I finally went over 1200 miles on my Mini, the break-in is complete! What was the first thing you guys did when you finally completed the break-in period?

 

I changed the oil.

 

Broke it out!

 

gas pedal..meet metal !

 

I think they're going to be best friends for a long, long time!

 

Congrats! Drive it like you stole it!(occasionally at least) I just made a whopper run and on the way to Burger King I made circles around a huge triangular block that has 40mph-40mph-50mph streets surrounding it. The overboost came on almost every time I came out of the turn. Very fun...

 

I didn't know I had to 'break it in' .... I've been pedal to the metal since mile #1!!!

What changes after the break in period? Just curious

 

nothing changes...your engine is more likely to burn oil as it ages and lose power.. nothing serious.

 

I changed the oil & filter.

 

Yeah; those first 4 days until I broke the 1200 mile mark were tough.

My first go-fast ride in Arthur was on the Cerohala (I think).
The car is now almost 6 months old and will turn 17,000 miles this afternoon. My daily commute is 46 miles...

 

Two days after I hit 1200 miles I hit Thunderhill Raceway for the Hooked on Minis event. Nice way to celebrate passing the break in period.

 

I haven't gotten there yet. Only 260 miles. However I would change the oil too. A great thread for changing the 56 oil
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...R56+Oil+Change

 

1,200 for a break-in period? That's ridiculous, way too long. The engine, brakes, tires, and transmission should be fully broken in by the 600 mile mark. any more than that is excessive, or sloppy engineering (engine tolerances not tight enough). I don't care what the manual says when I get my car, no way I'm spending 1,200 miles driving like a granny. After 600 miles the car better be ready to go, because I know I will be.

 

There certainly is a lot of differing opinions on break in - let me tell my story. In 2002 my wife and I went to Germany to take a European delivery on a new Porsche C4S. Part of the package was a tour of the factory, lunch at the factory commissionary and an afternoon at the Weissach factory R&D facility and test track getting rides from professional Porsche test drivers.

During the test rides I spoke to several of the drivers about break in (being concerned that the PCNA recomended break in period was 2,000 miles while in the rest of the world the recomended break in was 1,000 kilometers (620 miles). I asked them why the difference and to a man they all replied that was no difference in the cars - it was just PCNA's liability concerns. In other words (they were very polite about this) they want the customer to drive carefully until they are used to the power and handling of a Porsche.

Later that evening at a party thrown by Porsche I had chance to meet one of the senior Porsche engineers from the engine assembly department. This guy (sorry, I've forgotten his name) was the one who gave us our tour of the engine factory and showed us how after assembly (which takes 90 minutes for a complete engine) the engines are put on rolling electrical/coolant stands and wheeled into the dyno room for testing. Every single engine produced is dynoed for 15 minutes, 7 of which is run at redline for that model. In fact the energy created by running the engines is captured and used to turn electric dynamos to produce electricity for the factory.

I asked this same engineer about break in. His answer? 200 kilometers (124 miles) to break in the tires and seat the brake pads then go for it.

I asked him about the long standing rumors about oil usage if not properly broken in and his reply was that this was true a couple of decades (DECADES!) ago but with the advances in metal, precision tooling, assembly materials and most importantly oil it is no longer true.

BTW - he said that this was generally a universal truth across the industry - in fact he was quite complentary to the Japanese industry in the 1980's for raising the bar for everyone.

So there you go - take this advice for what it is worth, free. I can tell you that it is exactly the advice I have followed on two Porsche's and one Audi since that time and I have never had a problem including oil usage.

KR

 

I believe you and it makes sense. But how many miles did you put on your prev cars before you sold them?

 

You will be out of warranty in 6 more months at this pace!

 

Let's see...... about 45k on the C4S, 19k on the GT3 (lots of track miles), 67k on the Audi and still going strong.

Oh - and 56k now on my F-150.

 

Got home from the dealership and unpacked...
(or close to it)

 

Exactly. If 1,200 miles is truly specified in the MINI manual, then I will assume it's for liability reasons only. No way an engine manufactured in 2008 needs that many miles to seat the piston rings to the walls. 124 miles might be on the short side, I'll take it easy for about 600 miles, but that's it.

Speaking of rescued dogs, I'm getting a one year old rescued Pit Bull this weekend. http://search.petfinder.com/petnote/...petid=10057143

 

hahah seriously! haha now for me it's been a little more than 1/2 a year and i've already put 14600 miles on it! hahaha but then again i drive to LA to Orange County every weekend (and drive back up as well).

 

My break-in period lasted until I got to the end of the dealership's parking lot on delivery day. I celebrated leaving the dealership with a nice smokey burnout and have kept flogging the engine ever since.

But you could celebrate by changing the oil. Doing that makes a lot of people feel better about their cars.

 

Agree on 124 miles - I was a bit more cautious then that, but not much!

Congrats on the new red nose pit - Luke looks very charming. Good for you for rescuing!

Here is our little rescued red nose, Muscle Butt:

 

haha in my house we have two, and we waited for our second one to get to 1200 and we are taking them both to the Countyline Drag Strip .....hehe.

 

You changed it so soon, Ace. I thought we had to wait 15,000K? And did you change it yourself or go to the dealer?

 

One reason I didn't go with a car on the lot was cause I wanted to make sure the Cooper was broken in properly. Most new cars and trucks that I have bought were fresh off the truck and I broke them in properly only to find that my vehicles end up in better condition than friends' that just beat on their new cars and trucks from the get go.