Bless me, Father, for I have sinned!
Exiting a cloverleaf, 3rd gear, pulled to way over 5,000 rpm before upshift. Launched me like a rocket onto the highway! This car rocks!
I'll be good tomorrow, I promise!

 

Good thing Lent is over huh?

I keep telling myself the same thing every day but there's this particular curve I can't resist pushing...not above 4500 RPM though

 

Well, let's see--going "well over" 5,000 rpm today, and the rest of the time, going under 4,000 on the same cloverleaf--makes an average of 4,500. No biggie.

Seriously, I miss cloverleafs. There are a f-e-w that are partial, but 99+% of our exits are of the straight line variety. Makes it more fun for the cops who stake out the frontage roads as part of their speed traps. And cities, you know who you are...

 

Hi every body.

I just had Cuman delivered three weeks ago and as second car I don't use it too much, but yesteday I decided to begin the proper break-in procedure.

With just 340 miles (550km) on it and always under 4000 rpm / 60 mph, last night I slipped a bit just about 5000 rpm... and what did I get?? a bloody half yellow Engine Icon on the tachometer...

I don't rememeber if it showed any other message. But as a result of that I think I just became paranoid feeling the car a bit slower.

Already called dealer so it's dated for next monday to be checked (under warranty of course) and I can't drive it . I'm really frustrated, when I was beginning to get fun it breaks...

Sorry for the rant...

Has any one experienced something like this?


Regards

 

Is it a Cooper? I've heard of that being fairly common in Coopers.

Why can't you drive it? Is it missing? Dripping fluids? Making funny sounds? I don't think your engine self-destructed because of a one-time spurt. Lots of people don't even pay any attention to the 4,000 rpm ceiling. If it does blow on such a little thing, I would think there was something wrong with it in the first place that warranty will cover.

 

My sales dude told me to "Keep it under 85 and don't use the cruise control for the first 1000 miles." That was all. So far, so good.
6th gear on the S still has acceleration.

 

Its only been linked TWO times in this thread so I guess I will help out. Maybe more people will read it!

www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

If you flog it and something goes wrong in the first 500 miles, its a factory defect. Good thing you got it to show itself early on.

I have raced supersports (Lets just say i'm no Rossi ), do alot of track days, and live and breathe bikes, etc.. The prefered way to break an engine has always been to break it in on the dyno. Oil change at verry low miles (100-500 miles), and ride it like hell. It has been said by some that this method can make a minimal difference on the life of the motor, 10k miles? And they almost always run stronger. Same thing applys when ever you have done work where the rings have been replaced. Then it it important to hone the cylinder to get the cylinder and rings to seal really well. I have done this on my personal bikes and have had some very nice dyno runs on a very conservative dyno.

I do not personally know how a turbo affects break in so I must honestly say that as far as the turbo goes, I do not know if break in affects it . If a turbo does not require a specific break-in period, then i don't see why this type of break in whould not be beneficial for our engines.

 

FORGETABOUTIT! I almost always follow a modified version of the break-in link above and usually bounce a new motor off the rev limiter more than a few times, and I almost never have a motor that ever burns oil. I watched a mechanic at a moto race put a Yamaha motor fresh rebuild in, start it up and immediately pegged it to redline at about 17, 000RPM. He turned it off and looked around at us and said something to the effect that it was how he knew whether he had rebuilt the motor correctly!

 

Another good reason not to lug the motor during break-in, drive it like you are always going to drive it over the entire rev range and I'll bet this doesn't creep up. I'll bet the fault is related to the emissions system because you never were running it hard enough to burn off all the excess exhaust byproducts. Just a guess, let us know when you get it to the dealer, and start sticking your foot into it a bit more!

 

I don't know if they still do it, but Porsche always tested every motor at redline for 45 minutes before they put them in their cars. I've alway ran every motor on each new car I've had slowly to redline in third gear within the first 100 miles. I've never had an engine problem on any car.

 

Most engines at tested for under a minute at redline from what I understand.

 

Can't remember the numbers, but Porsche's break-in is even MORE conservative than MINI's, if that makes any sense...

 

Okay after reading this thread I totally don't feel bad about driving 160 km/h on the highway in 6th gear the first day I got Roxy! I kept it under 4000 rpm though Well maybe not under.... but definitely not much over

Yup MINI's are zippy!

