HELP! Can someone PLEASE explain how to break-in my Smart???

[smartmusic]

I was planning on driving my Smart from NY to NH the frist day I picked it up...is that a bad idea? I have been hearing a lot of different things about "breaking-in" a Smart car. I have never owned a brand-new car, and am confused about the whole concept of breaking it in. Can someone PLEASE take a few minutes and help me out!? Thank you! The smart community is great!

[rawlus®]

from page 168 of the owner's manual..

The more cautiously you treat your vehicle
during the break
in period, the more satis

fied you will be with its performance later on.
• Drive your vehicle during the first
1000 miles (1500 km) at varying but
moderate vehicle and engine speeds.
• During this period, avoid heavy loads (full
throttle driving) and excessive engine
speeds (no more than 2/3 of maximum rpm in
each gear).
• Shift gears in a timely manner.
• Do not attempt to slow the vehicle down by
shifting to a lower gear.
• Avoid accelerating by kickdown.
After 1000 miles (1500 km), you may gradually
increase vehicle and engine speeds to the
permissible maximum.

[msjohnson1974]

Originally Posted by smartmusic

I was planning on driving my Smart from NY to NH the frist day I picked it up...is that a bad idea? I have been hearing a lot of different things about "breaking-in" a Smart car. I have never owned a brand-new car, and am confused about the whole concept of breaking it in. Can someone PLEASE take a few minutes and help me out!? Thank you! The smart community is great!

Following up on rawl's post... it'd be a bad idea to drive it from NY to NH on the highway at a consistent speed the whole way. Taking back roads and varying your speed would be advisable. If you don't break in a new car you can have some problems many miles down the road.

[mews]

I had to take my smart on the highway when I first picked it up but I chose to take a less traveled road so that I could vary the speed and not hold up traffic. I'm almost to the 1000 miles and looking forward to driving it more normally. While it certainly will go 70 mph, I have been keeping it down to 55-65 whenever I'm on the highway - I look in the mirror and if nobody is behind me, I slow down until I see traffic coming up. Most of my miles are just city streets so varying the speeds has been easy.

I think there are lots of owners here who use it to commute and probably just didn't worry about the advice and they have gotten along fine but since I want my milage to be as good as possible, I chose the conservative route. My impression from the dealer was to keep the rpm's below 3000 during this breakin period and to vary the speed.

[MichaelJ]

Originally Posted by mews

My impression from the dealer was to keep the rpm's below 3000 during this breakin period and to vary the speed.

Sounds about right. One point is that the 1,000 mile mark isn't a magic point where it's OK to hot rod the beast anyway you want. The break-in process is an acclimatization process where you are able to put more and more load on the engine as you acquire miles - i.e. I certailly wouldn't drive the car with 0 miles the same way that I would with 500 miles on it; nor would I drive it at the 500 mile mark the same way that I would at 1000.

Bottom line - drive "sensibly".

[WickedMessenger]

The break-in is primarily all about the piston rings, pistons and cylinders. The rings need to wear down any high spots on the cylinder wall and the tips (where the gap is) have high contact force at first. They need to wear just a little bit to even up the force. The cylinder honing pattern develops pateaus during this process.

When the engine is operating the piston rings rotate. This is a good thing because the rings and bore take a uniform roundness and contact pressure. Also, the land where the piston rings rest in the piston has to conform to the ring's bottom surface to get a good gas seal. But the rotation is a result of a complex series of factors and piston rotation varies from several times a second to NO ROTATION AT ALL depending on the speed and load and a lot of other things. That's why they ask you to vary the speed. If you were on the highway going exactly 60 mph for an hour and it turns out that that speed is where the rings do not rotate, you will wear a ridge in the cylinder where the ring gap is. Then the ring will never rotate again. Since you can't tell (and nobody can predict) when the rings are rotating or not, you should vary the speed such that you do not spend more than a few minutes at any particular mph. You should include moderate accelerations and decellerations while you drive. Those are times where the piston rings really get moving.

There is no problem with taking the new smart on the road the first day you pick it up from the dealer as long as you do this. If you don't, you probably won't notice any problems until you're well into the life of the vehicle. Do you know the old guy on your street who has a Pontiac Catalina with 300,000 miles on it? He followed a good break-in procedure when the car was new. Do you know the 10-year-old mini-van that uses a quart of oil at every fill-up? Probably didn't follow any break-in procedure.

[SmartCard]

Several members here have driven long mileage (>200) entirely on highways within their early breakin period (in some cases just to pick up their cars!). The key would be to keep it under 60 as much as possible, and try to break up the trip with as many stops as well. So I guess it comes down to from where in NY to where in NH and what you total distance might be?

