>>i wasnt strict at all...didnt really think about it to be honest! flogged mine 10 mins after picking it up!! hit 115mph on the way back from the dealer!! :smile:

me too

 

the person who sold me my mini was a good friend of mine at school. he told me that new cars didn't really need to be "broken in". it doesn't do any harm to give it a bit of a thrashing every now and then. nothing like a load of revs to get every thing running smoothly. just don't live your life in the red line and it'll be fine.
i stalled my car as i was driving it out of the dealership. i wasn't wearing any shoes as the ones i arrived in were far too dirty!

 

The break in recommendations on the Mini are really not any different than other cars I have owned. There are really three most important parts - vary your driving speeds (already covered in the other posts), and allowing the clutch and brakes to properly seat and wear. Take it easy for the first 300-500 miles on these two, and you will get better life with less chance of problems in the future.

A little patience for the first month or so is not too much to ask for something you will probably own for several years.

 

I followed the break-in recommendations rather closely, varying the speeds, keeping the revs below 4,500 for the first 1,200. I may have once or twice popped above 4,500. It was very frustrating becasue my Mini is not my everyday driver so break-in took extra long. In order to speed things up with speeding up the car I drove every morning for 20 minutes in both neighborhood traffic and interstate roads.

 

>> Normal driving is fine for the first 1200 so most people that are not flooring it are doing OK naturally.

NORMAL DRIVING? In a MINI?
I flogged my MINI hard in its first 500 miles: hit the rev limiter three times and did a couple of burst north of 110mph.

 

Hello,
I am general manager of a motorcycle shop, and have been in the motorcycle/auto business for over twenty years. The dead truth about the whole break in deal is, like almost all other mysteries. The truth lies about halfway in the middle of both sides of the camp.

It is absolutely true that a NEW engine, gearbox, etc. ( things with moving parts that fit or spin on one another) must have a period of settling. Things will wear into their " comfortable positions with each other. This is the reason we are told to adhere to a "break in" period.

As it has been stated within this post, and others, It is ALMOST more important to not let the motor run in ANY RPM range for any extended period during this "settling" period.

This being said....... The mechanical reality is that an internal combustion engine by its inherent method of operation REQUIRES that there be reasonable loads exerted on the rings to seat properly against the cylinder walls during this "settling period.

The bottom line is this. I have personally overseen or built more than 100 engines in the last few years, and the ones that work the best overall are the ones that are "broken in" aggressively and in short bursts. No reason to not run it through the gearbox right to near redline a few times every time it is used. This seems to make them seal as best as they can. I have used this method on EVERY motorcycle, and car I have EVER owned without ONE SINGLE FAILURE. They never used oil and had TOP SHELF compression.

I hope this is useful to whomever may be concerned about their occasional 4500 RPM shifts within the first 1000 miles.

 

Everyone has their own theory on breaking in a car, here’s mine which I got from a 1956 PV 444 Volvo manual, that I owned – but not in 56.

“Do not exceed 90 MPH in third gear for the first 200 miles”. :smile:

And I’ve lived by those words to this day.

 

I just got my mini two days ago.
But I couldn't help taking it to 100 right away!
Do I dare follow this schedule?

 

To be honest, I has so happy to have my MINI after the wait that I forgot about any break in limits. This was my 1st new car too, so I never thought about it. My car reacts great now even though I didn't really follow the rules.

 

I broke the RPM limit no more than twice during break-in. Only 500 - 1000 RPM over the limit. But then again I had the car broke in in under a week! But look at the results. It took me 13,300 miles to get my oil change indicator to go to 0. So If the rumors are true about the system taking into account how you drive, then I must have been doing the right thing. I heard of others taking their cars in at only 10k miles. Somehow or another I stretched it out. I'm not sure really how much the oil change mileage has to do with my break-in habits. As they once said on Monday Night Football, "You make the call!"

 

I was talking to my dealer about this...basically he just said don't eb too stupid with it during the break in...ie don't take it to the red line...I am following that advice :smile:

 

I'm currently at 1,000 miles on my breakin. I have followed the rule pretty close except for a couple brief breeches up to 5,000 and shift. The trick is to constantly keep the engine pulling under load and limiting the RPM by using the gears haven't had a need to to exceed 72 yet sticking to the back roads.
My experience has been with building performance V8's where the breakin on start up was take it rightup to 2,000 and vary the RPM by slowly reving it up and down to 3,000 RPM for 10 min. shut down and drain/replace the oil. I was a diesel machanic in the Navy and worked for a company after I got out with a fleet of dump trucks I worked in the engine shop where we rebuilt the engines with new pistons and cylinders + what ever didn't meet spec. These engines were turbocharged and worked hard for 300,000 miles or so between rebuilds the point is all engines after a rebuild were broken in on a dyno we had in our shop under a varying load RPM I never had a failure in a hundred or so engines we sent out while I was there.
Most recent experience was the break in of a new C5 corvette picked up at the Museum and drove home on the back roads KY to MD up through the mountains constanly under load and varying RPM. Last year at Corvettes at Carlise PA. it went on the dyno and posted 21.1 more HP than the average stock vette everyone was asking " what did you do to it " nothing it's stock just a proper breakin.