How bad is it if I floored the (new) car for a few seconds a few times out of necessity?

[ruskiturbo]

Pretty much the title, got a Corolla 1.8 hybrid last week and did 1032km on it, but I did floor it a few times when it was at ~200-500 kilometres. Did I screw up my piston rings?

[DerekHa]

Who knows Paul? You'll need to a good deal more detail if you have any problems.

[Bernard Foy]

At over 1000km and if the engine was at maximum operating temperatures flooring the accelerator a couple of times for a few seconds shouldn’t do any harm. Flooring a cold engine on a regular basis can shorten the life of any engine and is not a good thing to do.

[Brok]

I am not sure about Toyota but when I was on the sales side of a motor dealer's all new cars were factory 'run in' eliminating the old days when new cars were supposed to avoid high revs for the first few hundred miles - which often caused damage to the cars when new drivers interpreted low revs as low speed some even avoiding changing gear which completely defeated the object. Dealers 'swap' cars, a customer wants 'model X' while you have ' model Y' in stock. A dealer fifty miles away 'has model X' and is willing to swap; to keep costs down, you drive the car to the 'swap dealer' and drive the 'swapper' back.  Because the cars are factory run in, there is no detriment to either vehicle.

So, to answer your question, no, I don't think you did any damage to the piston rings, unless you did what the wife of a famous English entertainer did when her husband bought her a brand new automatic and she drove in over 240 miles in first gear so it was lovely and cooked at the end of the journey!

[Bernard Foy]

Having read your post more carefully Paul, it had done between 200 - 500km then provided the engine was hot and max revs was limited to a few seconds then you would be very unlucky if it caused any damage. Why did you floor it ?

[ruskiturbo]

1 minute ago, Bernard Foy said:

At over 1000km and if the engine was at maximum operating temperatures flooring the accelerator a couple of times for a few seconds shouldn’t do any harm. Flooring a cold engine on a regular basis can shorten the life of any engine and is not a good thing to do.

Never floored it while cold. I only floored it like 2-3 times on a highway when the odo read 330km (legal speeds at 130km/h, so I floored it to 150 twice), "soft floored" it on the acceleration ramp (meaning, 3000-4000rpm) and I had a bit of fun with it today when it was at over 1000kms

[ruskiturbo]

Just now, Bernard Foy said:

Having read your post more carefully Paul, it had done between 200 - 500km then provided the engine was hot and max revs was limited to a few seconds then you would be very unlucky if it caused any damage. Why did you floor it ?

Hi, I explained it in more detail in your previous comment

[Bernard Foy]

Yes it’s the time lapse between posts 👍

[ruskiturbo]

Just now, Bernard Foy said:

Yes it’s the time lapse between posts 👍

No probs. To add another comment regarding "cold engine driving": I drive it on the slower side for the first ~15 to 30 minutes and I let the engine run for ~a minute if I start it while it's cold so I don't think that should be a problem. I've never hammered my cars while cold anyway

[Bernard Foy]

Maybe your user name should be “risk it turbo “🤔😆

[ruskiturbo]

9 minutes ago, Brok said:

I am not sure about Toyota but when I was on the sales side of a motor dealer's all new cars were factory 'run in' eliminating the old days when new cars were supposed to avoid high revs for the first few hundred miles - which often caused damage to the cars when new drivers interpreted low revs as low speed some even avoiding changing gear which completely defeated the object. Dealers 'swap' cars, a customer wants 'model X' while you have ' model Y' in stock. A dealer fifty miles away 'has model X' and is willing to swap; to keep costs down, you drive the car to the 'swap dealer' and drive the 'swapper' back.  Because the cars are factory run in, there is no detriment to either vehicle.

So, to answer your question, no, I don't think you did any damage to the piston rings, unless you did what the wife of a famous English entertainer did when her husband bought her a brand new automatic and she drove in over 240 miles in first gear so it was lovely and cooked at the end of the journey!

