car "so take it easy" which is opposite to what an old school engine builder would tell you to "drive it like you stole it". But as coloradoshooter sais technology has come so far with machining specs... There is no need.

 

[Sylvester]

I will have my hybrid hopefully in the next 2-3 weeks and was wondering how the hybrid breaking in is different than regular gas cars. With my cars in the past, I would take a long trip and that would take care of it. With hybrid I am not sure if long freeway trips are so great for the hybrid batteries. Also what are your thougths of the oil change after 1000 miles? I hear many pros and cons and am not sure how necessary it is.

 

[EMD_Driver]

I would love to get @FORD BOSS ME 's take on this issue. He deals with these things on a regular basis and has real world data and experience.

 

[AndrewSKY117]

I was thinking 2,500-3,000 miles then an oil change, but now I'm kind of questioning that. I do feel like new vehicles should be okay for longer, but then that begs the question, if I were to put in 5w30 Mobil 1 Full-Synthetic around 3k or something, what about oil additives like those break-in bottles? Would that still be helpful or a waste?

I'd think it would be especially helpful for those that did it at 1K, but I feel like that is just so soon and if that oil has the break-in additives (assuming they do that?) wouldn't it be best to keep that in there a bit longer?

 

[Sliphorn]

I was thinking 2,500-3,000 miles then an oil change, but now I'm kind of questioning that. I do feel like new vehicles should be okay for longer, but then that begs the question, if I were to put in 5w30 Mobil 1 Full-Synthetic around 3k or something, what about oil additives like those break-in bottles? Would that still be helpful or a waste?

I'd think it would be especially helpful for those that did it at 1K, but I feel like that is just so soon and if that oil has the break-in additives (assuming they do that?) wouldn't it be best to keep that in there a bit longer?

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I can't say for sure, but I doubt Ford or any other manufacturer fills the motors with some sort of special break-in oil. Break-in happens with your right foot behavior.
Doing your first oil change at 1000 miles will not hurt anything. The most important thing is to use an oil that meets factory specification. Also, additives of any kind are a waste of money. You mention Mobil 1 which is a quality oil, so no additives are required.

I recently purchased a new Toyota RAV4 hybrid and did my first oil change at 1500 miles. I used a well known quality full synthetic that met factory spec, and over a 1000 miles later there has been no noticeable oil consumption as observed on the dipstick.
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[MLowe05]

These sort of massive-over-thinking-it threads are on every forum.

Drive it. You're not going to hurt the engine (and certainly not the hybrid battery) by just driving it. And you don't need oil changes at 3,000 miles - and for sure not 1,000 miles - this is such antiquated, irrelevant stuff today. The processes and technology and tolerances in manufacturing are so different than back when this sort of information was relevant.

 

[Sliphorn]

I will have my hybrid hopefully in the next 2-3 weeks and was wondering how the hybrid breaking in is different than regular gas cars. With my cars in the past, I would take a long trip and that would take care of it. With hybrid I am not sure if long freeway trips are so great for the hybrid batteries. Also what are your thougths of the oil change after 1000 miles? I hear many pros and cons and am not sure how necessary it is.

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Long road trips will not hurt hybrid batteries in any way. No way no how! Drive it and be happy. You will be amazed at the hybrid system. The system is responsive, powerful and seamless. Most people that drive hybrids will never go back to an ICE car because the hybrids are so good.
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[doug2104]

I will have my hybrid hopefully in the next 2-3 weeks and was wondering how the hybrid breaking in is different than regular gas cars. With my cars in the past, I would take a long trip and that would take care of it. With hybrid I am not sure if long freeway trips are so great for the hybrid batteries. Also what are your thougths of the oil change after 1000 miles? I hear many pros and cons and am not sure how necessary it is.

Sylvester my question to you is if you choose the 1000 miles oil change how many miles is actually gasoline engine miles and how many is electric miles out of the 1000miles? I am also waiting on my hybrid to be delivered in the next four or five weeks. I think I will change my oil at the 1250 miles mark.

 

[AndrewSKY117]

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I can't say for sure, but I doubt Ford or any other manufacturer fills the motors with some sort of special break-in oil. Break-in happens with your right foot behavior.
Doing your first oil change at 1000 miles will not hurt anything. The most important thing is to use an oil that meets factory specification. Also, additives of any kind are a waste of money. You mention Mobil 1 which is a quality oil, so no additives are required.

I recently purchased a new Toyota RAV4 hybrid and did my first oil change at 1500 miles. I used a well known quality full synthetic that met factory spec, and over a 1000 miles later there has been no noticeable oil consumption as observed on the dipstick.
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Thank you for your insight! I guess once it gets here I'll go with the flow and change it relatively soon just for the first one after some time depending on how much I drive. I probably put about 700 miles on my current vehicle a month so maybe two or three months I will go.

 

[olderbudwiser]

Like every single vehicle I have ever owned I drive like I stole it on the way home. The brake in thing is WAY over rated. First oil change 2000-4000 miles.

Most of my cars had a crease from the throttle pedal in the carpet.

 

[FORD BOSS ME]

Follow the manual, what else? I will take it easy the first 1000 miles as they suggest, but I will change the oil around then. Can't hurt, might help. After that the goal is do what the manual says, error on the side of safety.

The newer oils are really good. Unless you beat on it you should be fine.

This is the correct way

1000 miles I'm

Best practice I've seen

 

[FORD BOSS ME]

drove normal ,i live in a rural area so no high speeds involved , i changed oil yesterday with about 1500 miles on it , i will have lots of short trips so the plan is 4 to 5 k miles running good full sythetic for the next 200 plus k miles

Short trips

3k - 4k

Max 5k but don't recommend it

These motors are dirty remember, good motors but dirty

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