Breaking in a Yaris?

[rage2]

Drive it like you stole it. That'll give you the most power.

[ponieswhee]

Originally Posted by rage2

Drive it like you stole it. That'll give you the most power.

Although that sounds like the most fun way to break in a car, I'm a little suspicious of the "drive it like you stole it" ideology. I've heard people say the rings get a better seal if you beat the heck out of the motor the first thousand miles but that goes against everything I've heard in the past. Anyone have any input on this?

[Pars]

Originally Posted by ponieswhee

Although that sounds like the most fun way to break in a car, I'm a little suspicious of the "drive it like you stole it" ideology. I've heard people say the rings get a better seal if you beat the heck out of the motor the first thousand miles but that goes against everything I've heard in the past. Anyone have any input on this?

"drive it like you stole it" ideology does seem to work, but most of us speed demons don't know when to stop and then the engine ends up broken. My guess is, once it's got about 30,000 miles of serious driving on it, it's ready to be babied. However, I wouldn't start going hard on the engine until it's well past the break-in period (which I believe is at about 500miles, according to manual).

[rage2]

Originally Posted by ponieswhee

Although that sounds like the most fun way to break in a car, I'm a little suspicious of the "drive it like you stole it" ideology. I've heard people say the rings get a better seal if you beat the heck out of the motor the first thousand miles but that goes against everything I've heard in the past. Anyone have any input on this?

I've owned 8 brand new cars, from a Mazda 323 to a SLK 32 AMG. I've broken each one in by driving hard off the lot. Each one of my cars can out accelerate an identical model easily, and lasted till I sold the cars (from 60,000km up to 140,000km). Engine tolerances nowadays are so precise, plus the fact that engines are turned cold at the factory to find and avoid problems, that the old break-in processes are no longer required. That's from my experience. The only time I've broken in an engine easy (only 300km or so) is when I've built a custom motor from scratch for my Porsche, where tolerances aren't as tight as something from the factory.

Other people's experiences:

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

Of course this deals with just ENGINES. Transmissions, differentials usually aren't run at all, and might be a good idea to take it a bit easier on those parts by not going too hard (ie clutch drop launches lol) or hitting top speed right off the lot.