Tips for breaking in a brand new engine?

[Maz]

Queanbeyan/Canberra:
Around the ACT I think the Canberra to Batemans Bay drive & return is choice. If times permits – Canberra – Batemans Bay – Bega – Canberra – loop would be a good drive for a break in drive. Plenty of ascents & descents for the motor to load & unload with a big hill climb up the Clyde Mountain (or Brown Mountain if including Bega loop).

Thanks for the detailed response WJ - appreciate your time.

Cheers
Maz

[WhiteJames]

Coolant Pump (EA888 motor):

The thermostat begins to open at 95°C and is fully open at 105°C on the EA888 – TSI motor in the Mark 6 Golf GTI.


This implies that the Mark 6 GTI motor oil temp sweet spot is between 95 - 105 degrees Celsius. Any less than 95 degrees and she isn’t quite warm enough; any more than 105 degrees has a fair degree of friction/load happening in the motor.


Best time to boost up the turbo is a bit like asking how long a piece of string is. At the very earliest: 1500km. On the conservative side: 15,000km or after first service going from the mineral based oil to super slippery synthetic oil.


Volkswagen builds & tunes motors with a degree of margin regarding reliability. No doubt increasing the boost levels reduces that margin; But by how much? Again, it’s a bit like asking: How long is a piece of string? Biggest factor for motor reliability & longevity is most likely condition(s) of use and driving style.


Cheers
WJ

[hooba]

Sorry to revive this old chestnut, however I've had a good look but I cannot find anything in the owner's manual on running in the engine.

Can anyone point me to the correct page?

[GTI mk6]

Sorry to revive this old chestnut, however I've had a good look but I cannot find anything in the owner's manual on running in the engine.

Can anyone point me to the correct page?

Look in index at back of owners manual, under "R" for running in......thats where my info is

[hooba]

Look in index at back of owners manual, under "R" for running in......thats where my info is

Cheers for that, page 263.

[WhiteJames]

DSG 'S' mode

Only driven the GTI several times in metro city traffic (don’t count Canberra/Queanbeyan as city commuting despite what locals think about traffic jams in the National Capital). Not surprised to see that oil temps hover around 99-104 degrees on a winter’s day while driving around the CBD of Sydney in very slow going traffic. Temps out on the open freeway hover around 96-100 degrees most of the time – the difference being that extra-urban driving puts a lot more load and air cooling on the motor – city commuting just has the piston rings slapping around and not expanding to mate with the bore sufficiently so. The Mark 6 GTI does have an oil cooler that cools the oil for the motor and turbo bearings.

Fourth drive from Sydney South – Wollongong via freeway - up Macquarie’s Pass mountain climb – Bowral – Picton Road to base of Mount Ousley for return freeway journey looping back to Sydney and covering @ 250km has me thinking that the almost 2 month old GTI has hit a plateau in terms of breaking in the motor. Now revving the motor up to 5,000rpm with the paddles in DSG manual mode on some of the hill climbs with similar ambient temps as the prior 3rd Kangaroo Valley climb has oil temps rising and settling to same temps as on the previous occasion when revving the motor up to 4,500rpm: 90 degrees coming down Mt Ousley – 107 degrees with a short spike up to 109 degrees nearing the top of the ascent.

Hill climbs for breaking in the motor are great imo – 10-20min ascent with very light, very slow and no more than half deep depression of throttle application has plenty of load & friction on the motor, heating things up and expanding motor components together.

In contrast to the Kangaroo Valley hill climb – a drive up and down Mount Panorama, Bathurst had oil temps only climbing up to 102 degrees. Oil temps suggest it was time to try out ‘S’ mode in the DSG transmission (exciting ... the GTI does have 4,500km on the odometer). Looking to now cover the last 1,500rpm -2,000rpm from 4,000rpm to 6,000rpm to complete the mating process between the piston rings and bore.

DSG in Sport mode proves to up-shift gears quite a bit earlier than the old MKV GTI. The older version MKV DSG would hold gears forever and a day. Also impressive was the lack of wheel spin from down low when pulling out onto the Hume Highway from a stationary position at a T-junction B-grade roadway. At times, it feels like the EDL/XDS electronic diff is slowing things down to prevent wheel spin, while at the same time making the power application more usable in terms of moving forward at a more pronounced rate.

The break-in process so far has been a success in that absolutely no oil has been consumed in 4,500km.

Cheers
WJ

[Prodigy]

Great read as usual WJ.

I can't believe how patient you have been to go 4500 km without using the 'S' mode at all.

[hooba]

Great read as usual WJ.

I can't believe how patient you have been to go 4500 km without using the 'S' mode at all.

+1. Come on WJ, time to open up the taps!

According to the manual, the run-in period is 1500km.

[AdamD]

The break-in process so far has been a success in that absolutely no oil has been consumed in 4,500km.

I had the best of intentions for my run-in period, using a method not dissimilar to yours. But the GTI's been too much fun for me to hold off all the time, and my car's seen 4,500rpm on a few occasions thus far, and 5,000rpm once. The car's done just over 2,000km.

