Manual says not to hit vtec for the first 600 miles. Doesn't get more clear than that.

If you didn't get your car in plastic, chances are that every test drive involved multiple vtec hits.

 

As long as it was properly warmed up, driving it hard from the get go is the proper way to break in an engine.

 

That's the 'gentle' truth.

It is also VERY likely to have mis-shift over-revs.

Test drivers, new to the car, 'testing' it out, and trying to shift it hard to see what it can do. They are not used to the shift pattern (having NEVER driven the car before).

Not a great leap to have someone hit the wrong gear.

 

Sure- but if it was overreved it would likely have been damaged at that point right? I would not expect a "damaging" overrev to be silent until past the warranty then suddenly appear.

 

If it's an AP2 it would throw a CEL for an overrev, too.

 

There are 2 entirely different opinions out there regarding engine break-in periods. I remember EVO magazine got a zero mile 2001 BMW Z3 "M Coupe" the 315 hp one. They beat the snot out of it right out of the gate and it was the fastest one they ever tested. Babying your "S" for 1k might not be all it's cracked up to be.While I agree bouncing the tach off its rev limiter right from mile 0 probably isn't a great idea, I think babying too much isn't such a great idea either.

 

Does an over-rev automatically throw a CEL? If it did throw a CEL (but did not impart apparent damage) would it be a far leap to assume the dealer would simply reset the light?

The damage I would be concerned about would not be valve impacts or other obvious catastrophic failures.

I would be worried about bent, cracked, stressed retainers.

Things that did not 'fail' yet.

A crack or stress imparted by the over-rev that has weakened the retainer.

Now, as Joe new car buyer cheerfully drives his car at high performance levels (VTEC - high RPM) the cracks worsen over time and and the retainer fails.

Not due to something you did wrong, but just via aggressive (but within specs) driving.

So...imagine this happening at 12k or 25k...you take it to the dealer for warranty work.

Guess what? They will say that the retainers would not have failed without an over-rev. They would be correct. The car was over-reved in the test drive before your purchase. Now...PROVE IT. You better have Midas' luck.

The hidden damage is now your problem, and you will have a difficult time (if not impossible) of convincing them that you did not cause the problem.

Break out that checkbook, aggravation, and a cheerful smile.

 

When I got my 05 s2k, it had 150 dealer demo miles (75 at two different dealers). I've always wondered about the demo treatment. When I finally got around to putting a rap CD in, I found it had a blown driver's side speaker. I figure it was probably blown during the demo period. I expect that the recomended engine breakin was probably not fully followed either. I followed the recomended break in procedure for the rest of the 600 miles. In the 21 mos I've had the car, I've put ~24k miles on it with no issues (currently driving it ~300 mls/wk.). I wanted a yellow one fresh off the truck, but for $29,800 OTD, I decided to take the chance on the yellow demo. So far, so good.

 

Its fine, just drive the car. Honda redlines the engine before it even goes into the chassis.

 

And it's bullshit.

I'm not sure what's worse. The fact that this tripe still plagues car forums or the fact that there are people ignorant enough to believe it?