Hey there, this is probably a question that has been answered in many a forum, but I am wondering if anyone can tell me what the suggested break in period is...
Already planning a trip for when my baby comes in!!

 

Mine was 28 feet. That was five years ago and I'm still 100% problem free.

 

I think the manual says 2000kms. That's only to establish a wear pattern in the engine. My dealer said if you really must, you can go over 4500rpm.

I noted that after the break-in period on my car (back in 2005), my gas mileage increased noticeably as well as my propensity to spin my tires or trigger the traction control to intervene.

A co-worker bought a MINI and promptly went on vacation with it, drove to California and back. So you shouldn't have a problem. Just maybe avoid track days for a month or so first.

So when does the baby come?

 

Sadly, and more than likely not until early september...Gotta tell ya, it is unfortunate that my MA is not very email friendly, he is more of a phone call kinda guy..And it is a pain in the A$$ to get ahold of him on the phone. Gonna drop in tomorrow and see if they have a production week yet...
I am sooo hoping that I get it sooner, LOL
In the meantime I am waving at mini owners from my current car, and I am sure they think I am some kind of nut As I am in a 2003 Chev cavalier, I feel like yelling out, MY BABY IS ON ORDER, I AM ONE OF YOU!!!!!!!
LOL

 

Yup...the hardest part is the wait.

I wished MINI Canada had something like the build tracker at MINI USA. Then you could find the status of your car without hounding the MA. Having said that, if the MA was really good, he would be filling you in with updates as they happen instead of you calling him all the time. Your deposit must have been pretty big (just joking). At least that's what the MA here in Vancouver did for me.

When I ordered my car, my MA informed me that the estimated arrival time is usually about two months from the next 15th of the month. So if you ordered after, say the 15th of June, the ETA of your car would be two months from the 15th of July.

One thing I haven't seen mentioned on the forums yet was the routine one must remember when driving a turbocharged car as opposed to a supercharged car (if you ordered a Cooper S). Turbo chargers need time to warm up the bearing oil as well as cool down. So if have done some hot driving, you should run your car very lightly or idle for about 30 seconds before shutting off your car. Also when starting up your car, you should run lightly for a bit before really stomping it (might be a problem if you're in a major hurry).

...also, if you waved at me in a Cavalier, I probably wouldn't wave back

But, I would wave at you whether or not you waved back if you were in your MINI

Wish you luck on your car arriving sooner.

 

Modern cars with cast pistons that has a high silica content break in very quickly. Much of the fuss over break in is silly urban myth. A modern engine is broken in pretty well at 200-300 miles. You need at least 1000 miles for forged pistons. Proper service is of much more concern to the life of the engine than breakin in most cars. Unless you have forged pistons, just drive normal. On a side note, if you buy a car off the lot with 100 miles on it, most of those have been hard miles. Sales guys beating on them, demo miles, etc. If it has a few miles on it when you buy it, don't even bother worrying about break in, there is no point.

 

take a listen here.

http://www.whiteroofradio.com/woofcast-37/

it explains everything.

I didn't open it up till after 5,000km's.

I also didn't go past 100-120 till after 2500km's and even then I was careful. It was hard but it'll pay off I'm sure.

 

What exactly did that explain. Talk to any knowledgeable automobile engineer and they will tell you a modern engine is broken in within a few hundred miles unless it has forged pistons.

 

http://216.219.217.96/break_in_secrets.htm There is even some good evidence that a hard break in is better. I did the hard breakin followed by an oil change and had no oil useage in my old STi which were known for oil consumption.

 

Interesting article. However, I would differ in opinion that a motorcycle engine and car engines should be broken in the same way. Motorcycle engines do not necessarily need to make the torque a car engine needs. Our MINI engines rev to 7200 rpm (then the rev limiter kicks in). The red line is at 6500 rpm. A motorcycle engine is made to rev over what? 12,000+ rpm? and hauls about 600lbs.

