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Remember reading a thread on here a few months back regarding engine care for a new car. Can't seem to find it out now.
Is there any advice I need to follow in terms of how I should be driving the car for the first however many miles? I'm sure I read something on here about waiting for the Oil temp to warm up before properly putting your foot down.
Remember reading a thread on here a few months back regarding engine care for a new car. Can't seem to find it out now.
Is there any advice I need to follow in terms of how I should be driving the car for the first however many miles? I'm sure I read something on here about waiting for the Oil temp to warm up before properly putting your foot down.
Any advice would be great.
Hi.
I’d definitely wait for the oil to warm up before pushing the throttle pedal down too much. On the infotainment screen, I always have the ‘Sports’ info showing the power in Kw, the boost pressure and the oil temp. I wait for the oil to be reasonably warm before using the car properly.
During the first 600 miles, I’d avoid full throttle (or at least wait a few hundred miles and then phase it in). Also, vary your speed, gears, loading on the engine - lots of town driving is good. It’s obvious, but don’t just put on cruise control on a motorway and stay at one speed to clock up miles. I didn’t use the sport mode until after 600 miles. I did use the paddles a bit to select the right gear to ensure the engine wasn’t labouring.
Now that the car is run in (1300 miles now) and I’ve learnt how to use the DSG (always driven manual cars until now) I know where to put the throttle to get the gear and acceleration I want. I’m actually enjoying the DSG now, but it took a bit of getting used to. Fantastic car!
Currently at around 80 miles.
I'm religiously using eco mode as it changes gear a lot, stops the engine more often at lights, and disengages the gears when you come off the throttle.
It's quite important to not engine brake too much as it isn't the best way to break in the car.
Remember reading a thread on here a few months back regarding engine care for a new car. Can't seem to find it out now.
Is there any advice I need to follow in terms of how I should be driving the car for the first however many miles? I'm sure I read something on here about waiting for the Oil temp to warm up before properly putting your foot down.
Any advice would be great.
Hi.
I’d definitely wait for the oil to warm up before pushing the throttle pedal down too much. On the infotainment screen, I always have the ‘Sports’ info showing the power in Kw, the boost pressure and the oil temp. I wait for the oil to be reasonably warm before using the car properly.
During the first 600 miles, I’d avoid full throttle (or at least wait a few hundred miles and then phase it in). Also, vary your speed, gears, loading on the engine - lots of town driving is good. It’s obvious, but don’t just put on cruise control on a motorway and stay at one speed to clock up miles. I didn’t use the sport mode until after 600 miles. I did use the paddles a bit to select the right gear to ensure the engine wasn’t labouring.
Now that the car is run in (1300 miles now) and I’ve learnt how to use the DSG (always driven manual cars until now) I know where to put the throttle to get the gear and acceleration I want. I’m actually enjoying the DSG now, but it took a bit of getting used to. Fantastic car!
Thanks Martin. How do you go about showing the power like that on the infotainment screen?
I did put the car into Sport mode once yesterday (when the oil temp was warm) but will try and avoid doing it until the car has more miles on the clock.
MattHGR wrote: Sun May 05, 2019 4:33 pm
Currently at around 80 miles.
I'm religiously using eco mode as it changes gear a lot, stops the engine more often at lights, and disengages the gears when you come off the throttle.
It's quite important to not engine brake too much as it isn't the best way to break in the car.
Hope you're liking it as much as me!
Thanks Matt. What's the difference between Eco and Normal mode? Went for a 10 mile drive today and kept it in Normal mode. Noticed that the gears would change up quite quickly (was on D5 at about 35mph).
Remember reading a thread on here a few months back regarding engine care for a new car. Can't seem to find it out now.
Is there any advice I need to follow in terms of how I should be driving the car for the first however many miles? I'm sure I read something on here about waiting for the Oil temp to warm up before properly putting your foot down.
Any advice would be great.
Hi.
I’d definitely wait for the oil to warm up before pushing the throttle pedal down too much. On the infotainment screen, I always have the ‘Sports’ info showing the power in Kw, the boost pressure and the oil temp. I wait for the oil to be reasonably warm before using the car properly.
During the first 600 miles, I’d avoid full throttle (or at least wait a few hundred miles and then phase it in). Also, vary your speed, gears, loading on the engine - lots of town driving is good. It’s obvious, but don’t just put on cruise control on a motorway and stay at one speed to clock up miles. I didn’t use the sport mode until after 600 miles. I did use the paddles a bit to select the right gear to ensure the engine wasn’t labouring.
Now that the car is run in (1300 miles now) and I’ve learnt how to use the DSG (always driven manual cars until now) I know where to put the throttle to get the gear and acceleration I want. I’m actually enjoying the DSG now, but it took a bit of getting used to. Fantastic car!
