Afternoon all,
a question for you about bedding in of an engine. I've got a diesel Accord, bought in Jan and, as expected, only doing 40 mpg from new. The thing is, I'd been expecting it to bed in over the first 10k miles and then return more, as seems to be the (fairly) universal experience. This hasn't happened, it's still only doing about 41 mpg.
My question is this - what exactly is bedding in? Will the fact that I am doing mainly motorway miles, cruising and only pulling 2.3k revs, mean that effectively I'm not wearing it in? I don't do much stop-start driving, and not much town driving.
I suspect the above to be true, so my real question is - what should I do about it? Run at artificially high revs ont he motorway for a bit, make an effort to thrash it through the gears at other times, or what? Any suggestions will be gratefully received as I'm delighted with almost every other aspect of the car (although could someone please explain to me what on earth the point of electric seats is without a memory function????)
Cheers,
Gord.
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yes - now is the time to start working the car round the rev range a bit. Couple of miles on your motorway run in a lower gear or two (when hot of course), Work it through the rev range around town and on those motorway slips.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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The main thing is not to let the engine sit at the same revs all the time, but to vary the revs periodically.
HJ's FAQ No.7 will also give you some info:-
www.honestjohn.co.uk/faq/faq.htm?id=32
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Thanks both, I followed HJs running in advice pretty much to the letter, but the trouble is, on a quiet motorway then the engine pretty much does just sit at one speed. Most of my miles are on the motorway - that's why I bought the car.
Can I turn the question round. Is it valid to think that the upside to the low mpg now is that I'm actually not wearing the engine out as quickly? What I mean is that supposing it doesn't loosen up for 25k miles not 10k, does that mean that engine wear won't become significant for say 200k miles, not 100k? Does it work that way? I've been arguing with myself about it, and I think it probably doesn't, but...
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Gordon, I would expect ongoing maintenance schedule (in particular, oil change frequency) to have a greater effect on long term engine lifespan prospects than your initial running-in period, particularly given the type of driving you are currently doing.
Ed.
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I have an Accord 2.2 Diesel Wagon. It has now done 47k miles. Still using around 2.5 litres of oil between services, (did use 4 litres in first 12.5k miles!). MPG is around 45 in winter and 48in summer. MPG is much better when the weather is hot, (maybe due to different diesel formulation?). Mostly motorway driving on quiet roads. Overall a good car but fuel economy not a patch on my Audi A6 1.9 TDi wagon.
Q.
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MPG is around >> 45 in winter and 48in summer. MPG is much better whenthe weather is hot, (maybe due to different diesel formulation?). Mostly motorway driving on quiet roads. Overall a good car but fuel economy not a patch on my Audi A6 1.9 TDi wagon.
I have an A4 TDi wagon and also find these figures pretty uninspiring, as I have said on previous threads, the VaG Pumpe Duse diesels are still as/more efficient as most of the latest state of the art diesels. A shot in the arm for the 'all Japanese cars are perfect' brigade.
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General summary seems to be that I need to give it a bit more of a thrashing to get everything to wear in now it's run in. Hopefully that'll work.
Roly, I have to agree with you - I hadn't realised that there would be a 10% (assuming mine does run in) lag behind VAG motors. The only thing I can say is that the Honda unit is a marginally better engine to drive. The spread of torque throughout the revs is simply fabulous in real world driving in the Honda. It's only my opinion, I thought very seriously about getting an A4 with the 2.0 TDi, and I didn't decide against it because of anything to do with the engine.
As long as I get up to 45 mpg then I'll be perfectly happy.
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I agree that the Honda diesels are better to drive and are also more refined. You will also get much better service from your Honda dealer than from any VAG dealer (except Skoda) and overall the car will be more reliable. I would expect your mpg to steadily imrpove from now on.
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