How did you do break in

I'm sure there's lots of opinions on how to break in a new taco. What did you do? And how has it turned out to far?

I bought mine a few hours away. So I started my break in with a 2.5 hour drive at various speeds between 60 and 70mph. Since then I have tried to limit my in town driving and keep the driving to mainly highway driving at 50-65 mph. Try to keep my rpms low, shifting at around 2k to 2500. Avoiding hard acceleration and just in general tying to be real nice to it. I'll do my first oil change at 3k. Probably change the diffs and manual trans at 10k.

 

I drove it like I drive it now. Everything seems okay.

 

same.

 

Yep. Its 2021 and vehicles are rock solid. Just dont redline it pretty much ever and you’ll be fine.

 

Make sure to pump the gas pedal 3 times before.....

oh wrong year

 

Should be in the owner's manual the proper break in procedure.

 

Same way I break in every vehicle: turn the key (push the button) and drive. Don't overthink things. Frankly you want to drive it like you stole it so if anything is going to break it does it during the warranty period.

 

In high school I bought a well used '57 Olds 88 with a 371 engine. In auto shop I rebuilt the motor, not because it needed to be rebuilt but because I was in auto shop. I brought it home to adjust the carburetor and the choke wouldn't stay open, so I stuck a screwdriver in the butterfly to keep it from closing. As soon as I revved the engine the screwdriver fell out and got stuck in the accelerator linkage... and the car was at full throttle!!! It was SCREAMING. A brand new engine and the RPMs were so high that there were sparks coming out of the carburetor! I didn't want to get next to the engine because it was going to EXPLODE. It took me just a few seconds to think... and I turned the ignition off. But I was sure I'd wrecked the engine. In the end the engine was fine... as the highway patrol could tell you after I outran their big 440 Chryslers. (Can't ourun a radio, though)

I've seen people baby a vehicle to break it in, and I've seen race car drivers go aout and thrash a new car right off the lot... and afterward there was so little difference between the cars in daily use that it would be impossible to say which was babied and which was driven hard.

Don't worry about it.

 

I typically use a slim jim, but sometimes a brick is all I have handy.

 

I drove mine from LA to Portland Oregon and back. Saw lots of waterfalls, Crater Lake, and drove down the coast. I bought my Taco on March 17, 2021, and I am close to 5k miles.

 

The first time, I went in through the window while they were home. The process was loud and rushed, but exciting. These days I prefer taking my time. And I highly recommend waiting until no one is around. Just remember that the best plans take time, and are always the most thought out... Good luck.

 

It’s a Tacoma. Drive it like you stole it. Grip it and rip it!

 

Don’t “baby” it! I made that mistake years ago on a brand-new Volvo 240 wagon. It never developed the acceleration (compression?) that our older one had with over 120k miles on it which we bought used.

You should apply firm pressure to the accelerator - somewhere between babying it and driving like you stole it.

 

I took it on an offroad trail and into some 4' mud hole.

 

Drove it 1300 miles straight home. Just stopping to fill up. Hit 90 in some areas. Used cruise control too. Oops.

 

Same here. After 1500 miles or so, it drives like any other automatic vehicle owned.

 

Read the owners manual. I think they have something in there about not towing and/or avoiding steady speeds for the first 200 miles IIRC

 

I went gentle the first 500 miles then pushed a little harder the next 500 and the last 300 or so I've been watching
with joy the jump in speed when I'm cruising at 50 mph at 1200 RPM then moving into the 2000 RPM range and
suddenly see I'm doing 60+.. I have never been a fan of 'drive it like you stole it' mode nor have I been a fan of
total old-people-mode either... somewhere nicely in between. Hooked up a tear-drop after the 500 mile period and
gave it a whirl it handled well. Played with ECT and S4-S5 mode, have done a bit of cruise control ... have done about
300 miles on the free-way hitting upwards of 75~80 in a few stretches.

Drove my first Toyota MT pickup-truck (1992) for 199,999 care-free-miles that way... when I left the dealer he said
if I want to drive it for 200,000+ miles keep it under 55 for the first 1000 miles and it worked back then.

 

I even drove up in the mountains the week I got it. 75-80mph uphills.

 

It states it in the manual ...break in for the Tacoma .