Hi

I’m getting a new motor in a couple of weeks and wondering what people’s views are on running in periods? The salesman said “there’s no official running in period for the car but I’d take it easy for 500 miles”.. I always make sure my cars are nice and warm anyway before going anywhere near the redline I’m just wondering when I can actually think about hard acceleration! There’s a lot of contradicting views out there on this..

Also – having never owned a turbo’d car before do people still let turbos cool/spin down for 30 seconds when pulling up after a long drive? Or is this not really necessary on modern cars/turbos?

Cheers

Running in a diesel engine
Running in a petrol engine

Not so sure about the turbo – I don’t think most people worry at all. Probably best not to give it loads of beans and then just turn it off! Most importantly change the oil on time and use the correct oil.

do people still let turbos cool/spin down for 30 seconds when pulling up after a long drive?

Are we talking Bugatti Veyron, or Volkswagen Polo?

It will probably be in the user manual either way.

Most modern engines have been run in on a bench before hand or atleast test laps somewhere.

Aslong as you don’t go crazy you should be OK, but then thats what warranty is for.

I remember friends doing laps of the M25 years ago to run in their newly built engines (Cossie’s etc) but doing a more of a mixed driving gets the engine used to the different aspects etc.

but I’d take it easy for 500 miles

Hmm not really. By 500 miles the engine should spin freely across the rev range and providing you don’t labour it high gears/low speeds you can drive it how you normally would. The oil change is inportant though.

Lots of apocryphal info on the web about running in but the process is more or less redundant with modern motors

Last turbo car I had that said anything about letting the turbo spin down was an ’84 Metro Turbo 🙂

Thanks JB! Interesting point about varying driving styles on the petrol link – not sure about the bit where it says “put the car on a rental fleet”.. Most rental cars seem to get the limiter tested on a regular basis!
Cheers

Cheers all – think I’ll try not to breach 5000rpm for the first 500 miles or so and make sure there is plenty of varied driving. After that I’ll get a bit more spirited with spinning up the motor.. Sounds like letting turbo’s spin/cool down is something for cars of old!

New turbos are cooled differently (water cooled I believe) and they continue to be cooled after the engine is shut down as water still circulates. Older oil cooled turbos used to cook their bearings if you didn’t let them cool down.

Saying that, if you’ve just done a lap of the Nordschliefe I’d probably let the engine cool down a bit first.

rocketman

Last turbo car I had that said anything about letting the turbo spin down was an ’84 Metro Turbo

Plenty of cars more recent than that needed cooling. Probably up to a few years ago.

think I’ll try not to breach 5000rpm for the first 500 miles

I hope it’s not a diesel.

I’d speak to the manufacturer or RTFM to find out what THEY recommend for the car THEY make.

No need to run in these days. Best not ovtheash it to within an inch of its life for a couple of thousand miles though just to be safe.

You should always let a turbo cool down/ ensure its not left spinning with no oil supply for 30 seconds before switching off anyway…all owners books tend to tell you this its just folk don’t read the owners books or they’re company cars and they don’t give a toss.
I always change the oil in my diesels on or before mileage is up, always if I’ve been running above 30mph ie motorway service stations etc sit for 30 seconds or so before switching off and I’ve never ever had any turbo issues (highest mileage being my Passat TDi which had done nearly 200000 miles by the time the son in law sold it on on the original turbo!

You should always let a turbo cool down/ ensure its not left spinning with no oil supply for 30 seconds before switching off anyway

Yeah but you’ve probably covered that whilst you were manoevring into your parking space.

Most important thing with a turbo engine imo is to keep an eye on the oil level regularly. Not sure about water cooling, but I don’t think the thing about the oil is to do with heat – it’s because the bearing is (most likely) an oil bearing, meaning that it needs oil pressure to force oil into it. Turn the engine off when it’s still spinning and the oil will disappear leaving the shaft to spin relatively dry on its mount. Supposedly this gets it hot in itself and promotes wear in the shaft, which leads to premature failure. So it might faily on say 70-80k miles instead of 250k.

all owners books tend to tell you this

Mine doesn’t. The auto stop-start doesn’t seem to know about this either.

The auto stop-start doesn’t seem to know about this either

Wondered about that too. Just back from hols and our hire car was a 1.2TSI with stop-start.

Interesting point about the start/stop.. I hadn’t considered this and the car has it as standard. Maybe I’m over-thinking the turbo thing – my cousin had a Leon FR 1.8T from circa. 2005 and he would RELIGIOUSLY sit for 30s after every journey (which is probably why it’s stuck in my head!).

ScottChegg – it’s a petrol yes although maybe 5000 rpm is still pushing it – I’ll have to see where the red-line is when I pick it up and take 2.5-3k off that number.

+1 on the stop start, I pulled in on a layby on an A road a while ago after over half an hour sitting at around 70mph and the stop start functioned immediately even though engine was hot and turbo presumably had been running all that time

probably stuff still circulating though – pumps running..

Our new car is the model / variant before all the fancy stop/start stuff, as a result the fuel consumption isn’t as good as the new headline stuff. Still 53mpg coming back from Glasgow on a 1.4TSI estate though.

Interesting (or not) fact/anecdote about running in.

It used to be important because nothing in the engine was smooth, so it too a few hundred/thousand miles before the engine had worn off all the high points. thrashing it too early and it would get hot and sieze or wear away too much metal.

Modern engines are built to much higher tolerances and therefore sometimes require a cheaper oil to actually add some friction during the running in (usually mineral oil, and the advice was not to use stuff like magnatec).

And the anecdote bit, Honda once accidently sent one of their GP bikes out for practice without filling with oil. It came back running a little hot. Having rectified the error they stuck the bike on the dyno and it actually made more power than the new engine thanks to the increased tollerances!