Plan on driving a new car on a 3000mile highway trip. Bad idea?

I was planning on taking my soon to take possession Highlander V6 on a trip which will consist mostly of highway driving of about 3000mile drive and been told that that's not such a good idea because you don't want to drive a brand new car on the highway for any extended amount if you can help before the car's properly broken in.

The seals, rings and the machine just needs to set in properly, which happens during the break in period and before that, I was told you should avoid any long highway trip.

What do you guys think? If this was your car, would you do it or put off the trip until after the car's broken in properly? Thanks.

Reply to
Bow Wow
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I think that used to be true of older cars but today's cars are built with such high tolerances that it is not true anymore.

Reply to
badgolferman

Are you getting a Pilot or a Highlander? Why are you asking the same question in different newsgroups about different trucks?

Jeff

Reply to
Jeff

(Also posted in alt.autos.lexus)

I've taken 50 or 60 new cars and driven them for roughly 12,000 miles of mostly highway driving with no problems. The nature of our business was most of the people in our office also had to drive mostly highway miles. Figure 30 people get 4 new cars a year for 120 new cars a year, x my 15 years experience for 18,000 cars with no ill effects of driving mostly highway miles from the time they are put into service. Many of those cars were bought by employees, relatives, and friends afterwards and they did not experience any problems related to how the vehicles were broken in.

Enjoy your trip in your new ride!

Reply to
Ray O

15 x 120 = 1800, not 18,000
Reply to
Jeff

Doh! My bad, good catch!

Reply to
Ray O

I'm old-school. I drive a car 1500 miles and then do the first oil change. Then I do the next one at 3000 miles, and every 3-3500 after that.

I also had 3 cars go over 250,000 miles without burning oil.

Five-hundred miles is approx 8 hours. I would prbably go pretty easy for the first 1,000 miles, secondary roads and short stretches on the highway around cities. This will do two things; allow the machine to run at something other than wide open, and force variations in load and speed like the manual says to do.

It seems I can tell when a car was broken in properly or not. On cars I had had new, they don't tend to develop 'notches' at certain speeds. By this I mean, on cars other than ones I bought new, I can notice that the car seems to hit a stride ~45-50 MPH, and another ~70 MPH. What I assume is that the person that bought the car new had two driving modes: secondary roads (45 MPH) and highway (70 MPH). I have noticed this on a few used cars I have owned.

On cars I bought new and broke in properly, there weren't any 'notches', everything was fairly even across the range.

You will hit speeds and conditions on any car, no matter how it was broken in due to engine and mechanical efficiencies. On most 4 cylinder Toyotas I have owned, they seem to hit their stride 70~75 MPH, since I assume this is the engine's most efficient mode. I have noticed this on 4 or 5 Toyotas I have owned. Always got the best economy at about 72 MPH in 5th gear.

Of course, with newer cars and a V6, things are different now, but I would still take it pretty easy for the first 1500 miles, and stop and have the oil changed.

Reply to
Hachiroku

How do you know that the speeds that the cars were driven at had anything to do with these "strides"? And why would driving a car a particular speed cause this?

I think you don't know what you're talking about.

From the owner's manual for a 2008 Pilot:

"Help assure your vehicle?s future reliability and performance by paying extra attention to how you drive during the first 600 miles (1,000 km). During this period: Avoid full-throttle starts and rapid acceleration. Do not change the oil until the scheduled maintenance time. Avoid hard braking for the first

200 miles (300 km). Do not tow a trailer. You should also follow these recommendations with an overhauled or exchanged engine, or when the brakes are replaced."

Note what the manual says about the first oil change.

Reply to
Jeff

what??? read the manual??? no freakin' chance buddy! we're all going to have a retardation contest here on usenet and take the words of nameless idiots with our new multi-thousand dollar investments, not the experts that researched, designed and manufactured the freakin' thing!

imagine these guys in aerospace: "yeah, but this guy said those cracks didn't matter".

