New car: should you break in your engine?

Breaking in the engine of a new car: Like the brakes, the clutch or the gearbox, the engine needs a break-in, however brief and painless it may be, so that the parts in friction "make themselves", that they gradually "get used" to each other. It is a physical phenomenon linked to tribology; the study of friction.

But, compared to the break-in that grandfather experienced on his Renault 4 CV, which was long and boring, the "modern" break-in has nothing to do with it. This is partly due to the absence of metal filings in the engine, which we owe to the quality of manufacture of the mechanical parts, to the materials but also and above all to the precision of the machining, of the order of 2 to 3 hundredths of a millimeter. Without forgetting the assembly, the tolerance ratings being much more restricted today than they were twenty years earlier. In addition, the quality of the oils used for the lubrication of the new engine is not unrelated to the absence of running-in of which the car manufacturers speak, especially since they are more finely filtered.

When new, the moving parts in the engine still have some traces of machining which, as the engine warms up, can expand, causing the gap between them to change, called operating clearance. However, some manufacturers no longer recommend any break-in. But that's no reason to use the engine at high revs and cold from the first kilometres. This could lead to the beginnings of engine degradation. Internal friction is more intense in a new engine than in a block that has already had a few “flight hours”. Theoretically, a good break-in could therefore significantly increase the reliability of an engine, its longevity and reduce its oil consumption. But, in practice, a "bad" break-in would only generate a small loss of performance, which only a comparison with a vehicle that has been well run-in could reveal.

A regular look at the different levels

Thus, the traditional 1,000 km oil change has disappeared from most user manuals and even the intermediate service, at 10,000 or 15,000 km, is no longer automatically recommended. On the other hand, without even going through the garage, a quick look at the different levels after 500 kilometers traveled, and especially at the oil level, is welcome.

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—Judy Green & Help You Lose Belly Fat Sun Tue 28 08:17:08 +0000 2021