Running in VS Not running in (continuing from a previous thread)

[08micsta]

In a previous thead that i for some odd reason cant find I stated I would find out about wether running a car is is actaully beneficial to the engine. I spoke to my father who is one of the largest oil suppliers and lubricant suppliers in Cape Town. He has 14 years of experiance and his opinion is somewhat varied.

He feels that there are two types of people. The proffessionals and the public. Normally the public listen to the proffesionals but in some/many cases this is not true. My dad feels strongly that running a car in is important. But you must not run the car in, in such a way that you labour the engine.

A car should be run in but should also be treated badly during the running in process. He feels its not really the running in process that stipulates the life of an engine. Its more things like:

1. Do you rev the engine while the car is cold or warming up?
2. Do you drive the car hard when it is cold?
3. When in traffic. Do you ride the clutch?
4. Do you check your oil every 350km?
Etc Etc.

My father has 7 delivery vehicles in his company and neither have been run in and they do over 100 deliveries everyday. My father also has 5 motorbikes of which 4 are superbikes, he has never run them in and has driven them hard from day one. The GTI was run in for about a week of town driving and thrashed the first weekend we had it.

So in conclusion for those that may be confused. My dad feels its important to run a vehicle in, but dont underuse the engine (if you know what I mean) because like it or not underusing the engine during the running in stages can create a sluggish car whereas those who run the car in but also molest it a bit will usually have a better and more liveliar car later on. 

Basically. The proffesionals believe you should run the car in but unfortuantly the public has more experiance. We run all our CARS in for about a week (family cars not business related cars) and we have never had a probelm with any of our vehicles.

(Im now officially confused, next time he can make the reply. lol)

Mike

[PabloGTI]

Good points and an interesting topic.

My personal belief is that modern engines dont require the type of "running in" that your grandads Moggy thou did, due to the tighter tollerances with modern prodution techniques.

I always allow at least a few hundred miles to "bed in" though.

It seems more important to allow the engine to fully warm up before a good thrash, and just as important (and important to brakes too) have a few "cooling off" miles after a good thrash to allow the temperatures of the components to normalize before turning the key off.

[08micsta]

thanks. i still feel (my personal opinion not my fathers) that with technology and materials as they are. running a vehicle in is important. i however do believe that engines are bedded in at the factory and that its not really the running in stages that stipulate how your vehicle will run in the future. you can treat your car like an angel for its first thousand km. but if you are going to thrash it without warning it up. if you dont have proper driving technique you are going to damage the engine. mike

[illyun]

My personal belief is that the people who actually make these engines know better  - VW in this case.  So if they tell me to run my engine in and give reasons as to why i should do this - read the manual - then I will run the car in accordingly.  Each to their own I suppose, but this is precisely why I wouldn't buy a 1-2 year old car if I was planning to keep it, as I wouldn't trust the previous owner to have looked after it knowing it was only theirs for a year.