So in the old days I was told to drive a new car relatively short distances at first to break it in before a long road trip. No idea if it was really necessary.
We have a new Prius Prime plug in hybrid. Basically its electric range covers daily usage. We are taking a road trip in a few weeks. Chicago to NJ. Unless I force the gas engine on before then that will be the first time it runs the gas engine for any length of time.
So should I force the gas engine on some before then? Or okay to wait until that trip?
For what it’s worth, the guidance on that, these days, even for ICE-only cars, largely amounts to: “don’t redline it, don’t speed excessively, don’t do hard acceleration or hard braking, don’t tow a heavy load” for the first 1000 miles or so. In other words, if you drive like a reasonable human being, you’re breaking it in just fine.
I remember buying a new car (a Mazda Protege) in the early '90s, and that “don’t drive at constant speed” was one of the break-in precautions that the dealer informed me about. Unfortunately, I needed to make a trip up to Wisconsin a few days later, to see my family (a trip of about 200 miles); I followed the instruction by not using the cruise control, and varying my speed regularly.
It must have worked OK; I had that car for 11 years, and never had any significant engine issues with it.
Any clue what extremely high speeds really means? To some <speed limit + reasonable x%> = extremely high speeds but for me, that ::ahem::might, possibly be normal driving when on a 65 or 70 mph interstate.
Hell, if you drive at the speed limit on many highways around here you are hazard.
I have a fairly extreme car. I just looked up “break-in” in the manual. Break-in instructions are sooo important they are found on page 308 of the ~400 page manual.
The break-in advice is: for the first thousand miles don’t exceed 110mph. And don’t redline it at a standstill then drop the clutch. Up to 3000 miles try to stay below 140mph, at least most of the time, and only use 155+ for short durations, such as passing. Once you’re past 3000 miles, go for it. Like Joe Walsh’s infamous Maserati, it’ll totally do 185. Once properly broken in.
Oh yeah, and brakes and tires are both kinda flaky for the first 300-400 miles after new or replaced. So don’t go for absolute max performance because it might not be there. Which IMO/IME is good advice for every car ever.
I think the punch line of this and other folks’ owners manuals is “drive sane” and “The car was designed for how people really use it. It’ll be fine without babying if you use it like everybody else does.”
My question was more to do with the fact that it is a plug in hybrid though. Assume something special did apply to the first 600 or whatever miles. It seems to me like that would apply to 600 miles of the ICE being used? I won’t get that much use of the ICE outside of the road trip all year, probably over many multiple years. My daily commute doesn’t use up half its battery range and then I plug in at night. If I waiting until 600 miles of ICE use first I might never take a road trip!
The same speed bit also makes little sense to me. The hybrid engine is going on off all the time at steady speeds isn’t it?
Depends on which precautions. The “no hard braking” seems to be about getting the brake pads and other parts to seat properly. The “no hard accelerating” seems to be about the ICE engine, as well as the tires (which apparently come from the factory with a coating that needs to wear off over several hundred miles of driving).
My (probably flawed) understanding of the “no constant speed for long periods” is about getting engine parts (like the piston rings) to wear in properly.
@kenobi_65; that’s certainly the right basic idea. Whether it matters enough to actually matter on 2024 cars is a different question only the manufacturers can answer definitively.
IMO punchline as a longtime gear-head:
The OP should consult their manual as it will be written with PHEV-specific issues such as actual ICE duty cycle in mind. If the manual is silent or essentially mumbles in that general direction you have your answer: It does not matter enough for them to write more clear guidance.
Hmm. All of that is written as it would be if the ICE is running continuously. Which is your case it absolutely is not. In fact it’s not running at all.
Sounds like the documentation team gave it almost zero thought. Or they actually asked the engineers who said “Beats the shit out of us; ask us again after we have 30 years of PHEV experience in the field.” So they asked Legal who said “Just keep saying whatever we’ve been saying about ICE cars. That’s been tweaked by enough lawsuits over the years that it’s pretty safe. For us.”
I’m not even sure the “constant speed long periods” bit itself wasn’t just a legacy from cars that weren’t hybrids?
The RPM is not constant at constant speed in a hybrid (unless I am confused). There is always some software modulation moment by moment of energy coming from the electric motor and the ICE with the ICE staying in some efficient range but not constant RPM, yes?
And then of course is whether or not current ICEs are built more precisely than the eras that gave birth to the guidance, and that the guidance (now typically buried deep in the manual) is just said because they have no reason or solid data to change it.
Anyway. I’ll not bother forcing the ICE on for a hundred miles or so before the trip. (That was what I was wondering, I could not plug it in or leave in the converse the battery option for the next period of time. Does not seem necessary.)
If you really haven’t hardly run the ICE since new it might be useful to do that for 20-30 continuous minutes just to detect something dumb like a bad thermostat or orher cooling issue.
I agree the break-in as such is probably both over-rated nowadays in general and already mostly accomplished as much as your individual car needs.
This reminds me of something I’ve wondered about. What happens if you use the ICE only occasionally and mostly use the electric motor for a daily commute or local shopping?
It functions same as a pure EV. The manual advises putting in 5.3 gallons over a 12 month period to avoid fuel degradation issues. That’s half a tank.
My previous PHEV, a CMax Energi, would every so often force the ICE on for what was labeled “engine maintenance mode”but I don’t think this car does that.
For what it is worth, I bought my prius (not plug in), and put ~10 miles the first two days I owned it. On day 3 I put in ~600 miles and about that much on day 4. (drove form SE MN to Glacier NP*) Most of that was interstate so fairly constant (obviously some stopping for food and such). I have about 80,000 miles on it and engine seems fine.
I wouldn’t worry too much about it, I think the ICE will vary RPM if there are any hills and/or rest stops.
Brian
* technically East Glacier village – I went into the park the next day
