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General SOS... Twin air plus.

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General SOS... Twin air plus.

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Mylittlewilly500

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Dec 28, 2011
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Please can someone give me some sound advice....
I have just brought a 500 twin air plus (named little willy) I have owned it 2 weeks and currently has 400ish miles on the clock..... Yes I'm female so bare with me please!! Lol.
I'm no driving miss daisy myself but I'm certainly not a motor head..... My darling bf decided to drive today (with me as passenger) on a 240 mile trip today (SW to SE) and informed me the car needed breaking in at 193 miles, much to my horror.... He was changing gear at 5-6,000 revs! He said the car needed it.
I was horrified, spent most the journey in tears and in silence.

Yes the love of my life did make some good points.... He's been driving 20yrs longer than me etc.

But please someone tell me is it just wrong to drive a car like that.... Let alone my brand new baby!

And before anyone says.... Yes I will be driving from now on, today was a one off due to medical reasons!
 
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Whilst I wouldn't recommend driving like a loon in a brand new 500, it is fair to say that modern engines don't need to be driven at far reduced revs like those of a number of years ago. Tolerances and materials have improved over the years. However, neither should you rag it in every gear. The Twinair will drink a bit of oil for a while as it beds in so expect that, but as for breaking it in with redline acceleration through the gears... it's not something I would recommend myself :eek:
But I'm happy for others to disagree
 
Mylittlewilly500 said:
But please someone tell me is it just wrong to drive a car like that.... Let alone my brand new baby!
Click to expand...

It is just wrong to drive a car like that. For this reason: you spent most of the journey in tears and silence and clearly weren't happy; it's your car and you have every right to expect someone else to drive it within your comfort zone.

IMO driving someone else's car in a way that causes them distress can never be the right thing to do.

As to whether it's desirable to run a new car in this way, let's just say there are probably as many opinions as to how it should be done as there are people. This will always be a controversial subject, not helped by the fact that the best running in conditions for the cylinder walls and piston rings are very different from the best running in conditions for the bearings. It wouldn't be my choice to rag it, but I'd also concede that those who do can at least claim some theoretical justification for their decision.
 
I don't know where this "Kick it's head in to run it in" theory came from?
All engines need bedded in, you need alternating light loads then gradually adding more load and rpm's as you go along roughly every 100miles in modern engines, it's run in at roughly 1000mile, also dont let it idle for too long.
If you flog a new engine on modern cars it will feel faster because the learning ecu.

But kick it's head in it'll use more oil through it's life and engines wear out quicker. :(

this is the simple version, if i went into it it'd be pages long, about the tightness of the new rings/piston displacing the oil from between the conrod bearings and crank at high rpm causing metal contact making it a softer surface ie wearing out quicker trough it's serviceable life etc
 
I'm a member of a motorbike forum (I own a BMW R1200GS Adventure) and the opinions on running an engine in on that forum vary just as widely. But the BMW handbook advises careful running in. Seeing as they manufacture the machine, they really ought to know how it should be ridden properly. The theory that hard running smoothes off all the microscopic rough edges of the moving parts in the early miles really doesn't make sense to me.

I personally can see no advantage to thrashing an engine unless you're racing competitively. These days machining tolerances are so good that they don't need running in, and ragging the arse off it is only going to make the parts wear quicker.

Having said all of that, your boyfriend wouldn't have done much harm in 240 miles.

I'd be really wary about letting him have the keys again. It's your car, so he should drive it by your rules. End of. If I drove Mrs J's car or motorbike like that she'd have my nuts on toast for a snack.
 
The salesman who sold us our 1.2 said that we didn't need to run it in, and the handbook doesn't give a definitive instruction. I was much more enthusiastic with it than my wife was, but I didn't take it over 4000 rpm for the first 1000 miles. It just didn't feel right.

I doubt whether your BF will have done any damage to the engine or caused any noticeable wear, so if I were you I think I'd try not to worry about it. Just enjoy your new baby :-D
 
I can't speak for the twin air but my 1.4 has been driven like I stole her from day one and I've never had a problem. 75k miles now. I change the oil often though.

