Picked up my 2002 Black/Red yesterday. Asked the dealer's Maintenance Manager what the break in procedure would need to be. He said don't drive at the same RPM for more than 5-10 minutes the first several hundred miles and I should be OK. I asked if I needed to stay out of VTEC or below a certain RPM, he said no, just take it easy for the first few hundred miles.

Drove home from the dealer (about 120 miles), stayed under 6K, varied RPM by running in different gears at different speeds, did not horse around. Got home, took it out in the country and ran it up to 8500 2-3 times to play a little, took it home to the garage. Did not drive it today.

Reading the manual last night I see on page 122: "Do not exceed 5500 RPM for the first 600 miles of operation." Just great........!

So what lasting damage have I done? Am I well and truly hosed?

 

Don't sweat it.

Your car will be fine. You know how a car has 7 or 11 miles or so on it when you pick it up...well at least 4-5 of those of from the PDI test drive done by a dealership mechanic. I promise you that you were not the first one to hit 8500rpms with it. This happens to all new cars.

The car will be fine.

 

Aw, com'on, aren't you going to let him be paranoid for a while

 

i believe honda runs thier engines to redline before putting them in the car to ensure that they don't blow up if someone does what you did. just keep your rpms down for next few hundred miles and you will be fine


bassem

 

Paranoia ownz j00 !!!!

 

How many of us probably has our cars redlined on test drives before we bought them? Probably most of us. I know I did it when I test drove a silver S2000 in New Hampshire, however I didn't know you weren't supposed to.

 

There's also the alternative school of thought which is to run it HARD IMMEDIATELY. Check out this link for more info. Who really knows? Anyone's guess.

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

 

The main reason for a break in period is to allow the rings to seat against the cylinder walls. The cylinder wall is roughened (honed) during the assembly process. After the cylinders are bored to the proper size, a rough grinding stone is used to create scratches on the cylinder walls. These scratches are there for two reasons: First, they provide a source of wear for the new rings. This wear will help to shape the rings into the exact shape of the cylinder walls. Secondly, this roughness is there to provide a place for oil to form a film on the cylinder walls.

With an improper break in, two things can happen, the rings may not get precisely worn into the proper shape, and/or the roughness of the cylinder wall will be removed entirely and there will not be a good surface for the oil to form a film on.

I doubt that a couple of times over 5500 RPM won't hurt the engine, however the break in period is there for a good reason. I think Honda probably knows quite a bit about engines and doesn't put this information into the owners manual unless they have a good reason for it.

The web site quoted in the last post has some interesting ideas, but it's not very scientific. They show a picture of two pistons that were used in engines with different break in methods, and then run for a number of miles/races. One piston is clean and shiny like it is new, and the other is dirty and varnised. This is of course attributed to the difference in break in periods. What they fail to mention is that this difference in appearance could be due to many other factors. Mixture settings, engine operating temperatures, oil types and number of changes, etc... could have been a factor.

 

You are not alone! Not sure I got to 8500 RPM (2002 black/black) but I did light up a fair number of those tach diodes.

Why is it that "cracking the shrink wrap" on the manual is the last thing we do? Well, this is a technical forum, not a philosophical one.

Equally glad that I didn't permanently destroy anything. Will behave for the next 400 miles.