Any tips on driving my new M3 200 miles home?

[White340]

I'm picking up my M3 next week and driving it about 200 miles home right away. I know this is during the break in period so looking for advice on how to handle this drive. Any opinions on this?

Thanks!

[SakhirM4]

What is a breakeven period? Is that when you get your money back?

[White340]

Originally Posted by SakhirM4

What is a breakeven period? Is that when you get your money back?

Haha, I meant break-in. I talk breakevens at work (derivatives). Thanks for the catch.

[hellokitty]

Tape up the front bumper, headlights, partial hood, mirror caps to avoid rock chips. Drive by varying engine load and rpm but do not WOT. Stay under 5000 rpm (but don’t be afraid to get it up at the higher rpm levels for brief periods)

[SakhirM4]

Originally Posted by White340

Haha, I meant break-in. I talk breakevens at work (derivatives). Thanks for the catch.

Seriously, do what the manual says and you will be fine.

Breaking-in period

General information
Moving parts need time to adjust to one another
(break-in time).
The following instructions will help accomplish
a long vehicle life and good efficiency.
During break-in, do not use the Launch Control,

Engine, transmission, and axle drive
Up to 1,200 miles/2,000 km
Drive at varying engine and road speeds, but
do not exceed 5,500 rpm and
106 mph/170 km/h.
Avoid full load or kickdown under all circumstances

[///M4ster Yoda]

Love me some break in threads.

Break in is bullshit OP. Wife and I blast out of the Welt in Munich on ED and hit 150mph immediately on the Autobahn. Zero Issues!

Drive the car. The engine is maxed out at the factory before it's put in your vehicle.

[canukgtp]

My dealer said keep it under 5500-6000 rpm, varying the load, so no long stretch on cruise control...no mention of speed, I actually remember being told to get her up a bit if I had a chance so I had her up to 230km/h on a nice clear stretch of empty highway.

Enjoy the new car!

[G35POPPEDMYCHERRY]

hermetically seal the car in military grade Xpel paint protection....Have a team of auto paints specialists ready in your garage(operating room) just in case there are complications.

I went over 5500 a few times during break-in; no problems. Some people probably tracked their car the second they got in.

[hova00]

Originally Posted by SakhirM4

Seriously, do what the manual says and you will be fine.

Breaking-in period

General information
Moving parts need time to adjust to one another
(break-in time).
The following instructions will help accomplish
a long vehicle life and good efficiency.
During break-in, do not use the Launch Control,

Engine, transmission, and axle drive
Up to 1,200 miles/2,000 km
Drive at varying engine and road speeds, but
do not exceed 5,500 rpm and
106 mph/170 km/h.
Avoid full load or kickdown under all circumstances

Listen to this guy as he refers to the manual. BMW built the car not forum members.

[M3GymNut]

Originally Posted by hova00

Listen to this guy as he refers to the manual. BMW built the car not forum members.

+1 Don't listen to others telling you to kill the car. BMW has things done for a reason.

[bimmerfrk]

Drive it like you stole out right from the lot. Car has a warranty if you grenade the engine you want to do it asap. ;-)

[nicknaz]

Originally Posted by ///M4ster Yoda

Love me some break in threads.

Break in is bullshit OP. Wife and I blast out of the Welt in Munich on ED and hit 150mph immediately on the Autobahn. Zero Issues!

Drive the car. The engine is maxed out at the factory before it's put in your vehicle.

I did the same.

Warm it up and go for it.

[Darth One]

Stop halfway for some Shake Shack

[ntg44]

Everyone knows by now about that one motorcycle engine builder's break-in thread, not going to regurgitate that information here. I can only relate to my experiences related to oil consumption on my last few brand new cars.

2012 R8 4.2 - Engine known for oil consumption, I did an aggressive break-in, only after warming up engine and transmission first. I can go 10,000 miles between oil changes without needing to top off oil reservoir.

2014 Audi S4 3.0 Supercharged. Engine also known for oil consumption. Repeated the same break-in as R8. Same results. I know 2 people personally who have had this engine in their S4 and A6. Both followed mild break-in procedure, both have oil consumption problems.

2017 M3 - Not sure about oil consumption, but I followed the same procedure, and am pleased with results. Haven't had to add oil between changes to any of the vehicles mentioned.

After the last 3 experiences with the aggressive break-in method after engine is at operating temperature, it's what I live by. Not saying the results would have been different had I done a less aggressive break-in, but I've made this my go-to method. Use this info as you will, for whatever it's worth to you. Hope you enjoy your car!

[s0211]

Lol the manual also says to pass at 155mph "briefly" between 1200 to 3100 miles after break in. I definitely didn't do that.

I drove the car a steady pace for 400 miles during break in. My boyfriend immediately tracked his. Both are driving perfectly fine. The only word of caution I got from the dealership is no launch control.

[Poiseuille]

OP, the fact that you even posted these questions tells me you that you already know which of these posts to ignore. For those reading this thread hoping to receive rational advice, there's a simple formula:

1. if you lease, just feel free to do what ever the hell you want. after all, by the time the damage you did becomes symptomatic it will be BMW's problem and you'll be busy flogging the crap out of your next victim. (actually it will be the problem of whomever buys your car as a CPO).

2. if you own the car, than do EXACTLY what the engineers who designed and built your car will have told you to do. that is summarized in Sakhir's post above.

