New Car Break in Recommendation

[Scout117]

Hi Everyone,

Finally got my Corolla 2L hatchback this week and so far has been great.

This is my first new car so was wondering If I could get some advice on the break in period.

I'm a but worried because the dealership I got it from was already 70 miles away so I had to drive that much on the motorway with a couple of hard accelerations. I have read that during initial miles that shouldn't be done.

In general how long and how should the car be driven in the break in period ?

 

Thanks

[Hornet3D]

On 4/13/2022 at 12:25 AM, Scout117 said:

Hi Everyone,

Finally got my Corolla 2L hatchback this week and so far has been great.

This is my first new car so was wondering If I could get some advice on the break in period.

I'm a but worried because the dealership I got it from was already 70 miles away so I had to drive that much on the motorway with a couple of hard accelerations. I have read that during initial miles that shouldn't be done.

In general how long and how should the car be driven in the break in period ?

 

Thanks

This seems fairly extensive.

Never do THIS to your New Toyota and Toyota Hybrid - YouTube

[AndrueC]

I've been buying new for many years now and the advice has always been to just drive it sensibly for the first couple of thousands of miles. No need to keep below a certain speed, no need to avoid cruising at fixed RPM for length periods (not that you can do much to avoid that in an automatic anyway).

So basically don't thrash it for a couple of thousands miles but otherwise 'just drive it'.

[TonyHSD]

Indeed, don’t trash it is the most valuable advice 👍. Faster accelerations are fine as long as you haven’t floor it and pushed to the limit and then slam on the brakes. 70 miles journey it’s not long enough to worry anything about, however if you want to drive 200+ miles in one day best to make it in few shorter drives 2 or 3 with some breaks in between, this is what even Toyota recommends  in their book. Break in period tbh is the first 1000 miles, to bed in the brakes mostly and for the engine moving parts to settle down correctly. Avoid hard and fast acceleration during warm up process of the petrol engine, wait the coolant gauge to show middle then you can enjoy pulling away faster. You can start the car and drive off immediately but slower and sensibly. In winter and cold days wait 1 or 2 min before initial drive off. That’s pretty much all. Enjoy your new car 🚗🙂👍

[alan333]

I haven’t came across anything in the C-HR hybrid owners manual (I assume the 2.0 hybrid Corolla to be similar?) mentioning anything to do with running the car in, and certainly absolutely nothing to do with breaking a 200 mile journey into smaller parts.

Personally, I would avoid treating it too harshly for the first 1000 miles or so but other than that I’d use it.

[Bernard Foy]

Tony’s breaking in advice is good for any make or model of new cars.!! As a matter of interest in my handbook for the Mark4 Toyota Yaris Hybrid, this advice as given by TonyHSD is there.  So I’m assuming that Toyota have very good reasons for including it.

[Parts-King]

Back in the day when engineering standards were not as good, you needed to "run in" the engine, it had thin oil that was changed at 600-1000 miles and during that time you had to take your time. Moving on 30 years, engineering standards for new engines are far better, modern oils do not need to be changed until 10K, so running in is not really a requirement BUT, not that you can do it with a Hybrid, but on a manual gearbox, labouring the engine (not changing down the gears) will be be harmful than a hard acceleration. I would avoid harsh driving for the first couple of thousand miles, then drive it as you see fit after that. The 2.0 engine on the Corolla is outstanding, but my 1.8 will be doing more MPG than yours 🤣 🤣

[Gerhard_Corolla]

I've noticed that once the engine reaches the 'optimum' operating temperature, it's extremely rare to see the temperature drop, but you can actually coast for many miles in EV mode. Do you have to obviate the continuous 'cold' engine restarts and do not worry about them?

I'll guess that's why 0W16 oil is recommended with Toyota's hybrid power units...

I've just avoided so far sudden acceleration and high RPM, but at first I was baby sitting the car way too much, I just simply couldn't charge the Battery. The maximum amount was maybe a charge average of 40%, not ideal as told by Toyota, but extremely complicated to charge more in 'normal' conditions. I've recently treated the car 'normally', and we can charge it more, but still not ideal.