MINI recommends that you drive your car in varying conditions and probably you can drive it hard also, but to keep it below the 4200 rpm range. Your engine will run fine above 4200, but in general you should keep it below 4200 for the first 2K kms. Just a reminder that 4200rpm is about the red line of 70's vintage pushrod engines. So most (older) North American drivers generally drive below 4200 rpm anyways.

A Honda Civic Si engine has a redline of 8000 rpm. My co-worker decided to look for his rev limiter...

Since the MINI begs to be flogged...good luck on your break in period...

 

+1

It can be found in the owners Manual

 

Believe what you would like. By 100-200 miles a modern engine is broken in and many in the Subaru community have changed there tune after their STI's were eating 1qt a week of oil. The hard break in works. I did it on the STI and had no oil consumption, which is typically a problem on FI motors.

What bothers me is not really that you don't agree, it's the Lemming "read the owners manual" non gearhead way 90% of Mini owners seen to act. Probably the least informed group of car enthusiasts I've come across. Now lets get another thread going about fuel mileage or how to apply roof decals.

I'm sorry, those are already in the manual. Nevermind. Engines haven't changed in 50 years and we should all follow the same procedure that our Grandfathers did.

BTW, read the article again. It isn't about load or RPM's, but cylinder pressure. The same principles apply.

 

Here is another opinion on breakin that is similar to Motorman's but disagrees on a few points

http://forums.mbworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=89848

 

Another opinion.

The first few hundred miles of a new engine's life have a major impact on how strongly that engine will perform, how much oil it will consume and how long it will last. The main purpose of break-in is to seat the compression rings to the cylinder walls. We are talking about the physical mating of the engine's piston rings to it's corresponding cylinder wall. That is, we want to physically wear the new piston rings into the cylinder wall until a compatible seal between the two is achieved.

Proper engine break in will produce an engine that achieves maximum power output with the least amount of oil consumption due to the fact that the piston rings have seated properly to the cylinder wall. When the piston rings are broken in or seated, they do not allow combustion gases to escape the combustion chamber past the piston rings into the crankcase section of the engine. This lack of "blow-by" keeps your engine running cleaner and cooler by preventing hot combustion gases and by-products from entering the crankcase section of the engine. Excessive "blow-by" will cause the crankcase section of the engine to become pressurized and contaminated with combustion gases, which in turn will force normal oil vapors out of the engine's breather, causing the engine to consume excessive amounts of oil.

In addition to sealing combustion gases in the combustion chamber, piston rings must also manage the amount of oil present on the cylinder walls for lubrication. If the rings do not seat properly, they cannot perform this function and will allow excessive amounts of oil to accumulate on the cylinder wall surfaces. This oil is burned each and every time the cylinder fires. The burning of this oil, coupled with "blow-by" induced engine breathing, are reasons that an engine that hasn't been broken in will consume more than its share of oil.

When a cylinder is new or overhauled the surface of it's walls are honed with abrasive stones to produce a rough surface that will help wear the piston rings in. This roughing up of the surface is known as "cross-hatching". A cylinder wall that has been properly "cross hatched" has a series of minute peaks and valleys cut into its surface. The face or portion of the piston ring that interfaces with the cross hatched cylinder wall is tapered to allow only a small portion of the ring to contact the honed cylinder wall. When the engine is operated, the tapered portion of the face of the piston ring rubs against the coarse surface of the cylinder wall causing wear on both objects.

Each tiny groove acts as the oil reservoir holding oil up to the top level of the groove where it then spreads over the peak surface. The piston ring must travel up and down over this grooved surface, and must "hydroplane" on the oil film retained by the grooves. Otherwise, the ring would make metal-to-metal contact with the cylinder wall and the cylinder would quickly wear out.

However the ring will only ride on this film of oil if there is sufficient surface area to support the ring on the oil. When the cylinders are freshly honed the peaks are sharp with little surface area. Our goal when seating the rings on new steel cylinders is to flatten out these peaks to give more surface area to support the rings, while leaving the bottom of the groove intact to hold enough oil to keep the surface of the cylinder wet with oil. See illustration. At the point where the top of the peaks produced by the honing operation become smooth and the tapered portion of the piston ring wears flat break in has occurred.

