Question about the break in period

When I receive my 550i, I will driving from the dealership to my home which is about 90 miles.

Is it o.k. to drive such a long distance the first time I receive the car? This will be a non-stop drive.

My car has the regular steptronic automatic without dynamic handling.

I have never seen any recommended restrictions other than 2 items:

1) Dealer and owners manual will tell you to keep below 4500 rpm for the first 1200 miles. If you have 8-speed auto, and don't punch down, then it should never get that high. But if you do by mistake, I wouldn't worry much.
2) Also, try not to stay in the same gear the whole time on the highway. Vary the gearing around a bit. My guess is you'll be enjoying the accelerations, so it should be fine. Just try not to rev it up too high for first 1200 miles.

There is a section in your owners manual that talks about the break-in period. I don't have mine in front of me but as I remember it says don't exceed 4500 rpm but double check. My drive was 120 miles and I kept below 4500 rpm and varied the speed a little.....I have done this with the last three new BMW's I have owned and no problems.

Good luck

In regular "D" mode, I find the auto trans likes to stay at very low rpm's when driving "gently". I leave mine in "DS" mode a good part of the time to keep the revs up a little more and let the engine exercise a bit. I'm coming from 12 years of driving manuals and typically, driving a manual keeps the engine at higher revs, this is not necessarily a bad thing during break-in. You don't want to never let the engine breathe a little and get to 4500 rpm a few times.

There is nothing wrong with a drive of any length during break-in. Check the owner's manual for complete details. A couple points of interest.

First 500km

• Try to avoid heavy braking (ABS)
• All new tires have a thin film on the tread from the manufacture process, so full handling capabilities can't be completely realised. Try not to drive like on a race track.

First 2000km

• Vary the revs, avoid staying at the same rpm for an extended period of time.
• Try not to exceed 160km/h or 4500rpm. It won't kill you if you do, just don't make a habit of it.

It all bull****e.......I've been driving for 33 years and have broken all my cars in the same. Take it to redline but don't keep it there for too long. That's it.....never had a problem.

My take is to drive it normally without taking it to redline in every gear and to make sure that the oil is up to temperature before I do any spirited acceleration. In fact, I believe the variety of engine speeds and loads is better for the engine to properly seat the rings and bearings. I will change the oil at 1500, 7500, 15000 and every 7.5K thereafter.

Originally Posted by 1HOT BMR

My take is to drive it normally without taking it to redline in every gear and to make sure that the oil is up to temperature before I do any spirited acceleration. In fact, I believe the variety of engine speeds and loads is better for the engine to properly seat the rings and bearings. I will change the oil at 1500, 7500, 15000 and every 7.5K thereafter.

I have to agree with the drive it normally. I was particularly careful not to stress the engine too much till the oil temp reached normal working temp, but I continue to do that in my car now...

Paul

If you are driving 90 miles, you should NOT do it non-stop. It is EXTREMELY important to stop every 10-15 miles, get out of the car, rand un around it 3 times, yelling "WOO HOO!" If you are under 50 years old and under 250 pounds, doing cartwheels is also appropriate.




BTW BMW has always recommended varying the speed / RPM's during break-in. If you use cruise control on the drive home, you may want to vary the speed. This may not be any more helpful than the cartwheels, though.

PS: bed the brakes, to extend the life of the pads and rotors. If you do not know how, do a Google search.