Does P have a 2k mile engine break-in? 4200 max revs. Why? 1000 miles and another 1000 miles to go? German torture. There oughta be a law.
I was wondering about this too, after the thread about your new Boxter S... does the computer actually handle this limit? Meaning, you cannot exceed it? Not that you SHOULD ... as I was "warming up" Sophia yesterday on a drive, shifting 1>3 for 10 minutes, keeping revs below 4k, I was thinking about this very issue. Congrats on the car, though. I mean - your WIFE'S car..... Jedi
the computer has no effect. you CAN take it all the way to the redline...which is tempting. I remember my break-in on my BMW M3...don't go over 100 mph for the first 100 miles! Never had a problem with the engine either.
My break in always worked like this, start car, drive the piss out of car. Never had a single problem. Sorry one car I had to wait on was the 07 M6 had to bring that in at 1200 miles to have them give it full power, then I drove the piss out of it.
This would be a great idea if I knew I was going to trade it before the warranty runs out in 4 years or 50k miles. By the time I figure that out will be way over the 2k break-in period.
My Audi S5 was similar - "do not exceed 3/4 of the maximum speed marked on the speedometer" during the initial break-in period, 1000 miles. The speedometer is marked to 300 km/h (186 mph), so 3/4 is 225 km/h, about 139 mph. I honoured that restriction...
In today's era of black boxes, I would be leery of what effect grossly violating the break in period may have on your warranty. For example, a Lotus Dealer warned me that Lotus checks the Elise/Exige's "black box" at your first service and if you thrashed the engine during the break in period they will void your warranty. What Porsches position is I have no idea. A friend of mine bought a Porsche Boxster Spyder and told the dealer he was taking it from the lot directly to the track. The dealer had no issue with that whatsoever and did not raise a warranty flag.
never adhered to break in instructions in any of my porsches and never had the slightest problem. just be easy on it until engine oil is fully warmed up and then just enjoy.
My warranty on my 997S was only 24 hours anyway, I took the thing apart rebuilt it from the chasis up supercharged it, them drove the piss out of it. Four years later it is still running like a champ.
If it was mine, I'd do exactly as instructed of the first 1000 miles, then for the next 1000 I'd take it up more, but not too often. Those restrictions are there so that the engine breaks in and gives you the longest life possible. People who have said they've had no problems probably haven't had their cars 150k miles to find out if there were issues or not. I'd drive it responsibly, but I'd give it some gas every now and then for that next 1000. Just my opinion.
Drove to Denver and back today. Now we have 1630 break-in miles. 370 to go. Problem: the car will be garaged for six weeks while we are away at the lake...my wife thinks she needs to take more stuff than the 987 can hold. And she does not want to get bugs on the car (lots of bugs in Illinois). sigh. We will be on the boat alot though. Still there are some great sports car roads in the hills there.
what lake? btw, I should offer my consulting services on how to put 2k miles on a Porsche in 36 hours. I could call it "GuyIncognito's break-in expediting service"
the Lake of Egypt which is 10 miles south of Marion, Illinois. 90+ miles of shoreline. On the boat in a few days. Life is good.
My Lotus dealer told me the same. Phil I LOL when I read your first post while I feel your pain The reason some cars want a break in is the way the cars are prepared for shipment. They use a variant of cosmolin on the engine pistons, rings and some internals. This protects the car in most climatic conditions while it helps performance once broken in. The break in period is meant to slowly wear off this chemical and help develop a smooth cylinder wall lining. When I was working and designing machines we would send a fair amount overseas. We would prepare them with Cosmolin for the long sea journey, ie salt water. Is it important? only for the Germnans. They want everything they manufacture to be perfect. Maybe this is why german stuff is sought after. To be fair I have been retired for a long time and maybe the protective agent has changed and I am not even sure I spelled it correctly. Lee
I asked about that when I picked up my 2010 C4S two summers ago. I had something like that for my Boxster, and was concerned that my touring around Germany on the autobahn, and elsewhere, would be constrained. The Porsche service representative who helped me out, replied that was only true in the United States, because it has long stretches of highway where you could be at the same engine speed for a long time, and that was not good for the engine. In Europe, he continued, that did not apply since the road system naturally did not permit you to set the cruise control for long periods: the roads are too twisty. Or at least on the Autobahn, you vacillate between unrestricted and restricted-speed sections of the highway. stepheda
This is the biggest load of bs I've ever heard. Yes, porsche coats the engine and various suspension components in cosmoline. To think they coat the engine internals is cosmoline is ludicrous! Where the hell did you hear that? Engine break in is BS. Do you think some magic happens between 1999 miles and 2001 miles where all of a sudden the engine is ready to be used hard? Its crap. there are ways to do a correct, hard break in, but since I'm sure no one will listen, I won't bother posting the link.
I've completely rebuilt a few 3.2 engines and would never consider pounding on them straight away. Nor do I think many folks who spent weeks/months of their time & a fair bit of money going through their motors would do so. Generally speaking, you'd like cylinder pressure to seat the rings and varying the revs would prevent the glazing of the new cylinders. FWIW, when I took delivery of the Boxster Spyder, the service manager said the 2K break in is more for the suspension bits & pieces to gel together than the engine??? Sadly, I've had it since November and haven't even hit 1,000 miles yet. I have about 50x that many airline miles during the same time period
Agreed. Although I think Porsche suggests not exceeding 5000 rpm, obviously not 2K. I believe the low rev- even sustained consistent revs (long distance highway driving) is what should be avoided. That, and not allowing the engine to bog down. Even though the break in period is probably overkill, when you cut a check for a minimum of $70K its a small inconvenience to protect your investment. My car was delivered with 6 miles on the clock, so it was obviously not put through its paces. I be curious to know if anyone's new 997 GT3/GT2 was delivered with more miles, i.e. did Porsche flog it around a track to make sure everything was kosher? They obviously don't test drive the Boxsters.
