[bensanford]

I was at a BMW sponsored "The Ultimate Driver" event in the DC area today. It was basically driving an X2, and then a M530e around a tight autocross course in a large parking lot.

After that they has a wide selection of new cars for people to test drive in the area over. I took the opportunity to drive a m240i, and then a m540i over a something like a 5 mile loop. Of course I hit 6000 RPM's a few times to get the feel of the car, and then I noticed that the 240i that I was driving only had around 300 miles on the odometer. I'm sure that all of the other demo cars were driven in a similar manner, and likely none had been properly broken in.

Are these cars later just sold as "demo" cars, with the buyer unaware of how the car was driven during the break-in period?

Or was my restrained driving of my m230i for the first 1200 miles not that important?

[Poochie]

Break in is necessary, my 135i, I did a burn out after I left the dealer and did not brake it in, because it was a lease - and that car burned a lot of oil during its tenure. A quart every 2,000 miles.

My 235i I did brake in properly and this car does not burn a drop of oil.


They are both the same N55 motor.

This leads me to believe there is some truth to brake-ins...

[Mr Carrots]

Anyone buying a demo car should be aware of the abuse it's taken, lol.

I only broke my new engine in for 400 miles this time, first was 1200. Is it essential? Who knows with these new blocks

[Dj_Quik]

I bought an m240 demo car with 300 kms on it and now have 10000. No problems so far. I drove it gently for the next couple thousand kms like inwas breaking it in and its been fine ever since.

[xantdieselx]

Originally Posted by bensanford

I was at a BMW sponsored "The Ultimate Driver" event in the DC area today. It was basically driving an X2, and then a M530e around a tight autocross course in a large parking lot.

After that they has a wide selection of new cars for people to test drive in the area over. I took the opportunity to drive a m240i, and then a m540i over a something like a 5 mile loop. Of course I hit 6000 RPM's a few times to get the feel of the car, and then I noticed that the 240i that I was driving only had around 300 miles on the odometer. I'm sure that all of the other demo cars were driven in a similar manner, and likely none had been properly broken in.

Are these cars later just sold as "demo" cars, with the buyer unaware of how the car was driven during the break-in period?

Or was my restrained driving of my m230i for the first 1200 miles not that important?

I went to a driving event at New Hampshire Motor Speedway last year. We drove M240i's on a slalom course, then the 540i and 340i on the race track. We were hitting over 100 on the back straight in cars with less than 100 miles on them. I remember reading somewhere that they had to disclose this upon selling and the cars could never be CPO'd.

[aozer]

i bought a 'new' 228i (had around 500 miles) and eventually downloaded the M Laptimer app. when i connected it with my car, there was a front bumper attached gopro video of my car on a track along with all of the throttle, rpm, speed data in sync with the video. they were full throttle redlining it throughout the track and hit over 100 on one of the straights. im guessing it was a demo car and they never disclosed this to me. oh well, i no longer own the car so not that big of a deal i guess. if anyone lives in TX, dont buy from BMW of san antonio. they are garbage.

[Dylan86]

I'm a firm believer that you should take it easy for first few hundred miles, then do a premature oil change to get out any "break-in" material or sediment that might be in there. Aside from that and moving forward, fresh oil change and drive it hard, with as little coasting as possible for first 2-3k miles, after that you should be good to go. Worst thing you can do with a new engine is beat on it cold, go long on first oil change, and driving it too easy (no WOT). Load helps to seal the piston rings, so if you're babying the car from dealership to lets say "5k", you're not doing the engine any good whatsoever, if anything you'll see oil consumption sooner than later.

I'm not high mileage per say, but have 42k kms on the clock, and I've driven the snot out of this car for 30k of those kms, and it burns little to no oil, no top ups req'd for my 7-8k kms intervals, and virtually zero carbon buildup (could be the meth contributing to that).

She's a keeper, this one!

[overcoil]

Originally Posted by aozer

i bought a 'new' 228i (had around 500 miles) and eventually downloaded the M Laptimer app. when i connected it with my car, there was a front bumper attached gopro video of my car on a track along with all of the throttle, rpm, speed data in sync with the video. they were full throttle redlining it throughout the track and hit over 100 on one of the straights. im guessing it was a demo car and they never disclosed this to me. oh well, i no longer own the car so not that big of a deal i guess. if anyone lives in TX, dont buy from BMW of san antonio. they are garbage.

