I think some of the Lexus dealers drive their customers cars hard during servicing too. I am a victim of it. One dealer in Charlotte NC dented my front license plate during a maintenance appointment. The same dealer 'chipped' my girl's LS430's rear bumper. Whcih the dealer painted with no cost. They all try to make u believe that your car will be pampered while being serviced. It's a different story in reality. Although Lexus dealers have above-average service; I still don't trust them.

 

Correct break-ins are important for several reasons. First, engines today (especially Toyota/Lexus and Honda/Acura engines) are built at the factory to extremely close tolerances. This not only requires thin oil, especially when cold, to penetrate these micro-close gaps, but also can increase the amount of microscopic-small metal particles that wear off the inside if the engine...........particularly the cylinder walls............with friction as the engine breaks in, or "loosens up ". These small metal shavings and other impurities accumulate in the oil and oil filter as the miles build up, and if not removed fairly quickly on a new engine, can greatly accelerate wear in the first few thousand miles. An oil and filter change after the initial break-in period 1000-1200 miles is a good idea in all non-Honda engines. But Honda/Acura products, as stated before, are different...Honda wants an extended break-in with special factory oil that they don't want you to mess with until 3000 miles.
Second, those close tolerances in a new engine can make it difficult for even thin oil to flow readily. This is one reason why a new engine should never be redlined or go past 4000 RPM or so until it is fully broken in....at high engine speeds, the demand of the engine's moving parts for oil pressure can exceed the ability of oil to flow through tight clearances even if the oil pump is working perfectly. Same applies to ANY cold engine...old or new. It should not be run at high RPM until the coolant temperature gets to at least 140 degrees...about one-quarter of the way up the temperature gauge on mnost vehicles.
Third, an engine must be broken-in properly to preserve the microscopic cross-hatch pattern that is finely machined into the inside cylinder walls and help the new piston rings seat into those inside walls properly. Mess up that cross-hatch pattern and you will have all kinds of engine problems......poor compression, low power, oil burning, poor mileage, and dirty emissions, to name a few. Then the engine will have to be disassembled, re-bored, and given new rings.....or even have the short-block replaced......an expensive job that may or may not be covered under waranty if abuse is suspected..
Valve seats and guides also have to break-in properly. Mess them up and you will have many of the same problems as with the cylinder walls.
Brakes also have to be broken in properly, which essentially means varying the brake-pedal pressure from light to medium but NOT full pressure unles you have no choice in an emergency. If possible, try not to get the brakes too hot from constant use either....this will glaze up the pads and prevent efficient contact with the rotors and proper seating. Improper seating of the pads and rotors can cause noise, pulling to one side, uneven or premature pad or rotor wear, and, as I have already mentioned, glaze.
Transmissions and final-drive units (or differentials) also have fluid and moving parts and also need to be broken-in but their designs and tolerances are usually not as critical as those in an engine, and therefore require less-frequent fluid changes or and less-stringent break-in procedures as a result. A manual transmission usually needs more break-in than an automatic.....with a manual, you will often feel the shift lever loosening up over time and getting more crisp as the linkage and gears break in and as the transmission fluid temperature heats up.

One more thing....if you plan to use synthetic engine oil, DO NOT use it during break-in unless, of course, it is put in at the factory like on Corvettes and a few high-performance cars like BMW M's and Mercedes AMG's. With many engines, the excessive "slipperiness" of synthetic and its extreme lubrication will not allow enough engine wear soon enough for a proper break-in. If you plan on using synthetic, wait a few thousand miles and THEN use it.

I hope this addresses some of your concerns about why break-ins are important.

 

I think part of the reason is also the dealership managers. When workd at a dealership just out of high school, even the managers used to take the new cars out to be test driven exceeding speeds of 100MPH. They would come back commenting on the handling at high speed and such. Also, when they send the lot boys out to get a car from another lot, they always expect them back ASAP. They complain when you take too long. However, if you get a ticket it is your fault. Most of the management and workers at the dealership are there to keep you happy, not do the right thing. If customers actually saw what they do behind the closed doors people would be pretty upset. Lexus in the past has done a good job of making the customer feel good and appreciated. Talk to the same workers after hours and they could give a rats *** since it is just a job to them. Most of the workers will move to another dealership of any kind if they were offered more money or if it was a better deal for them over all. There are very few workers that actually truely love their job and would stay at one dealership.

 

I am always paranoid they rag my car when I bring it to dealer. Especially because it's a 430. I've seen some punk *** kids working the lot, moving cars from car wash etc. I don't trust them driving my car at all. I just had my oil changed and sway bar tsb performed and when I got my car back it had 5 miles more on it. Seems a little high for what they did. I wouldn't doubt they ragged it.

then I thought maybe it's karma- I rag the loaner-they rag my car

I'm always afraid they will F up something when I bring it in.

you know what else they do- when they are parking cars, they pop it in reverse while it's still rolling forward. great. It's sha3t like that that ticks me off.

