Tips for wearing in my new Mk7?

[Indoctrine]

I got my brand new Mk7 Trendline in manual on Thursday. That night, I took it for an ~80km round trip up the freeway and back to get a feel of the cruise control and handling at 110, part of that was stop start because there was an accident and a few stops down from 90. Other than that, I've been driving round town and occasionally putting my foot down (though my partner says not hard enough).

I'm wondering if anyone has any tips for wearing the car in. This is my first new car and the dealer didn't tell me anything about wearing it in. Does it even need to be done? I'm a reasonably chill driver, so my car doesn't often go over 3,000RPM unless I'm trying to have fun. Also worth noting that my last car, I only put 30,000km on it in 5 years so wearing this one in might take a while.

[Umai Naa!!]

Just drive it as you normally would.

Engines and transmissions are already run and tested, prior to being installed in the car.

[Paul_R]

Modern cars don't need running in. Just drive it like you normally would.

[Mattlock]

You should be a bit careful with braking for the first few hundred km as the pads need time to bed in. This mostly because the car might not stop as quickly.

Likewise, the tyres need a few hundred km to burn off the chemicals used to release the tyre from the mould during manufacture. Again this could just reduce grip levels. It'll probably be gone within 200-300km.

Personally, I'm always careful for the first 1000km, using the full rev range but not bouncing off the red line, dropping the clutch or putting the car under heavy load (accelerating hard in a high gear).


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[Lucas_R]

Freeway driving is literally the worst thing you can do to "run in" a new engine. You need to vary the RPM, vary the speed and put load on the engine (eg accelerate up a hill)

[LibraR]

Freeway driving is literally the worst thing you can do to "run in" a new engine. You need to vary the RPM, cary the speed and put load on the engine (eg accelerate up a hill)

Ditto this. Second worst thing is extended idling. Best thing to do is a few runs up through the hills if you can and keep the revs varying. Freeways and city stop start traffic are not ideal. Lots of people say you don't need to do anything special and so on but they also say using lots of oil can be normal too. Bed the mechanical components in well without labouring, over revving, or glazing up the cylinder bores and you should be rewarded with reliable longevity

[Mattlock]

Bed the mechanical components in well without labouring, over revving, or glazing up the cylinder bores and you should be rewarded with reliable longevity

Could equally be said about using your car all the time too.


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[LibraR]

Could equally be said about using your car all the time too.


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Haha lol... true. I would have more faith in the longevity of an engine dancing near the rev limiter if it was well bedded in than if it had just rolled if the line though... 😀

[Mattlock]

Haha lol... true. I would have more faith in the longevity of an engine dancing near the rev limiter if it was well bedded in than if it had just rolled if the line though...

Agreed!


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[Indoctrine]

Freeway driving is literally the worst thing you can do to "run in" a new engine. You need to vary the RPM, cary the speed and put load on the engine (eg accelerate up a hill)

I live in Adelaide, it was around 80km or so to get a feel of what the car was like on the freeway since my test drive was exclusively around town, we don't really do freeways here so it's not gonna be a consistent thing.

Ditto this. Second worst thing is extended idling. Best thing to do is a few runs up through the hills if you can and keep the revs varying. Freeways and city stop start traffic are not ideal. Lots of people say you don't need to do anything special and so on but they also say using lots of oil can be normal too. Bed the mechanical components in well without labouring, over revving, or glazing up the cylinder bores and you should be rewarded with reliable longevity

I'm sort of holding off on going up into the hills (very popular with enthusiasts round here) till I'm a little more confident with the handling. I'm still getting used to how touchy the brakes are too and last thing I want is for someone impatient getting close and me accidentally hitting them a little too hard... I had DBA T2s and performance pads on my Astra but the Golf brakes even harder than that. As someone mentioned, gotta wear the chemicals off the tyres and brakes.

Being Adelaide, my work run in the morning is around 7am and avoids "peak hour" (which is sort of like normal Sydney traffic at worst). So I'm not experiencing too much stop start there other than the many traffic lights but I'm mostly getting up to the speed limit then back down again in those cases.