I normally conduct myself with a fair amount of self control. Every time I fire up my brand new 2011 MCS ( < 1,200 miles) I promise myself " ... I will avoid full throttle application...... I will not exceed 4,500 RPM..." It is somewhat analogous of the repeated promises of Lucy to Charlie Brown that she will not remove her finger from the tip of the football as he approaches the place-kick.
Are there any other "bad" boys or girls out there who have, let's say, not fully stayed within the guidelines of the break-in period ?
By exceeding 4,500 RPM a few times and applying the throttle a little too aggressively on ,uh.... let's say "numerous" occasions, have I insured the early demise of my beloved little beast? Am I the only one who just can't help it?

 

I have read a lot about hard break ins actually creating stronger motors that make 10%-15% more hp than those broken in the conventional way.

So either way I think works, but i think the hard break in can seal the rings better than a soft break in.

I am sure people will say that other way.. but personally there is enough to support the claims that hard break ins work just fine.

Thanks

Jaremy

 

My Clubman S had 400 miles on it when I got it, so I suspect it got a good hard break in from the test drives it went through before it got too me. I am keeping to the 4500 for the rest of the time. Or trying too at least......

Kimo

 

The one piece of advice I can give is dont wait 10k to change your oil.. hell i wouldnt even wait 5k.. Mini's consume oil, so by waiting you never know how much you have left at 10k.

I personally do it every 3-4K just for a piece of mind that later on i wont be replacing my motor.

 

Personally, I am of the school of thought that once you get to operating temp, and are smooth with the application of power (no big downshifts) You are perfectly safe. Oil temp comes up about 10 mins after the water temp. Be smooth and you can't hurt anything.

As suggested, there are more than one schools of thought as to what is best. I think the worst thing you can do is set cruise and lug along at one rpm range. But that is just me.

 

Took delivery of mine with 8 miles on the clock, at 10 miles it was red lined, never looked back, that was over 84,000 trouble free miles ago. I say give it the beans and enjoy...

 

13K miles already, 2nd oil change coming up in 500 miles and only 7 months old.

I never really put the white gloves on when I took it off the lot. I drove it like I would normally. Not too aggressive, but spirited.

Enjoy it!

 

I was pretty well-behaved during the break-in period, but I was only about 50 or 100 miles past the break-in when I took mine to its first autocross and flogged the hell out of it, but that was 80k miles ago and I haven't had any problems.

 

Yes, Break it in the way you are going to drive it. I broke mine in hard and fast, and it runs like a charm with very few issues and im at 50k now. Infact at 500 miles I had a Unichip on the thing hitting 19lbs of boost....

 

Even the manufacturers break in their engines in different ways. Porsche and AMG dyno their brand new engines at WOT for 1/2 hour before installing it into their cars.

I think there is enough evidence to go either conservative or aggressive. your choice.

 

True. Also, as manufacturing tolerances have gotten tighter and technology has advanced (especially in areas like piston ring metallurgy and cylinder-wall coatings), the break-in procedure isn't as critical as it once was.

Even as recently as 25 years ago, if you took a brand-new car off the lot and tried to drive it cross-country at relatively-constant highway speed, you'd stand a very good chance of seriously borking the engine forever - as in "add a quart of oil every time you fill up the gas tank" borking. Now, I know a lot of people that buy their new cars from out of state via internet sales and then drive them home with no problems.

 

Don't worry about it at all. Just change your oil more regularly like others have already said. I would do the first oil change at about 3000-4000 miles, and then every 5-7k after that.

 

My appreciation to all who have responded so far. I can now exhale . What a great community here @ NAM !

Best regards,
Mark

 

Warm it up, drive it like you stole it. It will be a much happier engine.

 

That's why there's this thing called a "dipstick".

 

If you read this, you will know you probably did not break-in your MINI engine as hard as some of us did...

http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

 

Austin
Great link, very good read

Thank you

 

I was told with today's tolarances... a break in period really isn't needed...

I believe the break in period is for the driver not the car....

I'm enjoying my JCW a lot more now 5,476 miles later then new...

And I drive in the "Sport" mode 95% of the time when I first thought...it was crazy...

I guess I got broken in....

 

I absolutely agree!

Sure I'll be somewhat careful the first few hundred miles, but that's because I'd like to get to know the car first. Other then that: I drive it like I stole it My little R53 had more power then factory-spec, so I guess it's fine

FYI: I'm 34 now, got my driverslicence at 19 (we can start driving lessons at 18 where I live). Have driven over 700k miles in loads of cars, no accidents due to my driving sofar. Have had one car with major engine-troubles: the only one I broke in :D

 

On the way home from the dealer with my new MINI, I thought, "Let's see what this puppy will do!" and I romped on the gas pedal! My wife was following me home and said that I took off like a shot!

I didn't take any special care in the first thousand miles, I only had to add one quart of oil in my first year of ownership.

Dave

 

Warm it up, drive it like you stole it. It will be a much happier engine. - I agree with richardsperry.....

 

I dunno, I was pretty good about following break-in procedures on my E90 M3 and I seemed to have none of the oil consumption issues that others did. Maybe I just got lucky.

 

I think everyone has covered this one pretty good. My only add is I find that different engines require different driving habits. Small high performance motors like those found in our MCS's love to run like a thoroughbred horse - open it up and let her go. I run the revs up way more on my MCS before shifting than another other vehicle I have ever owned, and I am not affraid to run it at 3-4K while cruising. I have found the sweet spot for power and economy to be in that 3000-3500 range. On the other hand, the big V8 in my Nissan Titan is like a Budweiser clydesdale, tons of power and torque, but the revs rarely get above 2-3K even under hard acceleration and the sweet spot on that motor is 1500-2000 rpm. Our Mazda CX9 falls somewhere between the two. The Porsche 912 likes to rev too, but not anywhere near the MCS. The older pushrod engines just don't spin like the MCS with it's overhead cams, direct fuel injection and variable valve timing, etc. The point being don't be afraid of breaking it. I was at first, but I got over it quickly.

 

If you take your car and do donuts and get the tires throwing thick smoke off of them every time you drive the car, you're going to break stuff.

Drive your car nice, don't red line it all the time and maintain it, it'll last just as long as any other vehicle.

 

Love that quote.