In theory, the only solution is to drive more the car...

[Parts-King]

Some new models use 0W8, and is exactly why it is used, less friction, better fuel economy, great when cold 

[TonyHSD]

19 hours ago, Gerhard_Corolla said:

I've noticed that once the engine reaches the 'optimum' operating temperature, it's extremely rare to see the temperature drop, but you can actually coast for many miles in EV mode. Do you have to obviate the continuous 'cold' engine restarts and do not worry about them?

I'll guess that's why 0W16 oil is recommended with Toyota's hybrid power units...

I've just avoided so far sudden acceleration and high RPM, but at first I was baby sitting the car way too much, I just simply couldn't charge the battery. The maximum amount was maybe a charge average of 40%, not ideal as told by Toyota, but extremely complicated to charge more in 'normal' conditions. I've recently treated the car 'normally', and we can charge it more, but still not ideal.

In theory, the only solution is to drive more the car...

After the engine reaches normal operating temperature  in winter months the temperature can drop down a bit while driving in town at lower speeds. This is normal and nothing to worry. There is no need to do anything,  just drive as usual. Even the temperature has dropped a bit it is still way higher from when the engine start up at cold and has not been used for a while and quickly will warm up to its desired level. For Battery charging on hybrids the best suggestion is to keep the car in ready mode (ignition ON) as long as you can and there is no need the car to be in motion, you can park up and stay inside waiting for someone for example and keep the car in ready mode will charge the 12v Battery well. 👍

[Gray86]

There are two schools of thought when it comes to running in:

1) get the oil warm and drive it HARD from day 1, to get those piston rings bedded in. This is only really relevant for performance cars. . . 

2) drive it very gently for the first thousand miles, then ease it in. 

I gave mine a relatively gentle first few hundred miles, and once over 400 miles I started to use more of the throttle travel & load the engine up more. Now I’m at 12,000 miles, and had no issues - doesn’t really dirty the oil, and importantly doesn’t use a drop between services. 

[Gerhard_Corolla]

19 hours ago, TonyHSD said:

After the engine reaches normal operating temperature  in winter months the temperature can drop down a bit while driving in town at lower speeds. This is normal and nothing to worry. There is no need to do anything,  just drive as usual. Even the temperature has dropped a bit it is still way higher from when the engine start up at cold and has not been used for a while and quickly will warm up to its desired level. For battery charging on hybrids the best suggestion is to keep the car in ready mode (ignition ON) as long as you can and there is no need the car to be in motion, you can park up and stay inside waiting for someone for example and keep the car in ready mode will charge the 12v battery well. 👍

That's comforting, I was wondering what could happen with all those cold engine starts after coasting for long periods of time, specially at high speeds... It's just a wonderful thing to think about the process required to start the ICE after coasting in EV at 110 km/h. Little engineering treasures that we nowadays take for granted!

I was referring to the high voltage/hybrid system Battery, it just seems impossible for me to charge it beyond 50%. The Toyota maintenance personal said that it's not yet a 'concerning' thing, but those maximum percentages should be a little bit higher from time to time. I've tried several ways/methods of driving the car, but haven't been possible to improve those numbers within the engine 'brake-in' period. 

I'm planning to change the oil after the first 1,500/2000 km, and then stretch its legs with more aggressive acceleration, higher RPM and speeds...

[Gerhard_Corolla]

19 hours ago, Parts-King said:

Some new models use 0W8, and is exactly why it is used, less friction, better fuel economy, great when cold 

it's insane the temperature spreads those oils can handle...

[TonyHSD]

1 hour ago, Gerhard_Corolla said:

That's comforting, I was wondering what could happen with all those cold engine starts after coasting for long periods of time, specially at high speeds... It's just a wonderful thing to think about the process required to start the ICE after coasting in EV at 110 km/h. Little engineering treasures that we nowadays take for granted!

