UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

peeceeuk wrote: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?

It's not terrible.
Maybe try to switch between 5th and 6th every now and then.
Just stops the engine from sitting at a set rpm and load.

I have a strong feeling that I'm going to be stuck in helliday traffic with lots of stopping and starting on my trips to and from Cornwall.
ACC will hopefully come in useful here.
I have bad knees so the less I have to fuss around with pedals, the better. Just an added bonus of the feature for me.
My current Polo has not even got cruise control which is stressful on my knees when enduring long trips.

There is some good advice videos on YouTube in running in a brand new engine.

Worth a look.

Steve_2019 wrote: ↑Mon May 06, 2019 12:20 am There is some good advice videos on YouTube in running in a brand new engine.

Worth a look.

There's a lot of bad advice too - hard to tell the good from bad.

You have the thrash it hard from day 1 camp and the don't take it over half revs until 1500.miles camp.

My opinion is just opinion too, but I've had 9 new VWs and an Audi. All but one have expected mpg, better than expected performance and negligible oil uses between services - mixed driving run in, not afraid to give a bit of stick when the oil is warm.

The one that did its first 800 miles on the motorway (pick up from Burnley for a broker buy driven down to Southampton to visit relatives, across to France on the ferry and driven home to Newcastle ended up being sluggish with poor mpg, used a litre of oil after 300 miles, another at 800 miles and a litre every 1500 miles thereafter.

Last few cars for my wife (Kia sportage / Renalt Captur/ Ford Fiesta / Hyundai IX35) have all been driven by me long distance home.
Sportage and Fiesta from the midlands back to Aberdeen.
Hyundai from Milton Keynes and Renault from Watford.
Cruising as fast as I dare for hours on end, I'm not hanging around when I've got 400 miles to go.
All been perfectly fine, no oil use and normal MPG.
I'm in the 'unnecessary' camp.

Andy Beats wrote: ↑Mon May 06, 2019 9:48 am Last few cars for my wife (Kia sportage / Renalt Captur/ Ford Fiesta / Hyundai IX35) have all been driven by me long distance home.
Sportage and Fiesta from the midlands back to Aberdeen.
Hyundai from Milton Keynes and Renault from Watford.
Cruising as fast as I dare for hours on end, I'm not hanging around when I've got 400 miles to go.
All been perfectly fine, no oil use and normal MPG.
I'm in the 'unnecessary' camp.

Thinking about it when my dad 1st had his Ford Fiesta from Brand new I don’t remember him running it in he just got in it and drove it normally. And it never used oil or the MPG was not affected.

Even so I still feel happier for the 1st 600 miles just bed it in gently with bit mix driving half throttle etc.

Can anyone explain 'engine braking' in a bit more detail regarding the DSG gear box?

Am I right in thinking that engine breaking is letting the car slow down without me using the breaks? Is this bad during the breaking in period?

I don't use manual mode at the moment, would this be the most common way to engine brake with the DSG box?

Currently at 300 miles and I'm probably being a little paranoid with this whole breaking in period but just want to take care of the car! As you can probably tell I'm not the most clued up on cars, trying to learn though.

This is my basic understanding and I am probably at the same level of understanding with cars as you compared to others in here.
Engine braking is using the gears to slow you down.
Eco mode in DSG lets you freewheel which is the equivalent to dropping to neutral in a manual box and then using your brakes to slow you down instead of controlling your speed by engaging the relevant gear for your overall engine speed and mph.
Freewheeling or rolling along in neutral, not having a gear engaged, from memories of my Father narrating his driving while I was young, is actually illegal.
I, like you, don't understand the negative impact of engine braking over manual braking during the run in period so would also be interested to know if there is any preference with regards having the engine or the brakes do the work when it comes to slowing down during a run in period.
I suspect that the difference is very marginal.

Thanks peeceeuk. From reading other forums their seems to be different opinions on engine braking and breaking in a new car in general.

I did about 100 miles driving in Eco mode but found the throttle response slightly annoying, might switch back though until I hit around 600 miles.

Keen to learn as much as possible.

Eco mode will give you the least throttle response as it is aiming to get you up to speed as economically as possible.
It's not so bad but I suppose it depends what you were used to driving before.
My last car was a 1.2 tsi that really didn't have any poke at all so even Eco mode in this car feel a bit punchier.
I gave it a try yesterday for a few miles.
It did hang me in 4th at 35 mph though which I found odd.
I would have thought 5th would have been more suitable but the revs were at 1500rpm. 5th might have been the wrong gear. I'm not going to argue with its choice.

My dealer told me to run it in with the car in ‘Normal’ mode

I'll have done 500 miles in my GTi by Wednesday evening, and I've been careful to keep revs down and only push it a little once warm etc.

On Wednesday evening I need to go down to London which is 200 miles from my North Manchester workplace.
A key part of break in was that you don't use cruise control as the same RPMs over 30 minutes at a time isn't best for breaking in.
Any thoughts on this?

Between Manchester and Birmingham, I'll be in 50 zones most of the time so I'll bounce between fifth and sixth gear, but after that it's pretty much open road.
Will l be ok at a steady 70mph for 100 straight miles or should I try to vary a little and go from 60 to 70 and maybe drop to fifth for 30s here and there ?

Thanks
Matt

MattHGR wrote: ↑Mon May 20, 2019 12:49 pm A key part of break in was that you don't use cruise control as the same RPMs over 30 minutes at a time isn't best for breaking in.
Any thoughts on this?

My thoughts are that it's horlicks.
Had quite a few cars that were driven hundreds of miles home, either by me or by delivery guys.
No mechanical maladies at all with any of them.