"Breaking in" period....

Did you guys break in your tacoma before driving long distance? If so, how long or how many miles did you have to break it in for?

 

there has been much talk about "breaking in" new vehicles.everyone has different ideas on the matter. in what aspect of "breaking in" are you talking about?? if its the oil you are speaking of, i say wait till at least 1k miles before switching out(dino for synthetic).....i waited till my odo hit 20k before i switched out.

 

I've been suggested by others to not drive long distance until 1,000 miles. Any truth to that you know or heard of?

 

i would honestly call bs on that. 5000 miles till the first oil change, go as far as you need to go, nothing bad is gonna happen to your drivetrain. i have heard in the past to not rev the motor to really high rpms, but i think the way things are built these days, it really isnt gonna hurt anything to run 80mph on an interstate,......as i dont think most people, aside from people racing, will be running the trucks over 2500rpms anyway.


basically......................you are good to drive how you want to drive(and as far as you wanna go), just dont get really crazy with high rpms for long amounts of time.

 

Rtfm.

 

Dude, I hope you are right on that. My dealer is having to swap out to get my truck. They are driving something to a dealer in St. Loiuse and picking up my truck and driving it back. I should get my truck with 200 miles on it more or less. I just hope Joe Driver Guy doesn't act like a Moe-Ron on the way back because I know he will be doing 80 or so, it is all interstates back to Paducah, KY.

 

I just drove my truck like normal for a few hundred miles. No hard driving or towing. I had to drive 100 miles/day for work so it was easy to put on miles. I'll say though that the manual tranny didn't start really smoothing out until around 5,000 miles.

I think the manual just says to take it easy for 500 miles.

 

The manual states, and I am paraphrasing here because I don't feel like going outside to get it. I'm pretty sure I've got the mileage right but not necessarily the exact wording.

500 miles. No cruise controll, keep engine speeds varried, ie: drive long distances all you like, but don't do so at a consistant speed, so go 80 for ten minues, then go 60 for 10 minutes, then 65, etc... You get the point.

500 miles keep the engine reving to a minumim. translation... DO NOT drive it like you stole it.

1000 miles. No towing.

That about covers it.

 

I drove mine from albany to buffalo 1st day..as long as you stager engine speed in some intervals your breaking it in..Just dont beat on it and watch the redlight racing..The idea is to get the piston rings to fall in love with the cylinder walls. Thats it. No synthetic lubricant until 20-30 hours or you can risk not seating the rings. ME, I never understood that, one of my cars has a well known synthetic from the factory. So I always find myself thinking about the no synthetic for howlong or however. Is my vette motor not broken in right or does it burn oil from me beating it? Bottom line in what I was taught, no hard driving or steady speed for 20 hours.

 

Think of a break-in period as the mileage required to allow the parts in the engine to loosen up a tad to fit for best performance. When brand new, the block is tight - all parts have little to no tolerance. Once the engine is exercised for 4-5 thousand miles, the parts have worn to the point they can move more freely with their counterparts and your true performance numbers become realized. Thus the break-in term.

Two rules I've lived by no matter what engine I broke in - first, never redline the engine for the first couple thousand miles. Never good to in any case, but real important not to in this time period. Second, always vary the RPM. If you run a thousand mile trip on the interstate, do no lock in the cruise control and zone out. The pistons need to run at different speeds to correct wear in their hash patterns for all types of driving. This is the single reason most advise against long trips as new owners don't pay attention to this reasoning or even understand why.

Also, leave the dino in for at least 4 to 5K miles. Then swap it and the filter out. By then, all wear and tear will have been done for break in and the oil and filter will have the by-products (metal particles mostly) from this. Then you can switch to a synthetic if you think you need it. And to answer your next question - yes, I will on mine. lol!

Enjoy!

 

Why don't you ride to St. Louis with Joe Driver Guy and drive it back yourself, let him sit in the passenger seat, and that way you can keep speeds moderate, vary the engine speed a bit, and baby your new Taco? I'd be tempted to do that. I honestly don't think that he can probably hurt it too badly, but I'd still feel better if I put those first 200 on it rather than some bored kid earning $8 per hour.

 

You aint lyin' Hardcase!! I used to live in an apartment which was located adjacent to a holding lot where a Ford dealer held new cars. The Mustangs were the most common victims of the "staff". The lot was 2 miles from the dealer. So the punks would do breakstands and donuts like crazy with these cars that somebody would actually buy! Makes you wonder how much of those owners' engine/trans woes were due to this initial abuse of their cars. Oh yeah-I put the call in