kingofire

Alright, the manufacturers always recommend breaking in the car gently for the first 500 miles or so but I am of the opposite belief and always break in my cars by driving them hard and redline them and then brake and repeat the process about 10 times or so. All my previous car have handled this fine and have gone to see 250,000+ miles, so i have no reason to do otherwise...

I did the same with my dad's ES350 yesterday and after the 4th cycle of this process there was a burning smell permeating from the vents since i had the air on fresh and believe me it wasnt the smell of rubber. So i promptly took the car home which was 2 minute drive and opened the hood and I could smell it but everything looked fine. There was no spilled oil on the engine that could have caused the smell or anything else I could find. I am just a little worried? Anyone have any ideas what it could be or anyone use this method which is described on www.mototuneusa.com and experienced this?

P.S. The place I did this process is desolate and unhabitated so there was no iminent danger to people so please no flames. The car is sweeeeeet!

LexBob2

Not sure what the smell would be. Maybe some plastic wrap that was left on the car near the engine that was missed during the dealer prep? I've always followed the mfgrs. recommendations for the break-in period, since they built the car and no doubt have some history with the engine, trans etc. Or maybe it was the new brakes getting hot? Good luck. Probably no harm was done. I agree with the sweeet comment.

VroomVroom

The car is sweet. Since it's my wife's I rarely get to drive it, but from every perspective it's a terrific machine.

I could only guess at the cause of the smell. You mentioned it wasn't rubber, but hot brakes and cooked oil each have their own very unique scents...did it fit either of those? How does the oil look?

amf1932

I agree wholeheartedly!!!

<VENOM>

seems odd you do this to all your cars but you freak out cause of a burning smell run any car hard new or with any given amount of mileage and it will smell burnt, I would not worry about it, probably the trans

ESsearch

Brand new engines have tight tolerences and will generate more heat until broken in. Your approach only exagerated the condition and might not have done any serious damage.
BTW - Your approach is much more of a testament to the durability of modern engines rather than the validity of the method.

Pete

Pheonix

my personal opinion is to buy the car, change the oil immediately, then drive the ****ing wheels off it.
It'll imbed the rings better (more power, longer life), plus the engine is already mostly broken in at the factory after they crank it up & let it bounce off the redline once it's warm.
The other side of the arguement is, "do what they tell you", "it will continue to break in for a looooong time", "this is how everyone has always said do it" etc. etc.


I have person experiance from both view points. I'm extremely active in vehicle maintenance, so the first opinion does not bother me... I know there won't be junk floating through the bearings because I know it would never see a month without fresh oil & tranny fluid in the beginning.


It's your vehicle, do whatever you wish. Just follow the maintenance schedule atleast as often as specified early on... You know you could put like 8-9 quarts of oil in the engine using an oil filter relocator & dual 1FZ filters. if it were synthetic It'd probably get 20,000 miles on an oil change. But that is defiantely NOT what you would want to do on a 1,000 mile old engine! That would be stupid lol! Save that for after the OEM warranty!








My person opinion... Is that the engine is pretty much ready to rock by the time you buy it - it just needs good oil & some flogging & an oil flushing. It's the REST of the car you're taking it easy for. Seriously... The car probably has tens, if not hundreds of miles evne when they are selling them fast. Even if it say a 1/2 mile, that engine was run hard at the factory after assembly.



I think it's more so people don't immediately take a vehicle out & drive it hard & have it fall apart under warranty. You know they really do check all the points at dealers the spec sheet says. I think what supports my theory best is that has anyone ever noticed how in the first 20,000 miles (year and a half or so) of ownership (give or take abit). Literally every nut & bolt, or inspectable item of the major systems Suspensions, Frame, Brakes, Axles that the vehicle WILL NOT operate safely without.
They ALL are inspected, regardless of brand!
For the engine it's pretty much "turns over, doesn't leak, or smoke - ALOT". LoL!


God forbid an OEM did something like fudge the torque specs on a suspension mount, brake, etc. (Don't think it's not very common either... Look at almost all FWD Chrystler's, or hell even most Toyota/Lexus from 1990-1994 - the fuel filters were incorrectly torqued to like 70ft/lbs+ and are almost impossible to remove! So ya it happens!)






Sorry I'm rambling. But ya.... Aslong as it's under their warranty do whatever they want. But I wouldn't be afraid at all of damaging the engine if you're really getting after it early. I think it helps mate the piston's ring seat, and the ring to cylinder wall. Just change the oil & filter more than specified early on & use quality oils...

osokuko

What you smell is a hot engine, it’s normal. A brand new car with 10 miles will smell hot just coming home from the dealership for the first time, but that will go away in a week or so. I use the smell as a gauge for the break in process. Hot means fiction, don’t want that, no hot smell means it’s setting in, I try to keep the break in process just below where I start to smell the hot smell again if that makes since. I noticed on the ES350 it took about 2500 mile to feel the full power of that engine and the mileage really improved.

Pheonix

The hot smell is because everything is burning.


The exhaust manifolds, and engine block are burning their outside coastings, and any oxides that have formed off. The y-pipes are insulated with some kind of fiberglass / asbestos materials inside their heat shields. That burns. The cats & pre-cats burn off lots of coatings inside their heat shields (same types of stuff). There are heat shields under the car for the exhaust at the gas tank, and where the main cat sits. Those may do alittle burning.
The entire exhaust pipe will burn it's oxides off (along with the manifolds)
The brakes will burn junk off the rotors & calipers when you touch them. The wheels, alloy, or not, will heat up tremendously as you drive & could smoke **** off.
The compressor will probably do it, The belts will get some accellerated wear when new until the belt is worn down to how the pulleys want them.





There's a list of stuff a mile long that will get super hot by combustion by-products, electrical motors / solenoids being new, and friction. It's tottally normal for a new car to smell to a mild extint. hehehe

kingofire

To answer a few questions, it was definately not the transmission as its a sealed unit and if the trans cant handle this load I would be reallly worried about the durability!

It was not the brakes as the burning smell was definately coming from the engine because the smell was more evident as soon as i popped the hood open.

Edge2, I freaked out because I have done this to all but 1 of my cars and never once did i observe a burning smell.

The reason I follow this method is because my best friend is a mechanic and he tore down the engine to the block on my first car(mazda protege) which I babied to death and showed me how the rings had not seated properly and there was a lot of flaky oil residue around it. He then proceded to show me the real way of breaking in the engine by showing me the site I mentioned and he actually broke in the engine for my next car and when he tore down the engine on that one the rings had seated perfectly and no crud to be found around any seals. Both cars used Pennzoil Yellow bottle. So I believe in it.

I took the car to him this morning after work(I work over-night) and he inspected it and said everything looked fine and added a bottle of Schaeffers 132 moly E.P. treatment which he claims to reduce friction and increase mpg. He told me that by reducing friction, the pistons will have less resistance and improve on the break in process. He claims that honda uses a high moly oil from the factory for this purpose because when the engine is new the metal blocks are not smooth so by adding moly it doesnt scuff the plates as much. Sorry for the rambling, but he's a good mechanic and I trust him. If anyone needs info on this Schaeffer stuff, follow the link. I definately felt the engine to be smoother after he added this stuff. It was thick, lemon green in color and very slimy looking.

http://www.schaefferoil.com/specialty/132.html