Tips for breaking in a brand new engine?

[WhiteJames]

Almost at 23,000km and a couple of weeks shy of 1 year of ownership, the Mark 6 GTI has not used any oil. The GTI did not use any oil up to first service: 0 – 15,000km. In the 8,000km from 15,000km – 23,000km, on synthetic oil and with added city use, albeit on weekends, had me thinking the EA888 in the MK6 GTI would start using a bit of oil. Not the case so far. Very impressed with this aspect of the Mark 6 GTI and newer EA888 motor. The older MKV GTI would’ve used a little bit of synthetic oil with mixed use driving and some harder use on extended hill climbs that can see oil temps up to 115 - 120 degrees – probably about 50-100ml per 1,000km on the older MKV GTI.

Not sure whether the EA888 motor is softer or harder than the earlier EA113 motor, but understand that the EA888 was developed in conjunction with metallurgy experts to ensure that the pistons, rings and block expand at about the same rate, helping limit oil usage. Claim appears to be true in my case with the MK6 GTI.

Other issues that contribute to low oil usage are likely to be: No short trips of less than 20 min ensure motor reaches proper operating temp of 100 degrees Celsius (95-105 is the preferred band as the thermostat is closed under 95 degrees and completely open at 105 degrees for the GTI). The proper operating temps help blow out the unburnt recirculated gases that is fed back into the motor when warming up. Frequent short journeys can often affect the oil with this crap.

I thought that the predominately touring/country driving I did helped with oil consumption in the first period of 0 – 15,000km. In the 8,000km of recent driving in terms of operating time, half the time is spent in city driving (albeit on weekends in or around the CBD/Eastern Suburbs/South Coast) with the average speed is only about 30kph, which means no oil usage in either country or city driving so far. Very happy. The exhaust scavenging waste-gate rattle hasn’t improved or worsened. Can’t have your cake and eat it too I guess.

Cheers.
WJ

[hooba]

WhitehJames - when you are talking about the 95-105 celsius, are you talking about oil or water? I assume water, however the water temp gauge isn't that accurate. :S

To offer another perspective on this, on my car:

1. I didn't baby it on run in, but didn't cane it either. Put plenty of load on it for the first 100km.
2. I do heaps of short trips - at least 6 a week from cold of less than 1.5kms.

I'm coming up on 10 months ownership, and haven't used a drop of oil.

[AdamD]

WhitehJames - when you are talking about the 95-105 celsius, are you talking about oil or water? I assume water, however the water temp gauge isn't that accurate.

WJ is talking about oil temp I believe.

[nat225]

i always have the oil temp on my MFD as this helps me to know when to hit hard or stay gentle.

so, i also believe WJ is talking about the oil temp.

i don't pay much attention to the water temp, oil temp is more important.

[Corey_R]

Yeah - the GTI engine runs hotter than the R engine as far as oil temps are concerned. No big deal though.

[mrprawn]

OK,

I have read up on the topic of breaking/running engines in on various forums and there is clearly a split between running them hard from the get go and following the manual. I am a proponent of listening to the engineers at VW (ie. following the manual), but would like to know if there is any long term damage to the engine if you put your foot down a few times - ie. exceeding 5000RPM briefly doing 200m sprints (provided the oil and coolant have reached the required temps). Also, when trying out the paddles in +/- mode last week, I accidentally red-lined when downshifting when trying to over-take some slow-poke at the lights (embarrassing ).

Would this have any long term damage?? Or am I being paranoid?

Sorry, for stupid questions, just worries about braking the thing...last thing I want is a R350k+ lemon...

[brad]

well if you have damaged anything, then it's in the past & can't be undone..... So you may as well drive the wheels off the thing

paranoid.

[ethosguy]

I...don't reckon anyone, at least on this forum could tell you, maybe Guy H or similar. Only a test lab engine would have followed the prescription to the letter.
I don't think the temptation has ever been totally resisted. Unless this type of car is mundane to the owner, ie they have an R8, feral competition vehicle or other...the urge to take a bit of a peek to the potential is overwhelming, eh?

[zbeasty]

I know a guy that has built competition engines for a long time. His son used to race sprint cars and they would build a motor and take it straight to the track. Run in was a couple of laps in practice to get up to temperature then run it hard all night. In 8 or 9 seasons of racing they never had an engine issue. They'd pull them down at the end of a season, put a fresh set of bearings in them (didn't have to but may as well with the engine apart) and they'd be ready as a spare for next season. If it wasn't for the constant development that happens in racing they would have used the same motor year after year but something that is head of the pack one season is lagging behind the next. I know these are hand built racing motors not mass produced cars but these things are pushed really hard and have no issues from the time they are first cranked over. With the way that modern cars are built, unless there is a component failure you aren't going to do any damage by loading the motor up from the start.

[Diesel_vert]

Heh, imagine taking the keys to a brand-spanking new Mercedes SLS, and then finding the running-in instructions.

Intolerable! (for the first 1,500 km at least).