'14 Fsport
592 miles on ODO
93 octane

Hi guys, so last night I was playing around with certain settings and decided to try WOT. I had the car in SPORT + and rolled into the throttle in 2nd gear. It felt good as I rolled into the throttle (a nice hydraulic push), however, when I actually went WOT, the car felt "flat" as though the ignition timing was being pulled back a couple degrees versus when at 70-90% throttle. What gives? Is this how the IS350 is like, or is there something I will need to get addressed with the dealer at the next service? Or will acceleration improve after 1000 or so miles? I also know that many modern ECU's have adaptation periods and many times require 2-3 WOT through multiple gears to set optimal ignition timing & A/R ratio's, however I still did not expect the flatness at WOT.

Essentially:
at 70-90% throttle, the car felt responsive to the touch, light on its feet
at 100% throttle, the car felt "flat" even though it was accelerating, it did not feel quick at all.


My passenger even asked if I was going WOT (he has a F30 328, similar in speed/acceleration). It did not feel like a car that accelerates 0-60 in 5.4 seconds or traps 102mph in the 1/4mile (source: car and driver). Please comment to put my mind at east

 

Tip: Turn off traction control by holding down the button until the yellow mark in the lower left corner lights up

 

Take it easy until you surpass the break-in period its not good to be frequently doing WOT pulls now.

 

Push it after 8,000km.. my advise

 

Yea I would maybe give it a bit of time to break in, but then again and not that I suggest it but my buddy races and always told me ignore the break in period lol...havent listened to him yet but all his cars he has never had any issues with "breaking in the car"

 

I'm at 9,000km right now, and I definitely feel more power then I did 5,000km ago, also my mileage has gone up now that the engine is starting to get broken in.

 

thanks all for the responses, sure hope it feels more positive as the miles rack up.

 

Mine feels a little flat as well, but I have even fewer miles than you do. I'm also coming from a 335i with an N54, so I was prepared for the engine to feel a bit down on power. Still plenty of power for a fun drive though. I'm not even sure what octane I have because the dealer filled it up before I took delivery and I'm still on my first tank.

 

the 8AT tends to shift early so the car feels a bit slow. May need to drive in Sport/Sport+ Annoying thing about Sport+ is it doesnt seem to shift past 5th gear so you can put it in M mode. The power really kicks in past 3500 rpm

 

Keep believing that. It's a lie.

Why? The engine was broken in at the factory. There is little time will change, unless they did a bad job, then it will burn oil excessively like my '92 GTS Celica did.

We have a winner. Engine break-in takes about 30 minutes start to finish from a dry fire. At the end of the 30 minutes, you'll be at WOT and you'll be ready for anything. Since the factory takes the initial fire away from you, it isn't possible to hurt anything. They've already run it hard to seat the rings and mate the valves with their seats - at the factory.

Your engine has been broken in for a very long time. Your mileage increases could just as easily be reformulated fuel based on season, lower alcohol content, using the A/C less as the temperatures drop, etc. etc. Unless you've kept a complete record (date, octane, brand, mileage, quantity) of every drop of fuel you put in the car, you really have no basis for even an elementary analysis.

 

Yes some cars are broken in from the factory but some also do require a break-in period. Im not sure about the 2GR-FSE I'll look in my GS in the morning. The people who made the car knows it the best so thats nothing to ignore.

 

EXACTLY!! Why is there so much misinformation about engine break in on this forum??. It is complete bull*****. Drive the car like you stole it, straight off the lot!

 

I have a good friend who is an engineer. He says that the owner's manual is written by lawyers, not engineers. Thus the goal of the break-in period is an attempt to break-in the driver more than the car. In today's lawsuit happy world, that seems plausible.

I do have a question, however. You state that performance doesn't improve over time. The why does Car and Driver's long-term test almost always show improvements in acceleration from when the car was brand new?

 

I've never seen C&D normalize their testing for density altitude. Testing on different days with different weather conditions on different surfaces introduces so many variables it isn't even funny.

Add to that, an engine runs best at WOT just before it is ready to die because friction is at its lowest (everything is well mated) and you get C&D's results.

 

to answer my own question, yes, acceleration has improved. 3rd gear at 60mph or 4th at 80mph gives a nice push in the back.