I'm now driving pretty much as I normally would from a torque application perspective (so not taking it easy), but not flooring it, and keeping the revs below 4,000 under most all circumstances.

The vast majority of my driving is in metro areas (albeit faster-flowing ones), but I am careful to warm the engine gently and not let it get hotter than 100 degrees or so under those conditions. My car's also seen 106-109 degrees a couple of times on more aggressive hillclimb drives.

I'm seeing a small amount of oil use - when the car was brand spankers the level was at the top end of the roughly-graded section of the dipstick; it's now about 1/3 up that same section. Not sure how much oil this translates to, but it's still comfortably above min.

[brad]

I'm seeing a small amount of oil use - when the car was brand spankers the level was at the top end of the roughly-graded section of the dipstick; it's now about 1/3 up that same section. Not sure how much oil this translates to, but it's still comfortably above min.

the length of the crosshatched section is approx 1litre. so you are about 300ml down at a guess.

[blanch0b]

this is all a great read guys - cheers - this is something i never thought of before (having never had a new car) will be taking everything in moderation for the first thousand k's

WA is a bit tricky with our road network - its really either freeway driving or city driving (we dont have curvy mountain like roads anywhere like VIC and NSW...) Anyone living in Perth know of any good roads (perhaps swan valley/chittering valley/margaret river?) to test out my new baby??

[WhiteJames]

The cylinder liners are finished in a three-stage fluid jet honing process and with stronger piston rings in the Mark 6 GTI as opposed to the earlier MKV GTI making for a longer break-in process due to the closer tolerances between the rings and bore. Break-in time may take the entire 15,000km that the GTI is required use mineral based oil as the Volkswagen service guys indicate. The owner’s manual states that 500ml oil consumption per 1,000kms can be expected in regular use – esp. in stop/start driving with short journeys or hard core use. The manual also indicates that above 500ml oil consumption per 1,000km – perhaps 500ml to 1 litre per 1,000km – can be expected during initial break-in of the TSI motor.

When oil becomes hot, it thins out, causing some of it to slip past the piston rings and cylinder bore and be burnt up in the combustion process. Similar thing when the GTI is idling in traffic when there is a lack of cool air against the oil cooler, intercooler and radiator to keep the oil from thinning in addition to not having enough compression on the piston rings forcing them to expand to trap the oil sitting in the cross hones of the cylinder bore.

As with the last MKV GTI from new, I planned on taking a few short weeks at work and some leave to ensure that the first 20-30 hours of break-in of the Mark 6 GTI was overwhelmingly extra-urban tourist type drives with load on/load off the motor.

As stated earlier in this thread: the cross hatch section on the recessed part of the oil dipstick equates to about 1 litre of oil from top to bottom. Being 1/3rd down in 2,000km would mean that you’ve used 660ml in 2,000km – or 330ml per 1,000km. Still under the 500ml per 1,000km recommended max that the owner’s manual suggests.

Cheers
WJ

[Cossor]

Hey Guys
A fantastic thread for me to remember when MY 118TSI arrives.
While less features than a GTI, I assume all the cautions re temp on start up and cool down at
end of trip will still apply. Will certainly use 98 fuel to avoid oil contamination (among other reasons)
My current Corolla (125000km) has hardly ever used any oil between service (10K)
The only idle ? warm up is when slowly back out of garage and driveway, then always drive at low to medium throttle up first streets (50K speed limit) (BTW, severe frosts my area)
I do believe in relaxed driving for first 3~400KM, then short bursts of speed up to legal limit for about next 1~2000km before sustained cruising at F/Way speeds.

[Corey_R]

Hey Cossor, I'm not sure that the 118TSI has an oil temp display in the MFD (can anyone confirm that?), so you may not be able to actually check what your temps are getting to. The temp display that is found in most cars these days, including the 'regular' Golfs is the water temp. In my experience (and I don't have my MK6 Golf yet, so...) it usually takes around an extra 5 minutes for oil temp to get to it's operating temp after the water has reached its operating temp. I've also found that the water temp guage will get to its operating temp and then just stay there and no go up and down much with load - unlike the oil temp display on the GTIs and Rs.

If the 118TSI does have an oil temp display in the MFD, just keep in mind that it will have its own unique operating range which may vary slightly from what has been discussed by WhiteJames.

But other than that - the theory is all the same, so enjoy

[hooba]

In my experience (and I don't have my MK6 Golf yet, so...) it usually takes around an extra 5 minutes for oil temp to get to it's operating temp after the water has reached its operating temp.

I don't know if it is due to the cold weather or because I'm babying it during the run in period, however I'm finding that the oil can take up to 10 minutes to get into operating temperature after the water has hit 90 degrees. It is taking me around 7 minutes just to register 50 degrees on the oil temp MFD.

I've also found that the water temp guage will get to its operating temp and then just stay there and no go up and down much with load - unlike the oil temp display on the GTIs and Rs.

This is correct.