When the engine is operating, a force known as Break Mean Effective Pressure or B.M.E.P is generated within the combustion chamber. B.M.E.P. is the resultant force produced from the controlled burning of the fuel air mixture that the engine runs on. The higher the power setting the engine is running at, the higher the B.M.E.P. is and conversely as the power setting is lowered the B.M.E.P. becomes less.

B.M.E.P is an important part of the break in process. When the engine is running, B.M.E.P. is present in the cylinder behind the piston rings and it's force pushes the piston ring outward against the coarse honed cylinder wall. Piston rings are designed to take advantage of the pressure and us it to push the rings out against the cylinder wall. Therefore, as pressure builds during the compression stroke, the rings are pushed harder against the cylinder wall which aids in seating the rings.

The higher the B.M.E.P, the harder the piston ring is pushed against the wall. The surface temperature at the piston ring face and cylinder wall interface will be greater with high B.M.E.P. than with low B.M.E.P. This is because we are pushing the ring harder against the rough cylinder wall surface causing high amounts of friction and thus heat. The primary deterrent of break in is this heat. Allowing to much heat to build up at the ring to cylinder wall interface will cause the lubricating oil that is present to break down and glaze the cylinder wall surface. This glaze will prevent any further seating of the piston rings. If glazing is allowed to happen break in will never occur. Also, if too little pressure (throttle) is used during the break-in period glazing will also occur.

Most people seem to operate on the philosophy that they can best get their money's worth from any mechanical device by treating it with great care. This is probably true, but in many cases it is necessary to interpret what great care really means. This is particularly applicable when considering the break-in of a modern, reciprocating engine.

For those who still think that running the engine hard during break-in falls into the category of cruel and unusual punishment, there is one more argument for using high power loading for short periods (to avoid excessive heat) during the break-in. The use of low power settings does not expand the piston rings enough, and a film of oil is left on the cylinder walls. The high temperatures in the combustion chamber will oxidize this oil film so that it creates glazing of the cylinder walls. When this happens, the ring break-in process stops, and excessive oil consumption frequently occurs. The bad news is that extensive glazing can only be corrected by removing the cylinders and rehoning the walls. This is expensive, and it is an expense that can be avoided by proper break in procedures.

We must achieve a happy medium where we are pushing on the ring hard enough to wear it in but not hard enough to generate enough heat to cause glazing. Once again, if glazing should occur, the only remedy is to remove the effected cylinder, re-hone it and replace the piston rings and start the whole process over again.

We asked four top motorcycle engine builders what they do to ensure peak power output and optimum engine life. Here is a capsulation of their responses.

"If the wrong type of oil is used initially, or the break-in is too easy, rings and cylinders could (read will) glaze and never seal properly. A fresh cylinder wall needs some medium to high engine loading to get the piston rings to seat properly for good compression but make sure you don't lug or overheat the engine. Use high quality, low viscosity oil (Valvoline 30 weight), no synthetics, too slippery. If synthetics are used during initial break in the rings are sure to glaze over.

An engine's initial run should be used to bring oil and coolant (air, oil, and/or water) up to operating temperature only, with little or no load, then shut down and allowed to cool to ambient temperature. This is important. After each run the engine needs to completely cool down to ambient temperature. In Texas, especially in the summer, that's still pretty hot. After a cool down period, start it up again and take the motorcycle for it's fist ride (you hope).

This time give the engine light loads at relatively low rpm and stay out of top gear. Lugging the engine, i.e., low RPM with a lot of throttle (manifold pressure), is more detrimental than high rpm. Another key is too constantly vary engine load during the entire break-in period. A constant load is not ideal for breaking in bearing tolerances. This second run should last only 10-15 minutes before another complete cool down.

