Am I causing any damage by driving my car 300 miles home? Any advice??

 

no, my grandfarther bought a 2.5 altima and had to drive it a few hundred clicks right after he bought it. I believe they say to stay below 110 kph and not stay at a steady speed for more then 10 minutes. Im not sure if this is true, this is just what the dealer told him.

 

well, if it's mostly highway, it's been said that you should shift gears to avoid running the engine at one rpm for too long. you're not supposed to use cruise because it tends to do this also. this is old school advice. some would say it doesn't matter at all and that "break in" is unnecessary. i tend to play it on the safe side, myself. the owners manual also has restrictions on rpm and speed for engine "break in".

 

I fail to see the difference it would make by running it at a fixed rpm for a long period of time. In fact fluctuating rpm's would be worse due to the constant loading and unloading of the moving parts.

Maintaining constant speed and rpm lessens stress on rotating parts because you are not exerting external forces on the flywheel, gears, crank, etc.

Constantly speeding up and slowing down a rotating part especially when linked with heavier components will cause wear (uneven wear).

Also, I would consider engine speed (rpm) over your actual relative velocity. If you can go 120 mph while at 2k rpm the engine will not be under heavy load. Transmission would take more of a load on the gear engaged.

I would say just drive it normally and not redline it or rev up the engine quickly or dump the clutch.

 

I thought you're suppose to vary speed so that the engine goes through various vibrations that occur at different rpms? But then again, I remember reading somewhere that racing the engine right from the beginning creates a better seal at the piston.

 

^^ ive read that you need to vary the rpm because there are some sort of seals on the pistons that wont seat properly otherwise, these are just rumors ive heard, i have no evidence to support them. I also played it safe during my early break in period (engines dont fully break in till about 30k kms) until around 1000km

 

Drive it like you stole it. I don't think there's ever been any scientific proof either way that "breaking-in" the car is better than any other method, engine break-in is a myth in my opinion.

 

+1 drive it like you stole it! the engine need to be broken in based on your driving style.

 

You make a valid argument, why did you buy the car?

To drive like a slow, save the planet biotch or to have fun... while the world burns.

 

The owner's manual stated to vary RPM during break in period and not to go over 4000 RPM. The manual did not stated a speed limit but suggest to drive at moderate speeds on the highway. Also it suggest to avoid prolonged engine idling.

 

this ,in theory, is to keep the rings from seating into a particular rpm position. varying engine speed will vary piston position and seat the rings more uniformly.

 

If you are not sure, just follow the instruction in the manual. There are already too many threads on this topic, I'm not going to go deep into this, and I stop here.

 

Geez... Just drive the car...

 

I drove my car 400 miles home. Varied the revs by using sport shift to change gears while maintaining the same speed. I also got off st a few rest stops and drove around the parking lot at low speed