Reply to
jim beam

I bought my last new car in San Francisco and hopped on the freeway straight home to Los Angeles. (For $10K off, it was worth the trip.)

But I was very careful to vary speeds and take secondary roads where they existed, hang out with the truckers in the right lane up the hills, pull over a few times and take a rest stop - and stretched out what could have been done as a 5-hour full throttle kamikaze blast into a 9 hour leisurely stroll.

Go ahead and do it, just don't schedule your road trip down to the second. Take it easy the first few days - If you need to go full throttle to avoid an accident do it, but don't make it a habit on every on-ramp. Take the back roads (Route 66!), deliberately vary speed every few minutes, stop and smell the petunias.

If you have one, DO NOT USE the Cruise Control for the first 2500 miles, other than to check and make sure it works after you take delivery. The LAST thing you want to do is lock it at 70 and drive all day like that on a green engine.

I still believe in the 'old school' of doing the first oil & filter change early (~ 1000 miles) just in case you've knocked loose big chunks. But it is optional, you could wait till you get home.

But you MUST watch the fluid levels like a hawk for the first month or so on a new or newly repaired car, pop the hood daily and check. If it develops a leak, you want to find out about it /before/ you run out of oil or coolant or brake fluid (or...) and something very bad happens.

And it gets you into the habit of checking under the hood weekly after you learn the car's patterns.

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Reply to
Bruce L. Bergman

When I bought a new Camry, the manual said to keep the speed to 65 or so for the first x000 mile (I forget how many). This was difficult. Like many Northern California residents, I bought the Toyota in Southern California, where they are much cheaper, and drove it up I-5, where it's difficult to go only 65, but I kept the speed down.

I know that VW and Honda use special break-in oil and tell you not to change the oil too soon. Toyota had no such warning, but I didn't take any chances by changing it too soon. I had a Honda once, and the dealer had a big sign in the service department warning new owners not to do premature oil changes on new cars.

Just vary the speed, and don't go over 70 MPH. Follow the manual, as the computer is probably set to record violations of the break-in recommendations.

Reply to
SMS

The computer doesn't do record speeds, with the exception of one computer that records that few seconds, which is useful in understanding what happens when a car crashes.

Jeff

Reply to
Jeff

And these recommendations are based on what evidence?

And why do some car makers specifically say not to change the oil early?

Reply to
Jeff

Actually highway driving for the first 1000 miles is the ideal way to set the rings, just do not consistently operate at the same RMS for too long, vary your speed. If you will be driving in hilly county you will not have that problem, however.

Vehicles being driven off the end of the assembly line with a tire spinning jack rabbit start. Racing engine builders, or example, set the rings by operating at various very high RPMs for the fist hour or so.

Reply to
Mike hunt

What is RMS?

What do you mean? You need a verb to go with the subject.

Gee, racing car engines tend to be driven a very high speeds for more than first hour or so.

However, what applies to racing car engines does not necessarily apply to regular car engines.

Jeff

Reply to
Jeff

Hunt likes to pop off the keys on his keyboard and swap them around for fun.

Tomorrow morning, slam 6 ounces of hard liquor before breakfast like Hunt does, and this will all make perfect sense. :-)

Here's a typical morning at Hunt's house:

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Reply to
JoeSpareBedroom

I don't think the problem is with his keyboard or his fingers. Rather, it is in the organ behind his eyes that controls his fingers.

Are sure that Hunt's problem is that he gets too much of something? I am thinking that he might be off his meds.

Jeff

Reply to
Jeff

Some people develop superstitions, and live their lives by those.

Car owners are especially susceptible.

Go by your owner's manual. Things do change over time, and things that were appropriate back then don't apply now. But you'll never get over the superstition.

Reply to
Elmo P. Shagnasty

That organ is a sponge.

Reply to
JoeSpareBedroom

snip

I think that this is great advice regardless of make of vehicle. It's how I've always done it. Of course I drive older cars...

JT

Reply to
Grumpy AuContraire

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