I was referring to the high voltage/hybrid system battery, it just seems impossible for me to charge it beyond 50%. The Toyota maintenance personal said that it's not yet a 'concerning' thing, but those maximum percentages should be a little bit higher from time to time. I've tried several ways/methods of driving the car, but haven't been possible to improve those numbers within the engine 'brake-in' period. 

I'm planning to change the oil after the first 1,500/2000 km, and then stretch its legs with more aggressive acceleration, higher RPM and speeds...

Hi Gerhard, 

toyota hybrids maintain Battery state of charge by themselves and you don’t have to try to add extra charge to it , you can just drive as you will do with any other petrol automatic. The Battery gauge is only an average representation of the real numbers of the Battery charge, when shown full you battery actually will be at max 76-80%, these batteries never goes below 40% and above 80%. In general more spirited driving style can add more energy to the battery and also improve the efficiency. You can look online information and videos about Prius hyper milling, pulse and glide technique, works great at all speeds. Also you don’t need to worry about oil change earlier, just stick with Toyota 10k miles or 12 months recommendation. Break in period basically is the first 400-1000 miles, anything after you will find no difference in fuel consumption, behaviour or anything that can improve or worsen, these cars just keep going ~~~. Even during this period or let say the first few 000’s miles you can still drive enjoyably and faster , just avoid flooring it often and for long time, also keep lower cruising speeds max 70mph. That’s all. I worked at fleet cars place with hundreds of hybrids and non had any issues, only regular service. 👍

[Parts-King]

2 hours ago, Gerhard_Corolla said:

it's insane the temperature spreads those oils can handle...

It is indeed, it pours like water, very thin, people think it's no good because it is so thin, but it is fantastic what it can handle, of course they are all a bit more expensive too, and the conspiracy theorists will tell you its all a con  

[Cyker]

The conventional wisdom in normal cars is to be gentle, but use as much of the rev range as possible during the wear-in period, so don't accelerate hard but let the revs climb naturally - What you should try to avoid is holding the same RPM for long periods, as it won't wear in the bores evenly. If you never touch the high RPMs at all over a longer period there is a risk a 'lip' will develop at the top of the bore which may get punched out.

With modern engines, esp. Toyotas, it's not such an issue as the tolerances are so insanely tight and the bores and pistons all have special hardened coatings specifically to stop them wearing and to hold onto oil better so as long as you don't rag on it right from the get go it'll be fine.

The hybrids don't really give you much authority over what the ICE does anyway, so just drive normally and let it do its thing.

 

[AndrueC]

5 hours ago, Gerhard_Corolla said:

I was referring to the high voltage/hybrid system battery, it just seems impossible for me to charge it beyond 50%. The Toyota maintenance personal said that it's not yet a 'concerning' thing, but those maximum percentages should be a little bit higher from time to time.

The 1.8 is a bit different in this respect. It will often get to within one bar of fully charged. Different Battery types, different power requirements I suppose.

[Cyker]

I don't know about the older ones but the newer ones are very keen on keeping the Battery charge around 50%.

It will go over if you're on a steep downhill or able to brake a lot, or are going at higher speeds, but if you are going at speeds where MG2 can push the car on its own it will continuously cycle between the ICE and MG2 and bounce around the 50% mark.

It's actually genius, and partly why the newer hybrids are able to get higher mpgs, as Toyota finally realized there is no point in charging the Battery very much; Firstly, keeping the Battery around 50% as much as possible greatly extends its life. Second, as EV people like to point out, all the energy comes from the petrol, so the best strategy is for the car to run the ICE at its most efficient rpm and loading to hit that magic 41% efficiency, using that to move the car and dumping the excess into the battery. As soon as the battery gets enough charge (Basically above 50%) it wants to switch off the ICE and switch to MG2, and will do so as soon as your speed drops below a certain amount or if you lift off for even a second, so minimize the amount of time it runs on the ICE.

You can force it to charge the battery more by keeping the powerband in the Eco+ band, but there isn't really much point unless you know you're going to be stuck in traffic or going to be somewhere you'd rather run on MG2 as much as possible in the near future.