That is a great story. First time I’ve read anything like that.

[elus1ve]

My previous car was a demo 328i equipped with every possible options under the sun plus accessories such as special wheels etc. It had 10,000km on it shared between demos and employees! Because it was so heavily equipped it was just too expensive. I got it for a ridiculous price on lease so didnt really care about maintenance. It turned out to be a fine car without a single issue for 3 years.

Just my exp. Cant say for all demo cars but i wouldnt shy away from demo cars for leases.

[CP911]

Originally Posted by Dylan86

I'm a firm believer that you should take it easy for first few hundred miles, then do a premature oil change to get out any "break-in" material or sediment that might be in there. Aside from that and moving forward, fresh oil change and drive it hard, with as little coasting as possible for first 2-3k miles, after that you should be good to go. Worst thing you can do with a new engine is beat on it cold, go long on first oil change, and driving it too easy (no WOT). Load helps to seal the piston rings, so if you're babying the car from dealership to lets say "5k", you're not doing the engine any good whatsoever, if anything you'll see oil consumption sooner than later.

I'm not high mileage per say, but have 42k kms on the clock, and I've driven the snot out of this car for 30k of those kms, and it burns little to no oil, no top ups req'd for my 7-8k kms intervals, and virtually zero carbon buildup (could be the meth contributing to that).

She's a keeper, this one!

This is good advice right here. I like to break in a new car with a good old fashioned road trip. I find that driving very evasively on the interstates to avoid rock chips and traffic in general requires driving with varying RPMs for one reason or another. That means a little cruising at 1800-2000rpm, a lot of passing at WOT (keeping some load on the engine once up to operating oil temp), some punching of the brake pedal (to increase distance between myself and one of the many jerks out there who will cut me off to get ahead of traffic... grrr do I hate people that do this), then I'll speed back up again, all while keeping RPMs below a reasonable limit (~5000). Never had a car burn oil and always treat them this way for the first few thousand miles.

I think a break-in oil change between 1500-3000 miles is also a good call. YMMV.

[Dylan86]

Originally Posted by CP911

This is good advice right here. I like to break in a new car with a good old fashioned road trip. I find that driving very evasively on the interstates to avoid rock chips and traffic in general requires driving with varying RPMs for one reason or another. That means a little cruising at 1800-2000rpm, a lot of passing at WOT (keeping some load on the engine once up to operating oil temp), some punching of the brake pedal (to increase distance between myself and one of the many jerks out there who will cut me off to get ahead of traffic... grrr do I hate people that do this), then I'll speed back up again, all while keeping RPMs below a reasonable limit (~5000). Never had a car burn oil and always treat them this way for the first few thousand miles.

I think a break-in oil change between 1500-3000 miles is also a good call. YMMV.

Road trip is a great idea, the hotter you can run the engine, the better it will break in and not react to "new conditions". It's also the best time because you have full warranty support in the event something does break, lol...

Living in the interior of the Rockies I take a "road" trip every weekend, around a few summit loops, I think that contributed to a lot of my earlier "break-in". My MK7 GTI was broken in the same way, and it's 80k kms strong with the new owner, stage 2 since 10k kms, no issue with oil consumption, engine noise, etc.

One day we won't have to do this, but that will be a sad day, sans gasoline lol

[ggggbmw]

Originally Posted by aozer

i bought a 'new' 228i (had around 500 miles) and eventually downloaded the M Laptimer app. when i connected it with my car, there was a front bumper attached gopro video of my car on a track along with all of the throttle, rpm, speed data in sync with the video. they were full throttle redlining it throughout the track and hit over 100 on one of the straights..

Are you sure that wasn't the sample file that comes with Laptimer? There are three sample files, and one has a video embedded. The video is not stored in the car anywhere. It's either in the gopro, or downloaded directly into the app from the gopro via wifi, not the USB. So, it couldn't be a video of your car.

