Hi,

I got my NX300 a few weeks back. I like to follow the break-in period guidelines. A close friend of mine decided to try out my suv. Even after warning him, he decided to accelerate quickly with the vehicle. The suv was 940 kms into the break-in period. I had a dash cam installed so it took the following data.

Max RPM I saw was 4000. And that is most likely due to the gears changing.

My concern is if there would be any damage or long term negative effects with the vehicle. I have a screenshot of the graphs attached. It was just for a few seconds.

As a side note, vehicle has 4-5 minutes of driving before this happened. Outside temperature was around 21C. I am not sure if the engine was cold or hot.

 

Break-in requirements and techniques have changed a bit over the years
since the advent of synthetic oils and much better machining tolerances.
The only real "old fashioned" parts that need the gentle touch are the
brake pads, think of how slippery a new pair of leather shoes are on a
carpet until they have scuffed the soles a bit. Your friend may have actually
helped your efforts because it is not strictly low and slow but it is important
to vary the speeds and pressures which they were kind enough to do!

 

Thank you for the detailed response. I got extremely worried as I am usually very easy on my vehicles. I really like to baby them.

 

Since it only went to 4000 rpm I think you are pretty safe. However, you might reevaluate letting your friend drive it again.

 

Thanks. I did get my wife to try out the vehicle after to get a second opinion if something changed. Like as in handling or noise wise. She said it seems fine.

Would pretty much slamming the accelerator for 2-3 seconds count as ‘flooring it’?

Regardless the friend won’t be behind the wheel on this again.

 

My general rule is to let the vehicle warm up to temp before hammering on it. I'm not going to just floor the vehicle once I start it, that would be silly. Most vehicles I've ever bought I never once followed the "stay under XYZ" parameters in a break in procedure. I want the rings to seal so later on you aren't consuming oil and or other things. Once the vehicle is warmed up the hammer is dropped. Did that for my STi, Daytona 675, wife's NX, the RCF I just bought...etc. All my vehicles are maintained and don't have issues.

If you think having the accelerator all the way down for a few seconds is going to damage the vehicle then engineers wouldn't make it so you could do that. Seriously, WOT (Wide open throttle) is not a bad thing. It's where the fun begins actually...lol. Nothing is going to be changed on the vehicle from flooring it. I can't even tell you how many thousands of times my motorcycle has been wide open throttle and it runs like a champ (a banshee actually), zero issues.

-Nigel

 

Agreed, these engines are put through a wide range of testing applications, WOT for a few seconds isn't going to do any harm to any engine that's still in good working condition. Plus WOT is always a nice option to help clean out carbon buildup/deposits!

 

Thank you for the detailed explanation. I feel much better now.

 

Thank you.

 

Right on. The engineers have pretty much worried about whatever there is to worry about for our convenience, especially with our cars being Toyotas. Out of the box, the factory tune has:


Engine temperature dependent boost limits/multipliers


Drastically lowered cold rev limits by way of low maximum upshift points (speeds are in kph)

BONUS: If you want to clean your intake valves every now and then, with our 8AR motors being both port and direct injected, you'll want to mash the throttle and get the turbo going (to exceed 100% engine load) at engine speeds below 3400 every now and then:

 

How is 4000 rpm on a new car going to damage your engine or affect the way it handles? You should worry more about the people you called friends instead of damage that might be cause by this, Before your car comes out of the factory, the engine is rev up to very high rpm to sit the piston rings, if that did not cause any damage, then what your so called friend did would not cause any damage either. Like someone already have mentioned, today's engine is build to a tighter tolerance, therefore engine break in is not as important as the old days and manufacturers no long use break in oil. It is more important to vary your engine rpm up to a certain point of course. Tires and brakes should brake in after a few hundred miles.