[know1isgod]

I picked up my car friday (yea for me). Dealership said first 200 miles keep it under 70. Book says first 1200 miles keep it under 100 and avoid using kick down auto shift. any ideas?

[E90Fleet]

Follow the manuals reccomendation

[Frank_NJ]

Read and follow the owners manual.

[scottz5]

I have 500 miles and took my car up to 5 1/2k. I dont really believe in break in. I drive it they way I would everyday, but I wont redline it for awhile just to be safe. Different car but I went to the Corvette plant they dyno each car about 2 min. after they start it for the 1st time. They took the RPM's all the way to redline on the z06 when I was there. They do this for each car that comes off the line.

[gtaste]

Ditto on mftr testing cars coming off the lines. I was in BMW Spartanburg plant. They strapped the Z4 on roller and ran it throught redline for several gears...

[ldpantoja]

I did a proper break in just in case. I'm still debating wether I should do a break-in oil change or not.

[Tierfreund]

Don´t follow the manual. If you want a fast car with a powerfull motor and no Oil consumption:

Warm her up for 5 - 7 miles

and then give her a heavy foot.

Full throttle, Up and and down the revband (I´d suggest max 5000 RPM for the first 300 miles and max 6000 RPM for the next 400 miles). Keep switching between full and zero throttle (load). Break her in within a few days on long stretches (not to many cold starts within the breakin). Vary the revs and load conditions as heavily as you can.
This will seal the piston rings well and give you good compression and low oil consumption.

Change the Oil after about a thousand miles, no matter what the dealer tells you. Don´t believe the fairy-tailes about special break-in Oil.

http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

To break in the brakes: Warm the brakes by left-foot braking gently for a miles keeping the other foot on the gas. Then accelerate to 65 and do an almost full power brake to 10mph (DON´T come to a full stop). Reaccelerate imediatley and repeat 10 times (The braks my start smelling, fuming and getting soft). DON´T STOP. After the procedure just roll on for a few miles to let the brakes cool off. At no time while the brakes are hot should you come to a full stop (Otherwise the pads will leave a mark on the discs that will cause a vibration for the rest of the discs life).

http://www.stoptech.com/whitepapers/...otors_myth.htm

I´ve broken in many engines and brakes by the "official" methods suggested by the manufacturers and have allways ended up with slow, oil burning engines and brak disks the starteted to vibrate at high-speed heavy braking.

Since I´ve adapted the heavy-foot method (not a no-brainer, you still have to consider what you´re doing such as warming up properly and not coming to a full stop with hot brakes), my cars have become faster and more efficient and the brakes finally live up to my expectations.

Consider rental cars that get treated rough from day one. Or company pool cars. They´re usually the fastest examples of any spec of car.

[Hornet]

Originally Posted by Tierfreund

Don´t follow the manual. If you want a fast car with a powerfull motor and no Oil consumption:

Warm her up for 5 - 7 miles

and then give her a heavy foot.

Full throttle, Up and and down the revband (I´d suggest max 5000 RPM for the first 300 miles and max 6000 RPM for the next 400 miles). Keep switching between full and zero throttle (load). Break her in within a few days on long stretches (not to many cold starts within the breakin). Vary the revs and load conditions as heavily as you can.
This will seal the piston rings well and give you good compression and low oil consumption.

Change the Oil after about a thousand miles, no matter what the dealer tells you. Don´t believe the fairy-tailes about special break-in Oil.

Interesting info and actually makes sense.

[Kao BMW]

Kick down auto shift? anyone care to explain?

[z1ppo325i]

down shifting... automatically by pushing on the pedal...

[F32Fleet]

Originally Posted by Tierfreund

Don´t follow the manual. If you want a fast car with a powerfull motor and no Oil consumption:

Warm her up for 5 - 7 miles

and then give her a heavy foot.

Full throttle, Up and and down the revband (I´d suggest max 5000 RPM for the first 300 miles and max 6000 RPM for the next 400 miles). Keep switching between full and zero throttle (load). Break her in within a few days on long stretches (not to many cold starts within the breakin). Vary the revs and load conditions as heavily as you can.
This will seal the piston rings well and give you good compression and low oil consumption.