 

I took a clubman for a test ride and the lady salesman told me too many stories of what their "test riders" do to those cars. I was trying to baby the clubman and she looked at me as "why be the first?"

So I hammered it... ran pretty darn good.

 

ROTFL! The one I test drove definitely did

Fortunately it got sold about 10 minutes after that. Luckily the one I got had 5 miles on it

 

break in is unneeded. after the first couple of times its cranked and cools down, you can run it to the roof. no i don't own a cooper and i'm not sure about a turbo but the engine will be fine. all it does is seat in all the parts. if you get it broken in (seated) to a lower rpm initially as soon as you rev it up the parts have to reseat. when we get a bike the first thing we do is dyno it. which means hitting the rev limiter. NO problems have been linked to this from my personal experience.

 

Hey, don't steal my baby's name!

 

I have always done this. My new Triumph saw the red line as soon as it was up to temp, but I did change the oil at 20, 50, 150, 250, 500 miles. All but the 500 where semi-synthetic changes too.

On a Dyno last weekend it was making 7hp more than a bike with a VIN number within 20 of mine, almost identical miles, soft break-in and exact same 'mods'.

My previous GSXR was thrashed solid from day one and it too made more power than most and at 85K full-throttle miles still did not burn any oil.

I absolutely belong to the hard break-in with lots of oil changes crowd.

As a matter of interest - the first couple of Triumph oil changes had quite a lot of metal fragments in both the sump and the filter, the 500 mile one had nothing visible.

 

awesome article

 

So I have to admit....

I was trying to be good, but coming home from the dealer I pretty much immediately got on the freeway, wound it out in third and crossed 4500.

Elapsed distance before violation: about 1 mile.

 

very nice. DRIVE that thing like its going to be driven

 

From that MotoMan's website:
This is very true and necessary, but it is not High RPM that seats those rings to cylinder walls, but rather higher power (Torque) at lower RPMs.

(and I would NOT agree with this)
This was followed at one time for Aircraft 'Break-In' requiring ONLY single grade straight mineral oil for the first 25 hours
(it was believed that higher grades of lube oil would prevent ring seating).

Then this policy was changed by Engine Manufacturers to requiring use of the normal, semi-synthetic-multi-grade from the start.

High Power settings (with precautions for 'overheat') are still a requirement for the first 50 Hours or until Oil Consumption Stabilization WOF.

For aircraft; you are legally bound to follow (1.) Airframe or (2.) Engine manufacturers operating limitations.

I had inquired about this, from my MINI MA and he said that the factory did an inital 'run-in' and oil change as a part of the manufacturing process.

There are more concerns and requirements for protecting your engine, than just ring/cylinder lubrication
and there is no way that I would violate manufacture's recommendations for Oil Specifications.

(Perhaps if you were preparing your car for the "TRACK", but then warranty or really long life would not be an issue.)

This is true, vary your speeds, but no need to overdo and hit any redlines on early runs, gradual RPM increases would be better for long life.

 

I asked ASK-MINI today about break-in. They're not tech people and just give the company line, which includes "ask your dealer". Of course every dealer has their own ideas or believe BMW told them something different.

What we need here is someone what has SEEN the bench rig that each of our engines goes through before it's installed. Either that, or someone that KNOWS what is done in Oxford between the time our completed car is first started, until it gets to the dealer.

BTW, in the way of telling me something different. My delaer told me they are suppsed to change the oil before we get the car. Has anyone else ever heard this?

If the answer is nobody knows what they really do, I'm going to have to call SOMEBODY at Plant Oxford tomorrow! If we just had some real data, we go on to worry about other problems, like invisible bras or tinting!

Cheers

 

I have slipped couple of times to around 5000. Once while shifting 4-5 I found 3 instead and the other time going from 3-4 I was stuck in neutral . I have only about 400 miles a long way to go. I am new to shifting gears and taking it easy (shifting at 2500 to 3500 religiously).

 

Don't feel too bad--I did exactly the same "4-5, oops 3" shift you did, over a year ago. Even started a thread about it. You might want to check it out because there were quite a number of responses about the problems (and safeguards) regarding such a shift.

I have to say that I don't like the MINI's gearbox. It's sloppy. There--I've said it. I drove a BMW 325i for 13 years before I sold it to get the MINI, and never had the problems finding the middle gears (3 & 4) as I do on the MINI. And I still had the same clutch and transmission at the end of the 190,000 miles--not a bit of slop even in the last year of ownership.