Running in question ?

[lightboxcar]

Do these modern cars still need running in ?

Have heard conflicting advice in this respect, so will probably adopt a cautious approach.

One possible area of confusion is that we will want to get most day to day journeys done using the EV range.  The home charger will hopefully enable that.

Wondering then how we can then tell how many miles the pertrol engine has done over time.

For example we could do a couple of thousand miles, but this will be a mixture of EV and petrol/hybrid.

Is there any to way know how many miles the petrol part of the engine has done ?

Thanks very much.

 

[Eddiefh]

A lot off American Toyota YouTubers recommend changing oil after a 1000 miles 

[Gray86]

I thought the PHEV told you how many miles you have done EV and how many engine? If not, I wouldn’t worry too much. Try to use the engine as much as possible on longer journeys so you can get some use on it. Running in is less important these days, and you don’t have to drive the PHEV hard to accelerate well 

[Cyker]

24 minutes ago, lightboxcar said:

Do these modern cars still need running in ?

Have heard conflicting advice in this respect, so will probably adopt a cautious approach.

One possible area of confusion is that we will want to get most day to day journeys done using the EV range.  The home charger will hopefully enable that.

Wondering then how we can then tell how many miles the pertrol engine has done over time.

For example we could do a couple of thousand miles, but this will be a mixture of EV and petrol/hybrid.

Is there any to way know how many miles the petrol part of the engine has done ?

Thanks very much.

 

TBH, it's not really worth worrying about - The tolerances are so small these days (My engine uses 0w8 oil!!!  ) that they're practically worn in already.

Just drive normally and don't rag on the engine - Try to avoid sudden hard accelerations, but higher RPMs are fine if they're reached gradually.

You have limited control over the engine in a hybrid anyway so just let it do it's own thing, while you drive with some semblance of normalcy  

 

[Flatcoat]

The only running in advice I had got my PHEV was to avoid towing for the first 1000 miles. Not sure why, given how do they know how much of that first 1000 miles is in EV or ICE mode? However after our 2000 mile towing trip last summer the did seam quieter and peppier. I do use Vpower or similar petrol. 

[TonyHSD]

Quieter and peppier feel most likely from the e5 petrol. There is no need to do any oil change in the first 1000 miles , or between 10k miles or 12 months service intervals. These cars shows time in ev driven and based on that you can calculate your average engine work, for example if you traveled 1000 miles and you have 60% ev time you likely been done around 400 miles with engine on, that’s a roughly estimate but again no need to worry about it.
The towing restrictions are likely to prevent any high loads to the petrol engine, something that Toyota recommends for all new cars including hev in the first 1000 miles together with avoiding long hours constant high speed drives. For example you just have bought the car brand new from London and immediately on your way to Glasgow, you should take it easy , more frequent breaks and refrain from using cruise control but drive yourself changing the average speed more often. 👍

[Flatcoat]

I do know why - with all due respect Tony I appreciate you are trying to help but I am not a car novice. I have only been driving 48 years and had over 50 cars (not many brand new) and have rebuilt more than a couple of car and motorbike engines in that time…. My comment was in context of the 1000 miles being a somewhat arbitrary figure when in theory I could drive 100% of that in EV mode. I understand the benefits of E5 which is why I always use it in all my cars. My nephew is chief race engineer for United Racing LMP2 team and get quite a lot of insight from him into fuel technology. 

[TonyHSD]

2 hours ago, Flatcoat said:

I do know why - with all due respect Tony I appreciate you are trying to help but I am not a car novice. I have only been driving 48 years and had over 50 cars (not many brand new) and have rebuilt more than a couple of car and motorbike engines in that time…. My comment was in context of the 1000 miles being a somewhat arbitrary figure when in theory I could drive 100% of that in EV mode. I understand the benefits of E5 which is why I always use it in all my cars. My nephew is chief race engineer for United Racing LMP2 team and get quite a lot of insight from him into fuel technology. 

Thanks for sharing Adrian.
I apologise if my comment sounded odd or in any other bad way towards you I haven’t questioned your automotive experience  or made any notes towards your post or anything, I only shared my thoughts and experiences after I had read all the posts above. Kind of my conclusion from my personal experience and all I had read from other members above. 

