Got a new si and started beating on it at 275 miles, am I ruining it?

veedster

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What’s up guys. I’m new to this forum after buying a 2020 civic si and I guess I’m still in the ‘break in’ period at 275 miles currently and I’ve driven it I guess harder than normal, not necessarily crazy, I’ve been hard accelerating at times, but not full throttle. Although today after work I got tempted and tried a few acceleration runs (never red lined, but have reached 6k rpms once or twice) just want to get your guys’ opinions on if I’m ruining my car or am I just being paranoid? Thanks!
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saiko21

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What’s up guys. I’m new to this forum after buying a 2020 civic si and I guess I’m still in the ‘break in’ period at 275 miles currently and I’ve driven it I guess harder than normal, not necessarily crazy, I’ve been hard accelerating at times, but not full throttle. Although today after work I got tempted and tried a few acceleration runs (never red lined, but have reached 6k rpms once or twice) just want to get your guys’ opinions on if I’m ruining my car or am I just being paranoid? Thanks!
should be fine just change your oil + filter soon
 


civicmanic

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Personally, I've never followed a break in period on a new car and I have had 8-9. No issues.
 

Snidely

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Isnt the first oil fill full of additives from the factory to help engine break in? Honda says to not change it early on the first fill. Harder driving should make the minder adjust anyways to change on time
should be fine just change your oil + filter soon
 

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There's one school of thought that believes 'break em' in hard' is the right thing to do.

http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm
And this school of thought pertains to sports bikes, racing bikes, snowmobiles, etc. None of these vehicles is expected to run 200k.

I love the armchair engineers, run the car moderately, lots of changes in rpm, lots of lift throttle coasting no full throttle pulls and change the oil according to the MM FOR THE FIRST Change!

BTW, the link break-in schedule does NOT add horsepower to the otherwise stock engine.

And....unless you are running archaic cast iron rings, you can reseat the rings anytime you want. This should not be necessary unless you drive ultra-conservatively with lots of idling and zero full throttle runs.
 

civicmanic

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And this school of thought pertains to sports bikes, racing bikes, snowmobiles, etc. None of these vehicles is expected to run 200k.
Back in the day when the integra type r was fairly new, many people were having oil consumption issues. Most of these people followed the recommended break in procedure. The ones who broke it in like they stole it, had no issues. The 2.4L si engine also had consumption issues. So when I bought a new one back in '14, I had the old integra guy train of thought and drove it hard from day 1! It ran perfect and didn't consume any oil right up until I sold it at 115k kms.
 

Gotch

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....and my 9th gen Si had zero oil consumption issues and probably/presumably a very light break-in (female nurse). One of the first things I did was a ring reseat at 36k. 250k Kms later no oil consumption issues.

Do whatever you want, I really don’t care. If you are like me and keeping the car for a few years out of warranty, do what Honda tells you to do.
 


Chaucer

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Go by the maintenance minder, especially on the first oil change. It’s counter intuitive, but you actually want some metal particles to be floating around in there, and most cars come from the factory with oil that has additives (in Honda’s case its a byproduct of the lube used for assembly) for that purpose. Despite the advances in machining and engine development, there will always be small imperfections, like a super small burr on a piston ring. When that burr is rubbed up against a cylinder wall, it creates hot spots, which end up smoothing the wall in those places. That’s bad. Cylinder walls are machined with a crosshatch pattern, which helps with oil adhesion. And proper oil adhesion improves compression, decreases wear and reduces oil consumption. The tiny floating particles that people freak out about when they change their oil for the first time are actually helping the engine by making micro etches in those smooth spots.
 

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Last edited:

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It's the pressure in the cylinder that forces the rings into cylinder bore and seats the rings. Intermittent full throttle with load seats the rings.
 


 


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