So now I have 1200 miles on my 135i. Does this mean I can start playing?

[twinturbo135i]

I've been told 1200 miles in the magical break in point for our beloved 135i cars. I can honestly say that I babied the car 90% of those 1200 miles so that has me feeling good.

so now, I'm ready to go find some trouble as in picking on some Mustangs or maybe even a couple of Corvettes.

what do you guys think? am I ready to start playing?

[0002s]

I think you waited 1199 more miles that I did. Go enjoy yourself.

[wrongprotocol]

I went to the service dept where I bought the car and asked one of the service guys about how i should go about breaking in my car. He said he's been with bmw for 15 years and people treat break-ins like a religion - everyone subscribes to their own belief. He said some people say 'drive it like you stole it', others say baby it...but out of all of the cars he sees, he said he's never seen any problems due to an "incorrect" break-in on the bmw's. this may not apply to all cars, but he said the bmw's have always been very forgiving.

I drove mine easy about 3/4 of the time, and killed it the other 1/4. i'm at 1400 miles now.

anyway, I just thought i'd share what he said. take from it what you wish.

[BMW135iCA]

I would say that some fun wouldn't hurt, I wouldn't redline it everytime I hit it though.

Chris

[Ragenikon]

The guys at the performance center told me after the 1200 mark to start bringing up the RPM slowly to work each gear in. You got the green flag to push it all the way, but to caution sake let the car warm up a little then start pushing each a little higher each time. Just what i've been doing....

[jtsherri]

Like 0002s, I don't have nearly as much will-power as you do. I've still yet to pound on the car from the line to make sure other components have time to break-in, but after about 250 miles I really started running the car "medium-hard" and more recently have no problems holding WOT through the powerband. It hasn't complained one bit; however, I will be doing my own oil change at the 1200 mile mark to get any contaminates out.

Enjoy the car!

[Tom K.]

Originally Posted by Ragenikon

The guys at the performance center told me after the 1200 mark to start bringing up the RPM slowly to work each gear in. You got the green flag to push it all the way, but to caution sake let the car warm up a little then start pushing each a little higher each time. Just what i've been doing....

That always made sense to me and it has resulted in BMW's that never needed any oil between 7,500 mile changes. I can live with a 6,000 RPM max from 1,200 to 1,500 miles.
Tom

[BerkTechnology]

Originally Posted by wrongprotocol

I went to the service dept where I bought the car and asked one of the service guys about how i should go about breaking in my car. He said he's been with bmw for 15 years and people treat break-ins like a religion - everyone subscribes to their own belief.

That's a good one. Agree 100%.

My "religion": drive the car easy for 1000 miles, change the oil, then go for it.

I'd prefer to break in on non-synthetic oil but with the temps these darn motors run at I'd be scared to run dino oil.

In case anyone is wondering why you need to "break in" the motor, you need to allow the piston rings to seal properly. The early oil change is to flush out all of the debris that are in every new motor (metal shavings, gunk, crap, etc.)

The tolerances that modern engines are built at now won't need as much wear in as they used to, but I don't want the break in gods to strike me down. So I'll play it safe for now.