I broke the rules and I'm here to fess up! Yesterday on my way home from work I got caught behind two drivers doing about 5 mph under the speed limit. In Jersey, that means about 50mph when the average traffic speed is about 70. I know I know I shouldn't have been frustrated and blah blah blah, but I love my little rocket car and when one of the cars edged up on the other to give me enough space, I gave the pedal a little tap and fit myself through. Only, by a little tap, I mean a big one.

VROOM goes the tachometer and I saw myself at ~6750rpm and immediately let off and yelled at myself for being impatient but now I'm afraid I've hurt my baby. I'm 361 miles into my break-in, so let me have it, how much of an idiot am I?

 

You are okay until a light comes on that says Game Over.

Dean.

 

Oh, well then I'm relieved! I'll just Press A to Continue...

 

Not much... THere are several schools of thought on break in.... One of them is to drive it like you stole it. So, I think that you will be fine....

 

Yep, I've seen people on here, several who would be thought of as knowledgeable car guys or 'gearheads', say that the break in thing is bologni and you should drive it how you want straight out of the box. Personally I think i'll take it easy but won't lose any sleep if I stray slightly farther up the tach than recommended from time to time.

 

Just don't let someone like gokartride hear you - he heavily advocates courtesy driving as the safest means of driving & protecting your baby, break-in period or no! The car will be fine...you, on the other hand...nah...You'll be OK.

I'd guess you were an Irish Catholic* with all that guilt you're toting!

(*Political correctness NOTE: Just kidding! That's not a religious/ethnic slur! I'M Irish Catholic!)

 

as long as u learn yr mistake and not do it again ,.,thta fine...

 

Pretty far from it ...but none the less the guilt comes from owning a $30,000 MINI which I don't want to break

 

What did you call me?!?

Just kidding... I'm Irish Catholic and I like to toss out the jokes against them... we're allowed right?

An Irish Catholic walks into a bar............ What? Thats the joke.

 

I'm also an advocate of safe, reasonable driving. Although I do have the tendency to drive with a heavy foot when I feel it is safe, for the most part I am a fairly conservative driver in everyday driving. It's just not worth the risk of doing anything else.

But back to the question at hand, your MINI is just fine. There were a couple of times before my Clubman was broken in when I had to floor it to get out of the way of swerving trucks and such, and it was no big deal. I think the idea is to not keep it above 4500 RPM consistently, but a few quick spurts are probably just fine.

After all, theres a large number of people that don't even believe in break-in periods, and their cars are just fine. I wouldn't worry about it!

 

I've never been able to compeletely keep to the rev limits during break in. Doing it once or twice isn't going to hurt.

 

Isn't the redline in the low 6000 on the R56? And you have an auto? wonder why the auto let you go that high.

 

As long as none of the engine lights blipped on and started cursing at you in British or German, your baby's fine, tho a bit rev'ed up. You'll be fine too.

Always an adventure, the Jersey highways, no?

The only break-in advice I got from my MA was to promise him not to hit 100 mph until I cracked 1,000 miles. I have an automatic so perhaps he figured that was a fail safe to prevent me from downshifting to second from sixth, or some such ...

CROC 411

 

Just had to say LOL at "game over!!"

 

Yes, Yes, and I don't know.

There are idiots everywhere, not just Jersey. What makes Jersey so much fun is that idiots also built the roads and highways, making seemingly arbitrary decisions on how they should interconnect with bottlenecks, inane split highways and roads with flip-a-coin left and right exits!

Ya...I broke the 100mph rule too.

 

well, you are instructed to vary your speeds.

 

6500.

 

Lol...your car is fine.

I had it up to the redline at 50 mi, multiple times...gotta love the hard break-in school of thought...

 

What makes Jersey so much fun is that idiots also built the roads and highways, making seemingly arbitrary decisions on how they should interconnect with bottlenecks, inane split highways and roads with flip-a-coin left and right exits! -- zonedguy

Too true, which is why the sharp handling of the MINI is ideally suited for Jersey. Instant course correction made easy.

The thing that's getting me is the appalling condition of the roads. Deep potholes all over the place, be it highway or main drag or even my own street. And some are so deep you just know you'll get a flat if you hit it. Our on-again off-again Winter weather chewed up the asphalt something fierce.

CROC 411

 

Break-in periods are for tires, brakes, and clutches.

 

I know people who have redlined vehicles off of the lot. Everyone has their own method for breaking the motor in

 

Do you have automatic lighting on your car where its senses the light and turns on the lighting system if needed.

 

You're right to fear you may have damaged your engine, but not for the reason you think. The only thing you're doing by babying it is not letting the rings and bearings seat properly and increasing oil consumption and reducing operating efficiency through it's service life. You need to present the engine with a very wide dynamic range of loads and speeds to fully break-in the components. The fact you got impatient and floored it did nothing but help the break-in process.

Breaking in the engine is certainly not BS. The method BMW suggests however, will do nothing but increase oil consumption and lower performance [both power and fuel economy] for the life of the engine. Driving how you want is significantly better advice than following BMW's absurd suggestions. My advice would be to touch as many operational endpoints or corners as possible within the first 20 miles, then change the oil. By operation endpoints, I mean everything from idle to redline, full throttle to engine braking and everything in between. The engine will be fully loosened up by about 700 miles, which is typical for todays engines.

 

So I should, on occassion, push the motor some (rpms and speed) to properly seat the rings and bearings? woohoo.

I do know that the mechanic at Downtown MINI thought I was crazy when i asked about a break-in period.

 

The only way to keep within the rev limits for breakin:

(1) don't use the "Sport" (fun!) button.

(2) don't start the engine.

Other than that, have fun!