In an effort to break in the car, the dealer said don't use the cruise control for 600 miles until the car is broken in, varying speeds of the engine more...

Any thoughts??

Thanks,

Michael

 

Good advice if you are driving on flat terrain.

If it is hilly your RPM will vary.

Constant RPM is the enemy.

 

Do what they said. It's one of the few times I've heard good advice from a dealership.

 

You can understand why I am weary of this dealer's advice-they are the ones who said come in at 3500 miles for my first oil change and 3000 miles thereafter (check the other thread).

 

I have to agree with the dealer on this one but also go against conventional wisdom at the same time. I always ensure that the RPM varies for the first 1000 kilometers. I also break it in like I'm driving. I don't redline it by any means but I don't baby it either. I accelerate quickly and vary the speed where safely possible. My last car was a 1989 Dodge 2000 GTX (Mitzu Galant) and it went 300 000 km when I traded it in on my HCH. It could have gone another couple of years but the price was too good on the HCH to put off the purchase.

 

According to the owners manual for the break-in period:

Avoid full-throttle starts and rapid acceleration for 600 miles.
Do not change the oil until the scheduled maintenance time.
Avoid hard braking for the first 200 miles.

There is nothing about cruise control or varying rpms. If it was that important, do you think Honda would have withheld this information? We can listen to Honda, or we can ask various experts that will give us lots of different answers. We will hear such things as don't stay at constant rpms, don't stay at a constant speed (to keep the engine guessing?), drive it like you're going to drive it after the break-in (so the car can get to know you sooner?). What is the motivation for varying speeds or rpms? Don't the pistons still move in the same path regardless of rpms? As for oil changes, we will hear change it at 3,000 miles or change it at 1,000 miles to get all of the metal shavings out. Maybe in the past, this was more of an issue, but, if it was, I doubt it is still an issue with a high-precision, low friction engine like the one in this HCHII. Anyway, if any of this break-in advice is good and it's not coming from Honda, I at least want a good explanation.

 

I read the manual and it states that we shouldn't accelerate hard for the first 600 miles but doesn't say anything about cruise. It couldn't hurt to take his advice though.

 

If the idea is to get you RPMs to vary... I would think cruise would be fine. When you go up and down hills your speed is constant, not the RPMs.
It seems like strange advice to me, since the HCH II has a CVT and the RPMs don't vary all that much anyway.

 

Just drive it!!

Ive broken in twso new Hondas in the last 12 months. They saw WOT and hard brakeing right off the dealer lot and everything inbetween. Neither car has used any oil. Both are silkiy smooth and quite.

Its a Honda. There near bullit proof under the hood.

I didnt let the oil go like that said. I got there breakin molly goo out of my engines at 3k or so miles. Flushed the engines and filled with M1.

 

I agree. The advice not to use CC, if it's meant to cause RPMs to vary more, is hogwash.

Driving on the freeway with cruise control, the engine revs change much more than when I drive without cruise control. Every time I get to an overpass the CC tries very hard to maintain a constant speed on the incline, sometimes reving up to 4000 RPM. I would never push it that hard on an overpass. I would let it bleed off a little speed because I know I can gain it back on the other side. CC can't DWL. It goes crazy over every little hill.