[Flatcoat]

I do agree that a running in period is wise even though some manufacturers do not require one these days. Having said that my brother used to work for a company who serviced a fleet of vans that were known to have drivers who mercilessly thrashed them from day one and often clocked up 150k miles without any problems. He also said the vans were much faster in comparison with more carefully driven versions. 

[lightboxcar]

9 hours ago, TonyHSD said:

These cars shows time in ev driven and based on that you can calculate your average engine work,

Thanks for that.

Am guessing you are referring to the info in the My-T app, which we just found ?  ( can't see it on the dash )

Anyway that will work just fine, as you say we can calclulate the approx. engine driven miles, and the EV driven miles.

[lightboxcar]

17 hours ago, Flatcoat said:

do use Vpower or similar petrol

For all of our cars,  we always use 'momentum' , Vpwer etc. or whatever shows the highest octane rating, it's like 98 or sometjign compared to about 95 for regular fuel.

We are absoutely sure we get much better MPG and our garage siad it was better for the car as well.

[philip42h]

There's an easier way than that ... you'll get about 500 ICE miles from a tankful of fuel - if you want to treat it gently (run it in) for the first 1,000 ICE miles just do so for the first couple of tankfuls of fuel!

But I suspect that you'll get bored before then, and, as said above:

23 hours ago, Cyker said:

Just drive normally and don't rag on the engine - Try to avoid sudden hard accelerations, but higher RPMs are fine if they're reached gradually.

You have limited control over the engine in a hybrid anyway so just let it do it's own thing, while you drive with some semblance of normalcy  

With a traditional manual you'd try to vary the revs avoiding veryhigh revs or straining the engine by not reving quite enough. But you've now got an eCVT so you simply can't follow the ancient paradigm. The good news is that the eCVT will pretty much do it for you ... 😉 

[ernieb]

With the PHEV don’t charge it and run in HEV mode which is what I did for the first 500 miles then charged and used the EV mode on short trips and HEV mode on longer ones, around 1000 miles in total.

To be really truthful I did run in EV initially for a few miles it was just too good not to do so.

[Flatcoat]

4 hours ago, lightboxcar said:

For all of our cars,  we always use 'momentum' , Vpwer etc. or whatever shows the highest octane rating, it's like 98 or sometjign compared to about 95 for regular fuel.

We are absoutely sure we get much better MPG and our garage siad it was better for the car as well.

I also use it with being E5 rather than E10. I bought a 15 year old Merc CLK Kompressor a few months ago and after a few tanks of Vpower that is running much smoother too and mpg has improved. 

[lightboxcar]

5 hours ago, philip42h said:

for the first 1,000 ICE miles just do so for the first couple of tankfuls of fuel

Brilliant solution !!!

Thank you

[lightboxcar]

5 hours ago, ernieb said:

it was just too good not to do so

Completely agree.

The first thing we did was to charge right up to 100%

The second thing we did was to fill the tank to full with high 95 octane fuel.

The thing we did was to spend quite a long time admiring the My-T esitimated range of 630 miles ...........

[Cyker]

I did similar with my Yaris, immediately went to fill the tank, but then I went on a 2 hour hoon right after that  

[lightboxcar]

Range shown on RAV 4 PHEV dashboard with full tank of fuel and almost 100% Battery, already drove a little bit on EV after charging :

 

[ernieb]

6 hours ago, lightboxcar said:

Range shown on RAV 4 PHEV dashboard with full tank of fuel and almost 100% battery, already drove a little bit on EV after charging :

 

I like the updated instrument panel, better than the '21 as it seems clearer and less cluttered. 

[TonyHSD]

1 hour ago, ernieb said:

I like the updated instrument panel, better than the '21 as it seems clearer and less cluttered. 

+1👍

[Flatcoat]

1 hour ago, ernieb said:

I like the updated instrument panel, better than the '21 as it seems clearer and less cluttered. 

Agree.

Looking back In practice with my PHEV the initial 1000 miles were largely in ICE mode for various reasons. 1) We were still waiting for the home charge point installation and charging via 13amp supply. 2) initial Unfamiliarity with the car and charging process and getting in the habit of plugging in when parked at home. 
 

Although my previous car was a Volvo V60 D6 PHEV, the very short EV range and general unreliability of the car was such I rarely bothered charging it. 
 

[SO8]

1 hour ago, TonyHSD said:

+1👍

+2 👍