Re: Plan on driving a new car on a 3000mile highway trip. Bad idea?

Jeff wrote:
> Hachiroku ハチロク wrote:
>> On Sat, 10 May 2008 00:19:20 -0600, Bow Wow wrote:
>>
>>> I was planning on taking my soon to take possession Highlander V6 on a
>>> trip which will consist mostly of highway driving of about 3000mile 
>>> drive
>>> and been told that that's not such a good idea because you don't want
to
>>> drive a brand new car on the highway for any extended amount if you
can
>>> help before the car's properly broken in.
>>>
>>> The seals, rings and the machine just needs to set in properly, which
>>> happens during the break in period and before that, I was told you 
>>> should
>>> avoid any long highway trip.
>>>
>>> What do you guys think?  If this was your car, would you do it or put 
>>> off
>>> the trip until after the car's broken in properly?  Thanks.
>>
>> I'm old-school. I drive a car 1500 miles and then do the first oil 
>> change.
>> Then I do the next one at 3000 miles, and every 3-3500 after that.
>>
>> I also had 3 cars go over 250,000 miles without burning oil.
>> Five-hundred miles is approx 8 hours. I would prbably go pretty easy
for
>> the first 1,000 miles, secondary roads and short stretches on the
highway
>> around cities. This will do two things; allow the machine to run at
>> something other than wide open, and force variations in load and speed
>> like the manual says to do.
>>
>> It seems I can tell when a car was broken in properly or not. On cars I
>> had had new, they don't tend to develop 'notches' at certain speeds. By
>> this I mean, on cars other than ones I bought new, I can notice that
the
>> car seems to hit a stride ~45-50 MPH, and another ~70 MPH. What I
assume
>> is that the person that bought the car new had two driving modes:
>> secondary roads (45 MPH) and highway (70 MPH). I have noticed this on a
>> few used cars I have owned.
>>
>> On cars I bought new and broke in properly, there weren't any
'notches',
>> everything was fairly even across the range.
>> You will hit speeds and conditions on any car, no matter how it was 
>> broken
>> in due to engine and mechanical efficiencies. On most 4 cylinder 
>> Toyotas I
>> have owned, they seem to hit their stride 70~75 MPH, since I assume
this
>> is the engine's most efficient mode. I have noticed this on 4 or 5 
>> Toyotas
>> I have owned. Always got the best economy at about 72 MPH in 5th gear.
> 
> How do you know that the speeds that the cars were driven at had 
> anything to do with these "strides"? And why would driving a car a 
> particular speed cause this?
> 
> I think you don't know what you're talking about.
> 
>  From the owner's manual for a 2008 Pilot:
> 
> "Help assure your vehicle’s future
> reliability and performance by paying
> extra attention to how you drive
> during the first 600 miles (1,000 km).
> During this period:
> Avoid full-throttle starts and rapid
> acceleration.
> Do not change the oil until the
> scheduled maintenance time.
> Avoid hard braking for the first
> 200 miles (300 km).
> Do not tow a trailer.
> You should also follow these
> recommendations with an
> overhauled or exchanged engine, or
> when the brakes are replaced."
> 
> Note what the manual says about the first oil change.
> 
> 
> 
>> Of course, with newer cars and a V6, things are different now, but I 
>> would
>> still take it pretty easy for the first 1500 miles, and stop and have
the
>> oil changed.



what???  read the manual???  no freakin' chance buddy!  we're all going 
to have a retardation contest here on usenet and take the words of 
nameless idiots with our new multi-thousand dollar investments, not the 
experts that researched, designed and manufactured the freakin' thing!

imagine these guys in aerospace:  "yeah, but this guy said those cracks 
didn't matter".