The third run should see slightly higher rpm with light to medium power loading using short bursts of acceleration to help seat the rings. Again 10-15 minutes of running should do it and again avoid top gear. A forth run should consist of light to medium engine loads with a few more bursts of medium-high rpm, and lasting just 10-15 minutes varying the engine load and again avoiding top gear. Next while the engine is still warm drain the oil and change the filter. This gets out the new metal particles that are being worn away. Most of the metal particles will break away within the first 50 -75 miles. To ensure the rings seat well, use the same high quality oil and don't be shy about short duration high rpm blasts through the lower gears after the oil has been changed.

A few more 15-20 minute sessions should be used to work up to the engine's redline gradually increasing the engine loads. After some definite hard running and 250-500 miles it's a good idea to check the valves. After 500 miles re-torqueing the head is suggested. Switch to synthetic oil but not before 500-1500 miles. Most of the engine experts warned of the danger of breaking in the engine too easily and ending up with an engine that will always run slow whether it is from tight tolerances, inadequate ring seal or carbon buildup. Engine load is more detrimental than rpm because of the head created internally, so avoid lugging the engine but rev it freely especially in the lower gears. Basically, be sure not to get it too hot but be sure to seat the rings properly.

 

I droved mine in the highway at speeds between 80-95 KPH in 4th and 5th gear and probably covered 150 km without using the A/C. Take it easy and avoid sudden & hard acceleration and keep the revs below 4,500 RPM for the next 2000 Kms. Avoid sudden braking and hard stops and let the pads and rotor gel together for the next 300 Kms. Avoid steep hills and holding car to stop by using clutch and accelerator pedal if you can. Warm the engine for about 1 to 1 1/2 minutes on cold weather before going.

 

I'm a little fuzzy on the logic of not braking hard. How would that adversely affect engine load?

One thing we can all agree on is to warm the car up properly.

 

When I buy my Mini, I'll do a hard breakin and give you guys compression readings and leak test results and see if I can find any local Mini owners that did the factory breakin and compare compression to see if there is a difference at certain mileages.

 

I plan a hard break in also, with a change to Conventional motor oil right out the lot.

For brakes this is how i do my HawkHp+ on other cars.
Burnishing Instructions

1. After installing new brake pads, make 6 to 10 stops from approximately 30-35 mph applying moderate pressure.
2. Make an additional 2 to 3 hard stops from approximately 40 to 45 mph.
3. DO NOT DRAG BRAKES!
4. Allow 15 minutes for brake system to cool down.
5. After step 4 your new pads are ready for use.

 

Guess you don't want a warranty, since both of your plans will void it.

 

Mabey, but they also replaced alot of E46 M3 Motors and extended parts of the motor for life....due to alot of motor failures.

I have built a few motors in my life and all do not burn oil, but my buddies ITR that was broken in on sythetic burn way more then it should at 30000KM after rebuild.

 

Well, that's great logic. AN engine blew. The owner of the engine happened to use synthetic oil. Ergo, engines using synthetic oil blow up????? Hmmm. Guess the hundreds of thousands of engines running on synthetic oil didn't blow up due to pure luck.

 

no my point was they don't know what is best, and i never said the M3's us sythetic on brake in or that it caused them to blow up. I have seen problems with sythetic brake in on car that are pushed hard It does not mean you can
't or shouldn't do it but there are lots of people that feel that is bad. I am sure if the end user drives the car nice and easy it will last a long time. But if you like to keep the revs up on the weekend and drive it hard then mabey it is not the best things or they don't account for that small percentage of people that push the car.\

EDIT: I ran sythetic in my race motors and it never had issues. but i broke it in differnt then OEM spec.

 

It will void the warranty, that made me laugh. This place is priceless.

 

You have no idea what you are talking about. It is a fact that synthetic oil inhibits and slows break in. We are talking about long term effects, no the engine blowing up after 10,000 miles. It's funny how the people with experience building race motors and campaigning race cars are getting comments like yours. From what are you drawing your data and experience? Or are you just talking? If you have something to add to the conversation, please do. Otherwise you are just trolling. He gave you specific experience with motors he has built or worked on, I did the same a few posts up. So please give us your experience, not useless banter.