On the day I picked my car up, I drove 300 miles from Atlanta to home. I made stops as much as time allowed (minimum of one per hour). But, most of the way was Interstate. I drove in auto, but my speed ranged from city traffic (25-45) to Hiway (65-80).
I guess those first 300 miles were hell on the car, from a breakin point of view?
Since then, it's been mostly city driving. I've tried to keep the RPMs under 3K, but I'm not too good at it. Chronic lead foot.
My car now has almost 1,500 miles on it. I guess I've done all the damage I can do at this point and it is officially broken in, right??
What exactly can a person expect down the road from an improperly broken in engine?
And, from my description of my break-in ... am I going to have problems? My gut says no. But, what do you think folks?
Whereas the break-in instructions allow 2/3 throttle during the first 1,000M/1500km, I feel free to take it to 4,000 RPM (2/3 of the 6K redline I see on the tach). Except for pulling away in 1st, I keep the RPM above 2K and the engine turning freely.
a good start is to read the owner's manual.
pg 168
I did read that and, as I said, it was vague.
How do you determine 2/3 of the maximum RPM when they did not include a tach with your car?
What's a "moderate" vehicle or engine speed? I want numbers (such as "Do not exceed 15mph in first gear, 25mph in second gear, ... 72mph in 5th gear"). I don't want conjecture about what you *think* they meant by the word "moderate." I can come up with plenty of theories on my own.
They say you should "avoid" full-throttle operation. Does that mean that 90% throttle is okay? 70%? 65%? Or does it mean that you should only rarely operate under full throttle?
What's a "timely manner" for shifting gears -- getting all of your shifting done prior to lunch?
After 1000 miles, I'm supposed to "gradually increase vehicle and engine speeds to the permissible maximum" according to the manual. So does that mean that I'm supposed to get on I95 and head south from Virginia, slowly accelerating until I hit 90mph and 6000rpm somewhere around Georgia? I hope they are paying my tickets.
P.S. I've probably built more engines than you've owned. Need a bare block for a 1966/67 Pontiac Overhead Cam 6?
How the h*** do you determine 2/3 of the maximum RPM when they did not include a tach with your car?
What's a "moderate" vehicle or engine speed? I want numbers, not just your conjecture about what you *think* they meant by the word "moderate."
They say you should "avoid" full-throttle operation. Does that mean that 90% throttle is okay? 70%? 65%? Or does it mean that you should only rarely operate under full throttle?
What's a "timely manner" for shifting gears -- getting all of your shifting done prior to lunch?
After 1000 miles, I'm supposed to "gradually increase vehicle and engine speeds to the permissible maximum" according to the manual. So does that mean that I'm supposed to get on I95 and head south from Virginia, slowly accelerating until I hit 90mph and 6000rpm somewhere around Georgia? I hope they are paying my tickets.
P.S. Don't be condescending. I've probably built more engines than you've owned.
If you've built more engines than most of us have ever owned, you already know the answers to your questions. This is just your garden variety Mitsu motor. Daimler is simply applying the same maintenence schedules they cram down the typical MB owners throats. Just enjoy the car.
How do you determine 2/3 of the maximum RPM when they did not include a tach with your car?
What's a "moderate" vehicle or engine speed? I want numbers (such as "Do not exceed 15mph in first gear, 25mph in second gear, ... 72mph in 5th gear"). I don't want conjecture about what you *think* they meant by the word "moderate." I can come up with plenty of theories on my own.
They say you should "avoid" full-throttle operation. Does that mean that 90% throttle is okay? 70%? 65%? Or does it mean that you should only rarely operate under full throttle?
What's a "timely manner" for shifting gears -- getting all of your shifting done prior to lunch?
After 1000 miles, I'm supposed to "gradually increase vehicle and engine speeds to the permissible maximum" according to the manual. So does that mean that I'm supposed to get on I95 and head south from Virginia, slowly accelerating until I hit 90mph and 6000rpm somewhere around Georgia? I hope they are paying my tickets.
P.S. I've probably built more engines than you've owned. Need a bare block for a 1966/67 Pontiac Overhead Cam 6?
On the day I picked my car up, I drove 300 miles from Atlanta to home. I made stops as much as time allowed (minimum of one per hour). But, most of the way was Interstate. I drove in auto, but my speed ranged from city traffic (25-45) to Hiway (65-80).
I guess those first 300 miles were hell on the car, from a breakin point of view?
Since then, it's been mostly city driving. I've tried to keep the RPMs under 3K, but I'm not too good at it. Chronic lead foot.
My car now has almost 1,500 miles on it. I guess I've done all the damage I can do at this point and it is officially broken in, right??
What exactly can a person expect down the road from an improperly broken in engine?
And, from my description of my break-in ... am I going to have problems? My gut says no. But, what do you think folks?
I doubt you did anything improper - sounds like a pretty good start to me. Now that it's officially broken in, drive the hell out of it.
Do the same thing that you did when you broke-in all those engines you built.
Different engines and applications have different break-in requirements. What you do to break in a 428ci Pontiac V8 is very different than what you do to break in a 2008 Mitsubishi 3cyl, 1.0 liter smart fortwo engine. With some, there are valve seating concerns. With others, the primary concern is bedding in the rings. To some, load is the enemy of break-in. With others, piston speed is the big concern. Some have issues with camshaft galling during break-in.
In other words, there is no one-size-fits-all engine break-in.
I still feel that the smart break-in instructions are pretty crappy and that the ECU should have a break-in mode programmed into it. What's wrong with including maximum speed in gears as other manufacturers do? If they aren't going to include a tach, then they should not be tying break-in to RPMs.
Our Cabrio has about 3500 miles at this point, but I never did notice any particular issues with the engine being "tight" or wanting to get hot or anything like that in the initial "break-in" period.
I DO think that the auto-shift mode tends to be a bit on the "luggy" side especially when the car is loaded with two folks and a fat dog. My wife would drive the car happily along in DRIVE where the car is bucking and farting up a slight slope in 5th gear at about 45 MPH or some such. Gives me the willies...
When I drove the car myself, I pretty much used the paddles most of the time. It's sort of entertaining and it keeps the engine in it's " sweet spot " very easily. Makes the car FAR more enjoyable to drive IMHO.
The Smart is actually pretty " smart " and it would be difficult to actually damage anything with running up a few revs now and then, just don't use VERY heavy throttle or VERY high downshift points or VERY hard braking if you can help it. Some revs and engine-braking are good things to help seat the rings on a fresh engine, although these engines today are pretty much good to go right out of the box for the most part. If it sounds like it's screamin, then it probably IS... but not enough to cause damage. Shift the thing.
The Computer will keep the engine from reaching truly damaging rpms and also won't downshift into a gear that is too low for the engine to handle without over revving in the manual mode. If ya get going to fast, darned if the thing won't stop ya from goin sonic and stuff like that there....
No worries. Go for a nice drive. Put the top down and turn the radio up. You don't have to use the tach and slide rule to drive the thing.
just a thunk :-)
Last edited by kannonvaggon; 08-15-2008 at 11:43 AM.
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smart - aka Smurf
1976 Rover Mini
2003 Chevrolet Corvette Z06
2007 Mercedes-Benz E320 Bluetec (SOLD)
2009 smart Passion (Gone)
2011 smart Passion
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