Is there a break-in thread on here?

[dcn]

Wasn't able to find one anywhere, and I thought I'd durn well better search for one before posting such a (what I thought a) common question, lest I get killed. The manual (the '04 pdf I got) says:

No special break-in is necessary, but a few
precautions in the first 1,000 km (600
miles) may add to the performance,
economy, and life of your Mazda.
*Dont race the engine.
*Dont maintain one constant speed,
either slow or fast, for a long period of
time.
*Dont drive constantly at full-throttle or
high engine rpm for extended periods
of time.
*Avoid unnecessary hard stops.
*Avoid full-throttle starts.

Does that look about right? I was gonna change the oil after 1000 Kms or so too, is that important? Also, she's gonna be the primary driver and will semi baby the car, should we drive it hard-ish once in a while? IE if she shifts at 3 or whatever most of the time, is it a good idea for me to take it out and maybe run through the gears at 5g+ a couple times once a month or so? If I get banned for posting this, it's been nice knowing yous. (outie)

 

[tsunami]

after the break in i see no reason not to run it up to 5+grand....(mostly cause its fun!!) but as far as the break in is concerned every one has a different theory on it, some say break it in the way you plan on driving it, others say baby it, others say changed the oil in the first 500 or so miles, some say not to first scheduled oil change, its all in who and what you want to believe.... that probably doesn't help at all but??
i treated her like a baby at first and didn't do my oil change till 5000 miles there was crap in the filter, the oil was darkish but not black... have now switched to synthetic and am expecting to do my first since then next month...hopefully it will be thawed out up here by then... don't want some oil lackey doin my oil change... don't trust em...

 

[majic]

this is the method i used.. so far 10K km and running fine..

http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

i changed the oil at 70km.. then at 6K and soon at 12K.. been revving teh engine since day 1

 

[goldwing2000]

You'll get as many opinions as there are members of the forum. Basically, if you follow the instructions in the owner's manual, you can't go wrong. There may be better methods and there are definitely worse ones but just about all of them have merit.

Personally, I was hammering on mine from day 1. I was out on a "spirited group drive" with only 400 miles on the clock. I changed the oil at 1,000 mi, 5,000 mi and now am doing every 5,000 after that (per the schedule) using Motorcraft 5W-20 semi-synth. 18,000 mi so far, never had any problems with the engine and don't anticipate any. I may switch to full synth in the future but maybe not. I like crawling under there to check things out once in a while and 10k between oil changes just goes against every fiber of my being. Hell... 5k has taken a concentrated effort to pull off.

Oh... and you'll never get banned for asking a question. We may point and laugh (hah) and call you names but eventually you'll always get an answer. (thumb)

 

[dcn]

Oh... and you'll never get banned for asking a question. We may point and laugh (hah) and call you names but eventually you'll always get an answer. (thumb)

Nice, goldwing, thanks a lot. Some places aren't so newbie friendly as you prolly know. I'll maybe throw in a new change after a few clicks but other than that I'll be sure we're going as per sched.

majic, I've seen that site before, I should have thought of it this time. Man that really is opposite to what you'd think to ever do. If it didn't add the precaution of making sure you warm up the motor first I'd just discount it as some guy overusing his freedom to put what he wants on his own page. How long did you do this for, just a couple hundred clicks? Will you screw things up if you srive to an isolated location to do this? I know an area where I'd be comfy doing this, it's traffic free and straight, but it's about an hour's drive away. Maybe I shouldn't try to be so exact about this, but this is our first new engine.

DCN