Change the Oil after about a thousand miles, no matter what the dealer tells you. Don´t believe the fairy-tailes about special break-in Oil.

http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

To break in the brakes: Warm the brakes by left-foot braking gently for a miles keeping the other foot on the gas. Then accelerate to 65 and do an almost full power brake to 10mph (DON´T come to a full stop). Reaccelerate imediatley and repeat 10 times (The braks my start smelling, fuming and getting soft). DON´T STOP. After the procedure just roll on for a few miles to let the brakes cool off. At no time while the brakes are hot should you come to a full stop (Otherwise the pads will leave a mark on the discs that will cause a vibration for the rest of the discs life).

http://www.stoptech.com/whitepapers/...otors_myth.htm

I´ve broken in many engines and brakes by the "official" methods suggested by the manufacturers and have allways ended up with slow, oil burning engines and brak disks the starteted to vibrate at high-speed heavy braking.

Since I´ve adapted the heavy-foot method (not a no-brainer, you still have to consider what you´re doing such as warming up properly and not coming to a full stop with hot brakes), my cars have become faster and more efficient and the brakes finally live up to my expectations.

Consider rental cars that get treated rough from day one. Or company pool cars. They´re usually the fastest examples of any spec of car.

I too have seen this site, howeve a couple of things to mention.

#1 The guy does this with motorcycle engines not Automobile engines.

#2 The guy also recommends u use non-synthetic oil during this break-in period.

[JVFan]

Yeah..I don't buy this one bit.Too each their own but not on my car.

[scottz5]

I beat the crap out of my Z06 from day one and mine never burnt oil as many did and I ran faster 1/4 times then almost all the stock Z's on z06vette.com. So maybe that guy is right. All I know is that if BMW and others beat on them at the plant then it must be fine.

[David328M-Sport]

my dealer told me not to wrap my car up in cotton wool. just take it through various, safe scenarios. don't over do it though.

my thoughts are that the bmw engines are so well refined, they are designed to be free willing and high reving.

just tapping on the accelerator a little harder than normal, my engine revs so freely that it's almost like its daring or wanting me to push it. it's ok david, let's GO!!!

it so wants to rev, and i have travelled only 150kms.

anyway, that's my experience and observations with my wonderful e90.

any one else concur?

[thrill30]

When I complained to my dealer about the many kilometres left before I can "fully enjoy my car", the response was that I don't have to treat the car with kid-gloves at all....

Well, I'm taking the safer route, but occasionally I do hit 5500RPM for a few seconds each time....and that's about where the real fun is anyway.

So far so good.... she's running perfectly....no issues at all.

[scottz5]

Originally Posted by thrill30

When I complained to my dealer about the many kilometres left before I can "fully enjoy my car", the response was that I don't have to treat the car with kid-gloves at all....

Well, I'm taking the safer route, but occasionally I do hit 5500RPM for a few seconds each time....and that's about where the real fun is anyway.

So far so good.... she's running perfectly....no issues at all.

Thats what I do!

[fredtoo]

My practice has always been to give it a few runs up the rpm range in the lower gears (once it is properly warmed up), but not a top speed run while breaking in the motor.

I also dump the oil after several hundred miles.

[dnh325i]

The idea for break in is to load the engine HP and torque at moderate speeds to achieve the cylinder pressures required to seat the piston rings. You can do this with a brisk acceleration, stopping short of the redline, somewhere in the 4500 to 5500 range.

The car manuals in general will be very conservative with their break-in recommendations, to keep people from doing something stupid with their engine, like taking the car out and running thru the desert at 130mph for a couple hours. Though some argue this is the best way to break in the engine, conventional wisdom suggests moderation.

[thrill30]

I treated my E46 with kid-gloves from the time of breaking it in. During the 2 years of driving it, I realised that it felt rather slow and sluggish... it's probably something I inadvertently caused during break-in by being too "soft" on it.... I don't know, but after reading a few comments on this topic, I'm begining to think that's what happened in my E46.

If that is indeed true, I don't want to repeat the same mistake with the E90... I don't want to end up with a lazy/wheezing car.

[cosmosblau]

I was told by my dealer that ther is no break -in period- that I should drive at varying RPM's.

.....And to drive it like it's stolen- it's a BMW!

[MBChariot]

I am going to have to agree also, the way you break in your car is the way that it is going to drive. I won't say I redlined my M3 but I drove it and I don't burn any oil and that baby moves, I did the same thing on my E90 and I know it is going to do fine. All of my cars have seemed faster than others and others have noticed. I just think that your car remembers how it was driven and if you baby it than it will drive like one.

[Thavash]

My car now has 2700 kms on it. It is noticeably smoother and more free revving now. I didn't baby it during break - in , and took it up to 5000 rpm regularly. Now it just wants to go to redline.