Thanks Martin. How do you go about showing the power like that on the infotainment screen?
I did put the car into Sport mode once yesterday (when the oil temp was warm) but will try and avoid doing it until the car has more miles on the clock.
MattHGR wrote: Sun May 05, 2019 4:33 pm
Currently at around 80 miles.
I'm religiously using eco mode as it changes gear a lot, stops the engine more often at lights, and disengages the gears when you come off the throttle.
It's quite important to not engine brake too much as it isn't the best way to break in the car.
Hope you're liking it as much as me!
Thanks Matt. What's the difference between Eco and Normal mode? Went for a 10 mile drive today and kept it in Normal mode. Noticed that the gears would change up quite quickly (was on D5 at about 35mph).
Love it so far.
In normal mode, when you come off the throttle fuel is cut to the engine, allowing you to engine brake.
This isn't the best for breaking in, as you want the piston rings to seat better with the cylinders.
When using eco, the gear disengages on letting off the throttle. This means the engine is still receiving fuel, thus keeping the piston rings pushed out.
I don't think it makes much of a difference, but that's how I'm breaking mine in.
Nothing wrong with engine braking during run in - varies the engine speed, flexes the piston rings. Do it sensibly though. Don't slam it into 3rd at 70 or 2nd at 50 (harder to on a DSG as it gives sequential downshifts rather than being able to miss 3 gears on a manual. Engine braking on a DSG doesn't seem effective - instead of cutting off fuel feed altogether with no throttle, the very slow rate of deceleration implies partial fuelling with no throttle input - the speed drops so much quicker with a manual box.
The trouble with driving DSG fully automatically is if likes to keep you in a very limited rev range if tickling the throttle.
Don't be afraid of putting your foot down a little once the oil is warm.
Worst thing you can do for running in an engine is to baby it or run it on a long motorway cruise to glaze the bores and have poor piston sealing leading to poor fuel economy and high oil consumption.
My work commute is about 13 miles (no motorway, mix of city driving and some nice 60mph roads). Hopefully that's a good combination for bedding the engine in.
To get the sports information on the infotainment screen, hit the ‘Car’ soft button on the right, then as you move your hand to the screen it’ll pop up a select option at the bottom. Tap that, select the ‘Sports’ option and it’ll present three dials. You can swipe the dials up / down to configure the screen for the information you want.
S_94 wrote: Sun May 05, 2019 8:09 pm
That's great thanks Martin.
You’re welcome. The oil temperature only reports from 50.C upwards. That’s usually 4 or more miles from cold. I usually wait until it’s above 70.C until I start accelerating hard. I plan to keep my GTI for quite a few years, so I’m a little OCD about making sure the oil is warm before using the power fully.
Steve_2019 wrote: Sun May 05, 2019 10:30 pm
Don’t engines get breaking in at the factory on the bench these days?
I thought the gentle driving for the first 600 miles more to do breaking in the gearbox and brakes etc.
There is no bench breaking in - that's an expense.mass manufacturers just don't do.
Manufacturing tolerances are tiny these days, no need to. They build the car and hope the engine fires up when the drive train is completely assembled and the car fuelled. Those that don't will get partial reassembly. Not that there will be many.
Tyres aren't optimum for a few hundred miles (that's not to say that a new set of tyres are ridiculously slippy.
Same for the brake pads/discs, they need 200-300miles to bed in fully.
If the engine and gearbox were put together properly, you've no issues there, if you don't thrash a cold engine, labour it or run it in on a 400 mile motorway journey sat at 70 in 6th.
Steve_2019 wrote: Sun May 05, 2019 10:30 pm
Don’t engines get breaking in at the factory on the bench these days?
I thought the gentle driving for the first 600 miles more to do breaking in the gearbox and brakes etc.
There is no bench breaking in - that's an expense.mass manufacturers just don't do.
Manufacturing tolerances are tiny these days, no need to. They build the car and hope the engine fires up when the drive train is completely assembled and the car fuelled. Those that don't will get partial reassembly. Not that there will be many.
Tyres aren't optimum for a few hundred miles (that's not to say that a new set of tyres are ridiculously slippy.
Same for the brake pads/discs, they need 200-300miles to bed in fully.
If the engine and gearbox were put together properly, you've no issues there, if you don't thrash a cold engine, labour it or run it in on a 400 mile motorway journey sat at 70 in 6th.
monkeyhanger like you say don't thrash a cold engine (don't do that with engine that done 40k let alone a brand new engine) labour it etc. my daily drive to work is mainly motorway for 18 miles each way so don't think that hurt a new engine but I will mix my driving for the 1st 600 miles going on back roads etc.
It's likely that I will get mine ahead of a couple of motorway trips.
Maidenhead to Cornwall and back or my recently extended commute of 35 miles each way.
If I can't avoid motorway journies, is this such a bad thing?
