Break in Procedure
 

Hi guys,

Just got my standard Protege5 Silver last week!!. Sweet sweet sweet, what breakin procedure should I follow.

Also what are the recommended RPM's to shift. Right now I am shifting at 3000-3500 RPM for all gears.

Outback

I may be old school, but my approach to break-in is to use a variety of engine speeds (rpm's) to allow the components to wear evenly across the power range. as i understand things, this prevents your internals from developing harmonics for a particular speed. Thus, try driving "normally", then perhaps quick accelerations, but never during your break-in, go for a long trip w/ the cruise control - avoid the constant speed.
You may want to experience 5500 rpm between shifts, occasionally, as well .

I did the break in for around 1100 miles, then changed the oil/filter.

BTW, gas mileage increased from about 27-28 at first, to around 30 - 31 mpg when we approached 2K-3K miles!

I agree with the above post. Even though the salesman assured me that my vehicle came 'pre-broken in' It does say in the manual (yeah, I read it) to vary your speed and rpm.

One more thing. Try to avoid hard braking as well.

It didn't say anything about hard cornering...:D

Proper Protege Break-In
 

The break in period for my P5 was stated in the manual as 1000Km. Not sure what that is in miles, but all it said was to go easy on the car for the first 1000K. What you might want to do around 750Km or so is this: (My Dad did it on his 2000 Vette, and it's paying off.) Take the car out on a long, straight road where you can get her up to speed. If you have a manual tranny, shift up gently from first, into 3rd. Now, this sounds crazy, but I'll explain in a sec. Floor the gas, and bring the engine up to about 6500 RPM. Then, simply just jump off the gas. The car should jerk a little, but this is good. Whilst keeping it in gear, let the car slow to about 2000RPM, and do it again. Repeat this process about 5 times.

If you have an automatic, it is the same procedure, but don't let your car shift into O/D. (Use the O/D Off button on the shift lever.)

Now, on to the explanation. You're all probably wondering why I'm telling you to take a car, still in the break in period, and redline the engine, then suddenly jump off the gas and let the car slow. The answer is simple. Many people take it easy on their cars during break in (and so you should) but sometimes they take it too easy, so as to not fully "seat" all the parts. What the above action does, is seat the piston rings. By revving the engine high, you create alot of air flowing into and out of the engine. By jumping off the gas, you create back pressure, that will (for a second) act in opposition to the forces normally seen by the engine components. (As a result, the jerking that is experienced.) By seating the piston rings properly, you ensure better compression in the future. I know I'm going to get some argument from this, but I just thought how I'd share my break-in experience for others to try.

Comments and questions are certainly welcome.

600 miles=~1000 km

Re: Proper Protege Break-In
 

I'm not jumping on you here, but how do you know it paid off for your dad? Has he dynoed better than average with the same setup on other vettes? Has it not broken down? Does he drive it enough to really see if it did anything for reliability? I mean, there are tons of factors that could make or break a car, it's hard to say that if you take 20 minutes of time and do this your car will run for 22 thousand million miles without having to fix anything. Again, I'm not jumping on you here, I'm just curious.