I did ask the dealer when I got the car too and they said Toyotas are already "run in" from the factory but the manual said not to drive it hard for the first 620 miles/1000km but I don't know how they define "hard". Hard as in, don't drive it like on a track or hard as in "if you overtake at full throttle once your whole dreams will shatter"?

[Bernard Foy]

Sometimes it’s absolutely necessary to welly the engine to pass out slower vehicles given that the car’s well warmed it modern cars are well able to cope.

[ruskiturbo]

3 minutes ago, Bernard Foy said:

Maybe your user name should be “risk it turbo “🤔😆

haha yeah, to be fair I'm 22 and had a 200hp car before this, so I can't say I drive like an uncle, but I did drive this corolla like a normal person (4.5l/100 or 63 UK mpg so I don't think I hammered it otherwise I wouldn't have gotten those fuel consumption numbers).

 

Anyway, what do you say: have I done any damage to the car?

[Bernard Foy]

1 minute ago, ruskiturbo said:

haha yeah, to be fair I'm 22 and had a 200hp car before this, so I can't say I drive like an uncle, but I did drive this corolla like a normal person (4.5l/100 or 63 UK mpg so I don't think I hammered it otherwise I wouldn't have gotten those fuel consumption numbers).

 

Anyway, what do you say: have I done any damage to the car?

Short answer NO,!!!

[ruskiturbo]

Just now, Bernard Foy said:

Short answer NO,!!!

ok i love you

[Brok]

13 minutes ago, Bernard Foy said:

Short answer NO,!!!

 

15 minutes ago, ruskiturbo said:

haha yeah, to be fair I'm 22 and had a 200hp car before this, so I can't say I drive like an uncle, but I did drive this corolla like a normal person (4.5l/100 or 63 UK mpg so I don't think I hammered it otherwise I wouldn't have gotten those fuel consumption numbers).

 

Anyway, what do you say: have I done any damage to the car?

How does an uncle drive? I'm a great grandfather and I hate forty miles an hour freaks - are they 'uncles'?! 

[Cyker]

As long as the engine is at operating temperature, then no worries! My Mk4 has seen 6000rpm a few times within the first few months of ownership as I discovered the thing can launch like a rocket ship  

(Look I had to get it out of my system after owning the Mk2! I'd almost forgotten what it was like to overtake something!   )

 

[Roy124]

6 minutes ago, Brok said:

 

How does an uncle drive? I'm a great grandfather and I hate forty miles an hour freaks - are they 'uncles'?! 

Is that in 30 zones? 

 

[Yugguy1970]

To be fair it's hard to rev a hybrid for too long anyway.  The engine only really revs high on fast acceleration and once you are at speed it will settle.

I once took the Rav to over a 100, er, leptons an hour and once there the engine was just in the lower part of pwr and not revving high.

[Brok]

12 minutes ago, Roy124 said:

Is that in 30 zones? 

No, Roy, I live in Somerset, there are plenty of national speed limit roads!!

 

[Cyker]

9 minutes ago, Yugguy1970 said:

To be fair it's hard to rev a hybrid for too long anyway.  The engine only really revs high on fast acceleration and once you are at speed it will settle.

I once took the Rav to over a 100, er, leptons an hour and once there the engine was just in the lower part of pwr and not revving high.

Oh yeah?? Challenge Accepte-*Hybrid System Malfunction Visit your Dealer*

[TonyHSD]

Actually you can rev it for a long time and not only it’s unpleasant but also drains the Battery quickly and the car becomes even worse., noisier, inefficient and on top of that very slow.
My lady been driven hard on German authoban in the fast lane and on Silverstone circuit, I can assure you that no pro driver will pick Toyota hybrid over any other car 😂👍 Toyota hybrids are not good for fast drives, no matter engine size. What they are good at actually they are the  best for relaxing drive and can go around the globe many times, where others can not, or at least not easily 😉