[Peakrunner]

I was at a BMW driving school recently and ask the instructor what they did with all the cars they use in their fleets once they're done. Most were brand new 2018 340 and m240i's. He said they are sold as manufacturer reconditioned.

All the BMW cars they used at the BMW Performance facility are inspected maintained by Spartanburg factory technicians. I imagine once sold they maintain the factory warranty or whats left of it. I didn't ask how much time/miles they place on these units but many only had a few hundred miles on them at the time of my class.

If you haven't had a chance to experience the BMW one or two day class it's worth it. Great experience and very knowledgeable instructors and staff.

[mleskovar]

There are several schools of thought for break in of a motor. Some say proper ring bed-in can only happen with maximum throttle. Others say slow and go. Modern metallurgy, machining, oils, and engineering take worst case scenario into account because manufacturers don't want to be replacing motors and performance cars are, well ..... sold for performance. That being said, I always follow the same regimen when breaking in a motor. RPMs don't matter, throttle opening is what hurts for the first couple hundred miles and varying RPMs while cruising is important.

[RPM90]

Originally Posted by bensanford

I was at a BMW sponsored "The Ultimate Driver" event in the DC area today. It was basically driving an X2, and then a M530e around a tight autocross course in a large parking lot.

After that they has a wide selection of new cars for people to test drive in the area over. I took the opportunity to drive a m240i, and then a m540i over a something like a 5 mile loop. Of course I hit 6000 RPM's a few times to get the feel of the car, and then I noticed that the 240i that I was driving only had around 300 miles on the odometer. I'm sure that all of the other demo cars were driven in a similar manner, and likely none had been properly broken in.

Are these cars later just sold as "demo" cars, with the buyer unaware of how the car was driven during the break-in period?

Or was my restrained driving of my m230i for the first 1200 miles not that important?

As with many topics there are various opinions.
However, there are limited facts.

This topic if "break in" has been brought up countless times on these forums and other car manufacture forums.

Look up thread with a search and feel free to back as far as several years as the factual information has not changed regarding this topic/question of "break-in".

To start you off, with BMW the engines do not require a "break-in" as the engines have already been broken in at the factory.
The overall vehicle can use a bit of "break in", such as brakes that can benefit from a proper "bedding" break-in, along with other items that have whirly bits, and even tires.

Still, the modern auto manufacturing industry is far from the older days where a proper break-in was essential for best future performance as well as longevity.
Modern manufacturing tolerances are quite exacting and modern building techniques allow those tolerances to be achieved.

People will always post their own person anecdotal experiences, and those are handy bits of knowledge to consider.
Some people will tell their tale about how they kept the engine rpm below a certain point and their car ran great for years.
Others will tell you that they followed a low rpm break-in and their engine still had oil burning issues and other things.
Again, personal experience stories are but one part of learning and knowledge, but should not be the defining or only information by which to make ones own decisions.
Some will tell you that you should never hit red line before a certain, and rather arbitrary mileage.
In my experience I find that to be quite untrue and false.

For engines, once an engine is freshly built and initially fired up after the build, that is when the break-in occurs.
By the time we get our cars from the dealer, even if they have under 5 or 10 total miles, the engine has already been broken-in before we put our butt in our car.

Any individual new car owner would do best to rely on the larger set of data, information, experience available in the modern world.

[Luftwaffe1O1]

As mentioned above, new vehicle break ins are a left over along with 3000 mile oil changes.

These things are just not necessarily true today. We are talking much more advanced synthetic oils, and way more advanced manufacturing techniques, both for the raw materials, and the finished product.

In a lot of cases BMW has to warranty these cars up to 100k miles, pretty sure they don't want to deal with engine replacements on a regular basis.

[USA-RET]

My BMW dealership and my Mini dealership both said a break-in was unnecessary. I suppose, for many drivers this may be the case, as most normal driving will fall within the recommended RPM range outlined in the owner's manual.

I however insured I stayed within the manufacturers recommendations for operation with all my new cars.

As to the demos and their treatment, you can bet that more than a few have seen some abuse, especially the performance models (demo miles at the time of sales will have some bearing- the fewer, the better). Will this abuse manifest issues down the road....a definite "Maybe".