 

The simplest defense is write down your miles before you hand it off to them.

Kinda hard to explain a 5 mi oil change.

 

yah, they did do the stabilizer bar TSB too. Before service writer told me techs HAVE to drive car after they work on it, but I agree, 5 miles?? fockers

BTW- they are the ones that logged the mileage when I drop it off.

 

I always do that, in front of one of them if possible so they know about it.
However, for the Lexus, they always ask for the mileage on the odometer & record it on the work order anyway when I bring it in.

 

santa monica lexus is pretty *** if you ask me... i went there before and they thought i couldn't afford a lexus... i smiled and walked out, got in my gs4 and drove away. never went back again

 

Gotta add to this, since I worked in several dealers and then I worked as a glass guy for many dealers, I can say most workers in the dealers push the cars normally, with todays cars the things don't take much throttle to get up to 60mph, pushing the car in the beginning is probably better for it since without knowing, those short trips to PDI it or get it washed is varying the RPMs and is a critical point of the break in, not redlinging it through every gear which I've seen 70 year old salesman do.

A lot of the abuse is not abuse, I bought my 4Runner and ES300 from dealers located on highways, and in the dead of winter, nothing like the thought of a vehicle sitting in -10 degree weather and then some car jocky pushing it to get up to 70 on the highway, I will add that I've seen the workers, whatever they may be get on the highway with the cars and it's not as bad as you think.

I go to the gas station that many new car dealers use, I've seen G35c with 6 speeds crawl onto the highway so the guys who do respect the cars are the ones who continue to keep their jobs at the better dealers, and their are lots of eyes, so someone will see you do something stupid and it will travel fast.

With todays current cars most rev pretty high, you'll cause an accident getting onto streets and highways at crawling speeds if you expect to keep it at 2000-3000rpms which I've seen new owners do, nothing like seeing a new car leave a dealer that takes 20 minutes to pull out, more damage is done on the new engine from idling then if you just gassed the car and went.

Abuse falls more into the hands of the morons who have no respect for anything and should not even be working in a dealer, when I worked as a tech I've seen guys get fired for burnouts, some idiot took a guys brand new maxima and smoked the tires across the street into the gas station, pulling the ebrakes to slide while coming off exit ramps is another 1 I never understood especially in $50,000 plus cars in dry weather, the owners and people who get an ear full from the customers don't like to see or hear any forms of abuse, thats why many dealers try to get the new cars to the customer with the least amount of mileage.

Knowing what I know about cars, if they inforced a law where a car is nolonger a new vehicle with more then 40 miles on it the dealers would stop handing out keys to salesman like the cars are free, but then again I guess they look at 5000 miles of hardcore startup to redline in 2 seconds normal driving, my friends 7series was a discounted demo, 120k and the thing is running stronger then new so who knows.

I've learned what you don't know won't hurt you but the more you know the more it hurts burnouts, break stands, highspeed runs is stupid, and the stuff I've seen and the amount of new cars that need to go to the bodyshops is crazy, but moving that many cars around and that fast they easily get damaged, most of the damage happend from the truckers and is easily covered up and will not be noticed for days or weeks, but thats to late cause the cars are already bought by the dealer, I've done an intership at Manhattan MB, never buy a car from a city dealer, amazing how they pack cars in and the highend powerful cars are opened up many times before a new owner takes it, nothing like someone trying to drive an E320 like an E55, many times I've been out to lunch and techs know certain part of the highway and ran the MB up to the speed limiter, 1 guy lost his job doing 155 in a 45 newbie

In the end or beginning, whatever 1 might consider it when picking up that new car I always go for nomore then 5 miles I know everything to looks for when it comes to hidden damage, I was watching the guys at Lexus wash a brand new GX470 and soon as the water hit the windsheild I could tell it was replaced, they tried to pass it off like it was new but the repair order said new windsheild, owner complained and wanted replaced.

Just keep in mind it's not as bad as some might think.

 

I know what you guys mean,

It's real sad unfortunately... and here in Australia (with stuff like 4Runners, Supras and Soarers all being JDM imports) the service techs aren't trained on working with these cars. Everytime I drive up to my local Toyota/Lexus dealership (one of the biggest dealers in Sydney) I always get filthy looks from some of the people that work there and usually get the *oh, are you getting THAT serviced here?*

I've heard of horror stories at another Toyota dealership when a guy brought in his Supra (RZ) for a service, and all of the service techs were having a go at revving the crap outta the engine, and some would leave the thing redlining for a while

I do not bring my Soarer to any Toyota dealership for servicing, I only bring it to my mechanic who is a specialist in Soarers Usually around 4 or 5 Soarers being worked on at a time (it's a small workshop) and most of the Soarers are ALSC members too heheh