[Dunerunner]

Good information here: Why is it needed to change the oil within the 1st 100 miles vs 3K

Here is the meat of the discussion by frevon4:

Fred's personal break in advice
So you got a new Aluminum 3Cylinder 1 Litre 71 HP Smart car coming!
(I will be using Castrol 30W non synthetic detergent oil for first 500) If you are not comfortable with that then leave the free factory stuff in. But understand this...full synthetic oils have exceptionally high shear strength and they actually slow down or prevent effecient break in and wear to the parts that need to be clearecnced or mated to each other. Here are some tips to make sure BSEG* lasts for many years. I have posted it before and it always starts a opinion war but here are my ideas on "break in. Many, Many, I say again M A N Y hot cold hot cycles are the best thing you can do for a new factory assembled motor. On start up try to teach yourself to get in, put in the key, turn to RUN and stop, put on seat belt while the computer boots, NOW turn the key to start, watch the lights and gauges and pay attention to the tachometer for a few seconds. The engine will settle back a few hundred RPM, NOW shift to drive and again pause a little with the brakes on. Release the parking brake (you do ALWAYS use the parking brake don't you). Now spend some time training yourself to NOT turn the steering wheel UNLESS the car is rolling. I trained myself this technique of steering many years ago and my front ends last years beyond what "normal people" get before ball joints and wheels bearings need replacing. Turning a power steering lock to lock while the vehicle is halted is a BAD thing, teach yourself to NEVER do it! Same goes for turning all the way to the steering limit stops. Never ever continue to keep turning the wheel once the mechanical stop is hit. In fact, TRAIN yourself to ALWAYS back off a tad when you hear/feel the limit stop. First you need to BED the brakes. You should do this immediately as you leave the dealer. I do a lot of it in his lot (my dealers lot is big enough). Warped rotors are a myth. BUT, rotor surface “hardening” and pad “material transfer” to the rotor surface are NOT myths. The hard spots, and the material transfer, are what you feel as pulsating brake pedal with your foot. “Bedding in”, or “burnishing” the rotors and pads properly can prevent it from ever happening. This is a very important step on a new brakes and I am disappointed that MB does not do it at the end of the assembly line. Get up to 30mph and when safe do a very hard (not lockup or ABS starting) but very hard braking just shy of a full stop. As you feel the car about to halt, let off and smoothly accelerate back to 25, 30 mph. Repeat this 4 or 5 times while looking for a clear parking lot or unused back road. Let about 3 or more minutes pass between hard braking series to let the rotors settle to the new temp. Do this in a place where you do NOT have to come to any complete stops with the brakes while the rotors are hot! You are deliberately trying to get the rotors VERY hot. Once you have a SAFE place to do some more of this, do another hard brake series and get out of it while still rolling as before, but this time just coast to a normal stop. Clear your rear and shift to reverse. Going backwards get up to a fair clip and do a hard brake in reverse, but again NOT to a complete stop. Do this several times as far to the rear as you can in the selected place but try very hard to NOT bring the car to a complete stop with the brakes pads holding the very hot rotor. What we are doing here is "burnishing" the pads, and forcing very controlled and even heating to the rotors and attaching assemblies. There NO such thing as WARPED rotors. BUT there is a condition called material transfer, caused by superheated Pads that leave some of their material on the rotor and causing them to pulsate due to the uneven surface. For the first few days try to set up your stopping to NEVER bring you to a full stop with the pads HARD clamped to hot rotors. This is hard to do and do not ever forget safety for you and others. If you must bring the Lil Bugger to a quick and complete stop as soon as you are stopped ease up on the brakes and try to creep if there is room. Most of the first several days I try to set up stop lights so I have a good buffer between me and cars ahead. I brake fairly aggressively, and with a two car buffer, ease up and roll out until one car buffer then slowly creep up to the car in front. Usually the light changes before I need to full stop. Do this a couple of times during the first 100 miles and your brake pads and rotors will last a long time and stopping power will be greatly enhanced.
OK the motor: Do not be tempted to try and break in a motor over a weekend with some sort of long trip just to build miles. The setting of the rings can be done in less than 500 miles and takes patience. I must re-state Many, Many hot cold cycles are much better. During the first 500 miles try to do mostly “in town” type driving. It is OK to be a little hot on the take off. Just refrain from spending ANY time above 3500RPM with no load on the motor or below 1500RPM (lugging the motor) under load. Deliberately do trips "to the store" where you get her up to full operating temp and while "shopping" she will cool off. Do a LOT of frequent shopping. Don't get everything at the one Lowe’s or AutoZone "in town". Cruise across town to a buddy’s house, drink a beer while he is admiring you new ride. Think safety and drink a soda or two for another hour or so while the engine cools and you detoxify. Repeat for as many buddies as you have. Watch the drinking and driving, your Smart car can not give you enjoyment from a jail cell. At least once every driving cycle and after fully up to operating temp, do one good strong take off from stop up to 3500-4000rpm. After the 500 mile mark do not be afraid to do this up to 4500rpm on occasion. But try to never spin the motor past 4500 unless it is under load and immediately falls off back to lower rpm. Constant RPM/Speed (Cruise control? ) is forbidden the first 500 miles! Constant rpm is not good for the rings just yet. The rings on the Mitsubishi can seat any where from 50 to 500 miles. Play it safe and do the break in procedure for at least the first 500. At 500 miles replace the Factory filter and dino oil with full synth and enjoy the next 500 miles increasing the drive cycles and shortening the cool cycles. I change oil at 1000 also but admit it is overkill. I just dig doing it and LOGGING it, start the habit of checking it also! (You do keep a log book or journal, right*Big S__T Eating Grin

Last edited by Fredvon4; 01-24-2008

[DieselVan]

very informative - thanks