Hey everyone!

I'm the proud owner of a new 2008 Si Sedan. Prior to buying the car, I read a ton of stuff about breaking in a new sports car.

"Drive it easy"
"Drive it hard"
"drive it the way you plan on driving it"
"in 2008 - it doesn't matter!"

The Owners Manual of the 2008 Civic simply states that you should avoid full throttle starts and hard breaking for the first 600 mi.

No mention of limiting engine speed per-se.

I've been VERY CAREFUL warm up the engine fully before driving (waiting for a fan-cycle).

So far I have about 180 mi. on the car and have driven it easy about 80% of the time. A few WOT smooth accelerations with no hard shifts at all. Only took the car to 8000 rpm once @170mi. on the odometer.

I'm guessing that the motors are coming "ready to drive" from the factory these days and the real concern is the other parts (tranny, brakes).

I've read so much about "breaking in" high performance motors from a lot of places. So many opinions.

Anyone know what Honda puts their motors through before they get to the consumer? Anyone want to tell me their opinion? Am I blowing it by varying my driving style greatly during the break-in . . . many places in the net (including Ferrari) say that varying your driving style during break-in is the best philosophy.

Any chance of voiding the warranty by driving a car hard?

Thanks in advance!!

Christiaan.

 

I followed the owner's manual suggestions on my '06 LX manual. You are going to get a different answer from each person that responds on this thread.

 

I've read that it's actually good to drive an engine hard (once it's at full operating temp). Helps wear everything right creating good seals. Used to have a link I found it on another honda forum, but lost it....

My dad just bought a boat, Ranger 150 horse engine, and to break it in they told him to run it hard at dif speeds constantly, so that no grooves are worked into it. But thats a two stroke motor and obviously very dif.

I wouldn't worry about it too much just go by the manual and you should be fine. Over analyzing it is just going to make things worse [8D]

 

My dad has always told me that a good way to break a car in after a few miles is to go for a nice long drive. The constant heat and moving of the parts in the motor help seat all the seals well.

 

Thanks for the responses, Gene J, Live_4it.

The most likely reason that there are so many theories is that there's no scientific proof one way or the other, in which case it probably doesn't matter too much.

In other words, if one method REALLY made a huge difference these days, guaranteed we'd have SOME evidence one way or another.

I know for a fact that spoiled teens driving away in their new Si are gunning it around town and they aren't all ending up back at the dealership for a rebuild. (maybe they end up with the really with a really GOOD motor?) Heck - many of them go straight to the tuner and have them tricked-out - and then hammer the crap out of them with 30 more horse at the tires.

I have a friend at Honda Corporate who has sent out an email to a couple of guys who could probably give a dissertation on the testing that Honda does on their new motors. Almost guaranteed that new motors are run up through their entire performance range before ever seeing the road.

I'll let you know what I hear from Honda.

Thanks again!

Christiaan.