That said, one thing I'd change about my Mk4 is change the EV button (Which is literally useless) to a Charge button, so I can explicitly force the car to charge the battery up for those specific reasons, as one thing I really really hate about the car is when it fires up the ICE to charge the battery while I'm stationary in traffic. (I suspect it's not so bad in the 4-cylinder Corollas, but in the 3-cylinder Yaris it's reaaallly obnoxious!)

 

[Roy124]

Andrue, my Corolla also charges to full - 1 and drops out of EV mode as it reached half.

 

[TonyHSD]

16 minutes ago, Cyker said:

I don't know about the older ones but the newer ones are very keen on keeping the battery charge around 50%.

It will go over if you're on a steep downhill or able to brake a lot, or are going at higher speeds, but if you are going at speeds where MG2 can push the car on its own it will continuously cycle between the ICE and MG2 and bounce around the 50% mark.

It's actually genius, and partly why the newer hybrids are able to get higher mpgs, as Toyota finally realized there is no point in charging the battery very much; Firstly, keeping the battery around 50% as much as possible greatly extends its life. Second, as EV people like to point out, all the energy comes from the petrol, so the best strategy is for the car to run the ICE at its most efficient rpm and loading to hit that magic 41% efficiency, using that to move the car and dumping the excess into the battery. As soon as the battery gets enough charge (Basically above 50%) it wants to switch off the ICE and switch to MG2, and will do so as soon as your speed drops below a certain amount or if you lift off for even a second, so minimize the amount of time it runs on the ICE.

You can force it to charge the battery more by keeping the powerband in the Eco+ band, but there isn't really much point unless you know you're going to be stuck in traffic or going to be somewhere you'd rather run on MG2 as much as possible in the near future.

That said, one thing I'd change about my Mk4 is change the EV button (Which is literally useless) to a Charge button, so I can explicitly force the car to charge the battery up for those specific reasons, as one thing I really really hate about the car is when it fires up the ICE to charge the battery while I'm stationary in traffic. (I suspect it's not so bad in the 4-cylinder Corollas, but in the 3-cylinder Yaris it's reaaallly obnoxious!)

 

Same in the other hybrids, noisy as hell when ice is charging a dead Battery 🪫, slightly better perhaps in the 4 cylinder engines as they are more balanced in general. 👍

[bigblock]

The engine has been well covered in this topic but also be careful with the brakes. Get the pads bedded in nicely and no hard braking if possible. Lots of energy can be harvested with gentle braking.

[Cyker]

1 minute ago, TonyHSD said:

Same in the other hybrids, noisy as hell when ice is charging a dead battery 🪫, slightly better perhaps in the 4 cylinder engines as they are more balanced in general. 👍

The thing is it's *only* when it's running the ICE to charge while the car is stationary; If I'm moving, even at 3mph, it is quiet and smooth! But as soon as you stop it suddenly becomes much louder and the vibrations are much worse!

I wouldn't car so much if it was smoother and quieter, but because it's so obnoxious it grates, esp. when the car is normally so quiet (Except when I'm hooning it around   )

[TonyHSD]

7 hours ago, bigblock said:

The engine has been well covered in this topic but also be careful with the brakes. Get the pads bedded in nicely and no hard braking if possible. Lots of energy can be harvested with gentle braking.

That’s a good point and very important 👍✅

[Catlover]

Gerhard, I think you may have got the message now……… just relax, let the car computer handle everything, do not stick at one speed cruising for too long, accelerate and decelerate gradually (though nothing wrong with an odd brisk acceleration), don’t worry about hybrid Battery bars, they look after themselves, no harsh breaking for a few hundred miles of normal (non MWay use). Personally, I wouldn’t bother changing the oil at anything but the Toyota recommended miles (they designed the car so know best), plus, remember because the car is running on hybrid Battery up to 50% of the time, the 15,000 kilometres to first oil change is actually around 8,000 km engine movement ie approx 5k miles.

[Yugguy1970]

For our new hybrids I didn't run in so much but I always try not to let the engine run too high until it's warmed up, so no full Pwr runs.