Still, it's your car. I would think that entitles you to decide how its driven and when :)
 
jnoiles said:
I can't speak for the twin air but my 1.4 has been driven like I stole her from day one and I've never had a problem. 75k miles now. I change the oil often though.

Still, it's your car. I would think that entitles you to decide how its driven and when :)
Click to expand...
I totally agree with jnoiles, even if its ok as far as it makes you sad it should be not driven like that.
 
I remember the fiat manual saying drive it carefully in the first 1000 kilometers but of course this is not an exact science and if there is oil in the engine the car wont die just like that = )

If you ask me i dont let anyone drive my car unless there is absolutely no alternative, and i avoid driving other people's cars for obvious reasons = )
 
Overall I think you will probably be OK with your car; by the sounds of it the "ragging" was done when the engine was properly warmed up. I

We have a 1.2 version so I can't comment on the TwinAir; however my experience after 24k of driving from new is that it does appreciate a bit of a blast every now and then.

Either way I would try not to worry and just enjoy the car.

Oh, and tell your bf to behave or he will have to get the bus with all the blue-rinse brigade in Devon!! :cool:(y)

(Disclaimer: Super Uwe does not have, nor has he ever had, a problem with people who enjoy a good violet hairdo. It's your hair after all...)
 
Thank you guys for the fab feed back, I really do appreciate it.
All very helpful and actually chilled me out a bit! :)
I drove my baby home today and I drove him properly so I think it may of sunk in he didn't need to go 5,000+ revs thru each gear change, nor drive at 70mph (legally ;-) ) in 4th gear hanging out til the 5th.
Thank you again and happy new year. Xxx
 
It's all about balance. Don't nanny the motor, or overload it with low revs labouring in a high gear, but also don't be afraid to use it too. The worst thing you can do to a new motor is sit trundling along on a motorway (or A road) at the same speed/revs/load for hours on end. You do need to really vary the load a lot, and not allow it to idle for too long either. And don't be afraid of really giving it some welly every now and again, seriously. Just don't do it unnecessarily..
 
Mylittlewilly500 said:
Thank you guys for the fab feed back, I really do appreciate it.
All very helpful and actually chilled me out a bit! :)
I drove my baby home today and I drove him properly so I think it may of sunk in he didn't need to go 5,000+ revs thru each gear change, nor drive at 70mph (legally ;-) ) in 4th gear hanging out til the 5th.
Thank you again and happy new year. Xxx
Click to expand...

I was a little disheartened reading the opening post particularly when your BF who is 20 years older is driving the living daylights out of your car when you were in no fit state for the ordeal.

IMHO the engine was too new and there's plenty of information from reliable sources to back up that theory. He should have waited until you had 2K miles 'under the belt'. If he was looking to maximise the power of the engine he should have properly changed the oil beforehand so there was no little bits of metal (shavings) in the oil.

Aside from all that it is YOUR car. I would assert yourself and tell him he is not to drive your car in a manner that upsets you. Next time he does that you could tell him that you are taking over the driving and as you're switching seats drive off and let him find his own way home.:)

http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/how-to/saturday-mechanic-blog/how-to-break-in-a-new-car
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_should_you_'break-in'_a_new_car
http://www.ntnoa.org/enginebreakin.htm
 
loveshandbags said:
Aside from all that it is YOUR car. I would assert yourself and tell him he is not to drive your car in a manner that upsets you. Next time he does that you could tell him that you are taking over the driving and as you're switching seats drive off and let him find his own way home.:)
Click to expand...

And when he arrives home let him find all his stuff piled out on the street. In the rain.
Reading the OP I was appalled by the lack of respect to both you and your car.
 
Geddes said:
And when he arrives home let him find all his stuff piled out on the street. In the rain.
Reading the OP I was appalled by the lack of respect to both you and your car.
Click to expand...

Pretty much. The OP's post made me rather sad if I'm honest.

I doubt he's done any damage to the car or anything, but to go and drive the OP's pride and joy in a way that they don't want it to be driven is just not on. To make someone feel that unhappy over a long journey is just not on.
 
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