[chatoyer]

Hi all,

Considering purchasing a MY16 340i x-drive. Went to my (only) dealer and my regular salesperson was busy, so a sales manager pulled out the specific car in question for me to look at. Before letting me drive it, he took me for a drive to explain a few things and proceeded to redline the car once to show me its power.

I asked whether that was appropriate given the car had, literally, 30 miles on the odometer and needed to be broken in. He explained that break-ins are no longer necessary.

I know it is a well discussed topic, but should I stay away from this particular car?

- Chatoyer

[insanecoder]

I'd like to see a technical bulletin on this that the engines are indeed broken in at the factory. Now theoretically if they somehow were "broken-in" at the factory.. how would it be comparable to proper break-in under normal load conditions for 1200 miles? I don't understand how that is even done nor that they have the time to do that for each and every vehicle.
Otherwise I don't think I would trust the word of a salesman on this important issue.
And no I would not buy-to-own that car given that I don't know how many test drives he did red-lining that poor unbroken in test vehicle.

[F32Fleet]

BMW does put cars on a dyno at the end of the assembly. There a plenty of videos showing this.

Technically the dealer is incorrect because the manual specifically states to avoid 100 mph or something like that for the first 1k miles. IMO part of the reason for this is to give the owner time to become familiar with the car.

Also it would be premature to assume this policy only pertains to the engine because it was broken-in within the first 25 miles or so. You also have tires, brakes, transmission, and a host of other parts that will experience some mating of surfaces.

We shouldn't forget that modern mass produced engines already have very tight tolerances and the typical operating conditions aren't very severe so I wouldn't worry about break-in as it pertains to longevity. Besides like it or not a non-M car is fairly pedestrian. An overwhelming majority of these cars will never be regularly subjected to the demands of a race track. M-cars are a different story.

[Bols]

Yikes.. My SA said the same thing but the manual still says otherwise... I followed the manual with an occasional short outburst of higher RPM when it was heated up. Didn't go over the said speed limit. I did hop in the car some nights just to get to my break-in period faster, way too much fun driving it

[MickAv8r]

We have had like 463,987 threads on this already. Its been beaten to death.

As long as the engine was up to temp ie the needle was off the peg, its fine. If the engine is up to temp, drive it like you stole it and forget about the manual IMO. Plenty of times where OEM recommendations have ruined engines. Vipers come to mind, also some of the BMW V8s with excessive oil consumption.