:confused Hi I like to get some expert opinions about the break in period .. If the MCSa was not driven correctly during the "break in period" what can possibly happen in the future to the car? What are some signs to look out for for trouble ahead? thanks, kalm

 

IMHO, no one REALLY knows, since there aren't any of those more than about a year old, and I suspect it would take considerably longer for the effects of a "bad" break in to present themselves. For the first 100,000 miles, perhaps there would be NO issues resulting from this. Some say the whole break-in period is overblown, since the engine is run through break-in exercises before it goes on the car. Brakes wear out eventually no matter how hard or soft you drive the first few hundred miles. I was careful during my break-in period becuase I plan to keep my car a long, long time and adding some life on the backend might matter.

The biggest concern I have on the car, with easy break-in or not, is the transmission - while MINI says it's a "lifetime" transmission requiring no service, that just makes me nervous. They don't have magical alloys and fluids that COMPLETELY prevent wear. So it WILL wear over time, and hard driving will likely make it wear more quickly. And the break-in period could be more critical to the tranny as all those pieces wear in to mesh in the best, lowest friction way possible.

Lots of MINI's get test driven multiple times before they find an owner. And I suspect very few of them stay within the break-in parameters. You're probably OK for a long time.

 

The main concern with improper break-in on a forced-injection car (turbo- or super-charged) is properly seating the piston rings. Improperly seated rings can cause the engine to burn some oil and possibly wear prematurely. Burning oil can clog the cat and, well, isn't great. That said, some cars burn as much as 1 liter every 1000-1500 miles by design (Mazda RX8), but those are totally different from Mini's. Check the oil frequently; if you're not really losing any oil you're probably OK.

Other areas that need proper break-in are wear items like brakes and clutch (you don't have one of those though!). Brakes can glaze, resulting in poor performance - they can then need resurfacing before being good again.

The break-in period also allows the owner to become accustomed to the car and its controls before really flogging it - more beneficial for the person than the machine.

Some schols of thought say "flog it early", or "drive it like it's going to be driven" - which probably works well for normally-aspirated cars, but check the subie or evo boards and find a bunch of guys with oil consumption problems from not properly seating the rings in force-fed cars. I'm an engineer and a "by-the-book" guy when it comes to machines though.

The MiniS engine, however, was built on a really fantastic production line with tight tolerances - chances are it tolerates early abuse better than the Subie or Evo engines!

Do a search - there's a thousand-page thread or something where people get all kinds of fired up about this.

 

First issue would be improperly seated rings. If you have oil consumption, that would be a concern. And, I really doubt that MINI/BMW would step up to the plate and cover re-ringing or engine replacement in the event the break-in process was not followed.

Second item - the transmission really does need periodic attention. Lifetime in the MINI/BMW context means for the lifetime of the manufacturer's warranty. If you want the transmission to last into the 100,000+ mile territory, you will need to periodically replace the transmission fluid. This is not a maintenance item that MINI/BMW will cover, but measured against the cost of a new/rebuilt tranmsission, it is small potatoes.