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Sedans Honda Civic Honda Civic Break In Questions
25 messages, Last post on Sep 08, 2008 at 6:42 PM
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Replying to: ruking1 (Jul 27, 2007 9:22 pm) So sorry, but what does 75% of red line mean? Do you mean I should take it up 3/4 of the way into the red on the tachometer? |
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Replying to: gabbadabba (Jul 27, 2007 9:48 pm)
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Replying to: blufz1 (Jul 27, 2007 10:51 pm) The way I understand it, 5th gear is for when you're staying at a steady speed on the freeway. If the most stress is in the 5th gear, should I avoid using it altogether on the first long trip and only use the first 4 or would that be a mistake? Thank you all for your feedback -- Driving 101. |
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Replying to: gabbadabba (Jul 27, 2007 9:48 pm) Pay more attention to RPM than which gear you are in. With a MT: Vary the rpm as often as you can. No more than 1/2 throttle, and keep the RPM between say 2500 and 4500 after the 1st 100 miles. Maybe 2500 to 3500 the first 100. With an AT just watch the upper rpm, the tranny will deal with the lower rpm. Kip
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Replying to: gabbadabba (Jul 27, 2007 9:48 pm) So sorry, but what does 75% of red line mean? Do you mean I should take it up 3/4 of the way into the red on the tachometer" Since the goal is proper break in, (now) with out being jerky, you can vary the rpms more and keep the speed more constant (you can do this with an automatic also, but you mentioned you had a 5 speed manual). You can always of course vary both the rpms AND speeds, but it depends on the folks on the trip tolerance.  You got the concept down, but personally I would take the same route and STILL vary the rpms, but in MINUTES not an hour. Since you have a stick, you can also upshift and down shift, in addition to just pressing the accelerator to vary the rpms. I would also agree, you do not want to lug the engine in the execution of proper break in. So to use an example, you pull say 2200 rpms in 5th gear and go 70 mph. If you press the accelerator to go 3200 rpms you will be going faster than you want to. So just down shift. Your rpms will go up (vary) and you will be going closer to 70 mpg. I hope I am not being vague. An example of 75% of redline. Since you have a tach you can graphically see this (my Civic does NOT have a tach). Say redline is 6,000 rpm. 75% of redline would be 4,500 rpm.
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Replying to: ruking1 (Jul 28, 2007 4:52 am) "So to use an example, you pull say 2200 rpms in 5th gear and go 70 mph. If you press the accelerator to go 3200 rpms you will be going faster than you want to. So just down shift. Your rpms will go up (vary) and you will be going closer to 70 mpg. I hope I am not being vague." You're suggesting I should take it up to 3200 in 5th gear (which, for the sake of this discussion, would be, let's say 85) and then shift to 4th (which would result in the engine screaming a bit I guess) and then let it take itself down in speed? Then putting it in 5th again for that loop once again? Is 85 too fast for a break in period or is it the rpms only that matter and not taking it up too high? And, for an 8 hour drive, do I have to do this every few minutes the whole time? Yipes -- no zoning out with books on tape for me this trip.
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Replying to: kipk (Jul 28, 2007 4:17 am) Don't know what throttle is and how to know what 1/2 would be but maybe it means the rpms. Are you suggesting 2500 to 4500 after the first 100 miles only til the end of the break in period? Or all the time? G |
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Replying to: gabbadabba (Jul 28, 2007 8:10 am) The trick is that you want to show your car everything that you might eventually be doing in the future. That means some high, low, and mid-range rpms in each gear. You want to give each gear a chance to see a full-ish spectrum of rpms so that you can give each gear a chance to see what it feels like at low, mid, and high rpms, so that it can wear appropriately, and when you try to go into high rpms later on, your car can deal with it w/o causing damage. For my Si, that meant taking each gear between 2k and ~4.5k-5k rpms. I would speed up or slow down as necessary in order to accomplish that, stay at that speed/rpm rate for 5-15 minutes, then change it up. I cycled through that many times, going up and down my tranny, basically just helping it adjust to my driving style. As to your concerns about mileage, I believe that giving it a full break-in ('full' as in full-spectrum rpms, as I described above) will minimize late gear-wear (after ~3k miles), which would cause extra friction on/between gears(read: lower mileage). If you drive your car too much more wildly than you did during break-in, your car won't like it too much at all. That's why I was fairly liberal with my break-in, and my car's performed beautifully thus-far, including mileage, which has been no lower than 27mpg, as high as 38mpg. For an Si, that's incredible. TAKE NOTE HOWEVER: You do need to 'baby' it in other ways as well. Esp. for the first 300 miles or so, you need to make a concious effort to make everything you do slow and deliberate. Braking, accelerating, shifting, cornering, all of that. You want to push your car, but you need to do it gently and carefully. hopefully all of that hasn't been COMPLETELY confusing, and do keep in mind, I'm no expert. But really, just relax, take it easy a bit, push your car a bit, and you'll be fine. Don't race people, but otherwise your car should perform for you beautifully.
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Replying to: kork13 (Jul 29, 2007 12:57 am) That was the most comprehensive and understandable explanation I've gotten. When you say to baby it in other ways, I think you mean no jack rabbit starts, be careful about any hard braking if I can avoid it, shift as smoothly as possible, don't take corners too sharply, and ease it up into the higher rpms for the first 300 mi or so. Does it also mean I shouldn't downshift to slow it down (which might cause the rpms to get a little higher) or if that's the way I usually drive should I show her that also? It's almost as if you read my mind -- I do like a little racing from the stoplights now and again. But if I break it in as you suggested, will the poor baby be in shock when I start to drive her a little harder from time to time since during the break in period, I never took the rpms above 4.5 to 5? Or is it that by the time the break in period is over, she'll be ready to be driven a little more aggressively? G |
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Replying to: gabbadabba (Jul 29, 2007 5:40 am) However, like I also said, as you progress, you want to build up to more and more demanding stuff. In all technicality, your 'break-in' period could probably be realistically put at around 1200-1500 miles. It's just the first 600 miles (so recommended by Honda) that are the most forming. So what I'm saying is that you also want (need?) to start showing it the higher ranges during the 500-1500 mile period. That will form the necessary wear patterns to allow you to do it without any trouble in the future. I think that's your last question... If you don't show your car the high ranges when it's still willing to break in some good wear patterns (before the engine's become harder/more solid-state), your car would still be able to get up there (as you may have seen eldaino say before, the k20's made for it), it may just not like it quite as much. What you would see in response to it 'not liking' the high rpms (if not broken-in for them) would be decreased fuel economy and possibly slightly decreased performance. Long story short, drive it during the break-in like you normally will, or at least similar, so that your car won't be 'surprised' when you do it later on. On a side note, as far as why I say economy would be hurt... You get good fuel economy by being easy on your engine, as you probably are very familiar with. However, the reason for that is because when you try to punch it and throw your car around more, that causes everything in the engine to bang around alot harder/faster. When an engine is not used to that, it becomes harder for the engine to operate that way, making it work harder, and decreasing your fuel economy, possibly along with your engine performance. This is the general premise I'm going on in this post and my last one.. by showing your car the upper reaches that it was designed for within the first 500-1500 miles or so, your car can still adapt at that point to those sort of wear patterns. This would make your car more able to deal with harder driving, and allow for better economy/performance than if you didn't break it in at all up in the high rpms. Final note... I drive the exact same way, I love to just take my car out and play. Zipping out at random times, and especially since I've been in Germany for the last 3 weeks and miss driving my car, as soon as I get back I'm gonna take her out into the more forested areas, and just go to town with all the winding roads and such. 
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