The only points where I disagree with BMW are the oil change interval, DCT service interval and pretty much anything the marketing dept. claims is "lifetime fill".
One last thing: in my view BMW insufficiently emphasizes the groundspeed limitation of 106. ask yourself 'what's the only serviceable thing in the drivetrain that is affected by groundspeed and not RPM?' answer: the diff. the diff is break-in fluid filled, and that is replaced at 1200 miles.

enjoy the car!

[///M4ster Yoda]

I'm just gonna put this out there. I saved this from another ridiculous break in thread some years back

Car break in


QUOTE
I am an engineer with one of largest manufacturers of engines in the world, a company that sells billions of dollars of them every year. Items #1 and #2 are terribly incorrect.

EVERY engine that we manufacture goes from assembly into a test cell where it is started, warmed up, and sent immediately to 100% full load. Yes, it is "floored."

When we do engine testing, even prototype engines are assembled (mostly with Lubriplate 105), warmed up with standard petroleum oil, and immediately go to full rated horsepower while the dyno pulls them down from rated HP to the lowest RPM of torque peak.

Almost every automotive manufacturer follows this practice as well. So do motorcycle manufacturers. I personally saw new Ducatis going off the line in Bologna into a chassis dyno where they were started, briefly warmed, and then immediate run up AT FULL LOAD all the way to redline.

Why do they do this?

1) The freshly honed/machined surfaces can only do an ideal break-in when they are, in fact, fresh. Once the asperities and surfaces begin to smooth, they lose the ability to mate to each other properly.

2) It prevents customer complaints of high oil consumption and poor MPG because customers tend to follow outdated, bad advice like babying a new engine.


Back when machining and honing technology was far less advanced, and tolerances could not be held as well, there was perhaps some validity to babying a new engine. But this advice is woefully out of date.

Instead, the best thing you can for a new engine is:
1) Warm it up to full operating temperature
2) Do several full throttle runs that stop well short of redline
3) Idle the engine to let it cool a bit
4) Repeat steps 2&3 several times
5) Change the oil and filter.

Done.

By and large, new engines require almost no break in at all because of the "abuse" they suffer at the factory. That's why they can ship new cars like Corvettes with Mobil 1 from the factory. No need to worry about the syntehtic preventing break-in when the engine is already broken in before installed in the car.

[DML]

Originally Posted by White340

I'm picking up my M3 next week and driving it about 200 miles home right away. I know this is during the break in period so looking for advice on how to handle this drive. Any opinions on this?

Thanks!

Drop it in gear and go, not the space shuttle.

[ntg44]

^^^Obviously I can't prove or disprove what was stated above, but that explanation certainly aligns with my experiences of aggressive "break-ins" and comparative lack of oil consumption vs other owners of the same cars. Not sure if this will ever be proven or debunked though. There will always be non-believers on either side.

[nicknaz]

Originally Posted by ntgarage44

^^^Obviously I can't prove or disprove what was stated above, but that explanation certainly aligns with my experiences of aggressive "break-ins" and comparative lack of oil consumption vs other owners of the same cars. Not sure if this will ever be proven or debunked though. There will always be non-believers on either side.

There's an article in R&T about the turbo v8 bmw engine where engineers said the reason for high oil consumption was owners not driving the cars hard enough.

It's too hard to tell customers to "break it in hard but not too hard" so they just go for lowest common denominator wording. Easier to just add oil to an engine that wasn't broken in properly and has oil usage.

I'm aligned with what you posted and all my cars have gone through that procedure. My brother is the same with his Porsche Gt and Amg vehicles.

///M4ster Yoda nice post. Do you have the magazine or other source so I can share it around?

[nicknaz]

Originally Posted by Poiseuille

2. if you own the car, than do EXACTLY what the engineers who designed and built your car will have told you to do. that is summarized in Sakhir's post above.

The only points where I disagree with BMW are the oil change interval, DCT service interval and pretty much anything the marketing dept. claims is "lifetime fill".
One last thing: in my view BMW insufficiently emphasizes the groundspeed limitation of 106. ask yourself 'what's the only serviceable thing in the drivetrain that is affected by groundspeed and not RPM?' answer: the diff. the diff is break-in fluid filled, and that is replaced at 1200 miles.

enjoy the car!

What's your basis for not following the manual on fluid service interval but following for break in? Geniunely curious.

As an aside I asked the Welt delivery guy if he had an opinion on this topic and he told me "nothing special at all, just warm it up first". He then reminded me to use sport+ for maximum noise as I drove off the platform.

[///M4ster Yoda]

Originally Posted by nicknaz

There's an article in R&T about the turbo v8 bmw engine where engineers said the reason for high oil consumption was owners not driving the cars hard enough.

It's too hard to tell customers to "break it in hard but not too hard" so they just go for lowest common denominator wording. Easier to just add oil to an engine that wasn't broken in properly and has oil usage.

I'm aligned with what you posted and all my cars have gone through that procedure. My brother is the same with his Porsche Gt and Amg vehicles.

///M4ster Yoda nice post. Do you have the magazine or other source so I can share it around?

I wish I did. Sorry. It was part of another discussion/thread either on here or Bimmerfest where that post originated. I thought it made perfect sense so I "copied" the post and pasted it to the note app on my phone but never saved the source.