Long break-in drive

[floggindave]

Will be picking up the CTR soon and the drive home from the dealership is about 440mi.

Of course I'll avoid going over 3500 rpm and cruise control, but is there any other advice I need for such a long initial drive?

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[Clark_Kent]

You can tape off the front clip if you're concerned about picking up rock chips. If not, just enjoy the drive. Once you get to your final destination you'll be a good way through break-in. Congrats and safe travels!

 

[floggindave]

You can tape off the front clip if you're concerned about picking up rock chips. If not, just enjoy the drive. Once you get to your final destination you'll be a good way through break-in. Congrats and safe travels!

It will have ppf on when I pick it up at least. Its still a concern lol. Thought about ordering rock guards to install on pick up.

 

[zumbooruk]

Will be picking up the CTR soon and the drive home from the dealership is about 440mi.

Of course I'll avoid going over 3500 rpm and cruise control, but is there any other advice I need for such a long initial drive?

I had a much shorter drive, about 80 miles, but kept the following till 1,000 miles:

drove it easy and very "gently"

I did not use cruise control, I did exactly the opposite

I varied speeds and shifted gears often, even when not necessary, and even on the freeway to vary RPM

slow and deliberate shifting

avoided hard braking (kept good distance from the car in front of me)

no lugging the engine, kept RPM over 2,000

for the first couple hundred miles kept it under 3,500 rpm but gradually increased to about 5,000 - 5,500 rpm at around 1,000 miles

kept boost low

no hard cornering, breaking, acceleration, etc.

 

[floggindave]

I had a much shorter drive, about 80 miles, but kept the following till 1,000 miles:

drove it easy and very "gently"

I did not use cruise control, I did exactly the opposite

I varied speeds and shifted gears often, even when not necessary, and even on the freeway to vary RPM

slow and deliberate shifting

avoided hard braking (kept good distance from the car in front of me)

no lugging the engine, kept RPM over 2,000

for the first couple hundred miles kept it under 3,500 rpm but gradually increased to about 5,000 - 5,500 rpm at around 1,000 miles

kept boost low

no hard cornering, breaking, acceleration, etc.

Thank you, i appreciate the breakdown. Kind of makes me grateful the drive is long and basically straight. Itll let me get to the fun faster when I'm home!

In terms of varying the rpms, did you find it better to turn off rev matching?

 

[zumbooruk]

Thank you, i appreciate the breakdown. Kind of makes me grateful the drive is long and basically straight. Itll let me get to the fun faster when I'm home!

In terms of varying the rpms, did you find it better to turn off rev matching?

I varied rpm by gently speeding up a bit (rpm up, but not above 3,500-4,000), shifting up (rpm down), speeding up a bit more (rpm up), lifting off the accelerator a bit to slow down (rpm down, but not below about 2,500), shifting down (rpm up), over and over.

driving home from the dealership (and for the next couple hundred miles) I kept this pretty much constantly, never driving at the same speed and/or rpm for more than a minute or two.

rev matching is briefly increasing engine rpm (by "blipping" the throttle) while the clutch is disengaged during a downshift, to align (match) the engine's speed (rpm) with the rotational speed of the transmission input shaft in the lower gear

it makes downshifts smoother and less jerky (aka gentler) and helps reduce stress on the drive train.

So I’d say that it is and important part of the "drive easy and gently"

but auto (or manual) rev matching does not vary the rpm as you drive, only as you downshift.

I had rev match turned on until I got the throttle pedal relocating plate, as I couldn’t do heel toe with the OEM pedal positions

but now that I can heel toe, I turned rev matching off since I am so used to heel toe (over 40 years of exclusively driving manual cars)

though I no longer double clutch.

the reason I drive a manual is because I want to manually control the car, nothing automatic for me, I also never used cruise control...

if you are not very experienced with heel toe (or cannot heel toe with OEM pedal positions), just leave the rev match on, as I do not believe that it makes a difference if you manually rev match or if you let the computer do it for you.

note: some people will say just drive it normally (but not race) and keep rpm low. I keep my cars for a long time, my previous 07 FA5 had 182k when I purchased the FL5 (other cars in the household have 260k, 150k, 120k), I never had any major mechanical issues beyond normal wear and tear, though I cannot attribute this to my brake-in procedure, it sure does not hurt to drive easy and gently for the first few hundred miles.

 

[PNEUMA]

Adjust the tire pressures and perform the tpms calibration, BEFORE you leave the dealership. Your tire pressures will be at 50psi and although the PDI will have the box ticked that they performed the check, they didn’t. Guaranteed.

 

[chopsuey34]

Yeah, what the camel guy said. Don't sit at one rpm level for too long. Downshift every once in a while and do gentle pulls on the highway. I'd say keep it under 4,000 rpm to 600 miles, then slowly increase rpms and hit red line when you reach 1,000 miles.

Don't overthink it, it's a reliable Honda. Just drive it gently through the rev range and increasingly get more intense as you near 1,000 miles.

 

[AspecR]

As the resident bad influence around these parts I must detest!

DRIVE IT LIKE YOU STOLE IT! The VTEC Gods demand it!

 

[J_D]

Don’t stress, just drive it gently for the first 600 miles.

Personally I did an oil change at 600 miles / 1000km. I found some mysterious break in debris at that time. Car is fine at 30,000 km later

 

[TypeRD]

Some are very gentle and OCD with break-in. Some are aggressive and don’t care. Either way, I haven’t read of premature engine wear nor failure in FK8s nor FL5s. I’d say, somewhere in the middle is what you want to do. Just be reasonable, safe, and do what’s comfortable for you. It won’t hurt to have a little fun with the throttle. Try to drive up some hills if there are routes that will provide this. It helps vary the load on the engine.

 

[floggindave]

Some are very gentle and OCD with break-in. Some are aggressive and don’t care. Either way, I haven’t read of premature engine wear nor failure in FK8s nor FL5s. I’d say, somewhere in the middle is what you want to do. Just be reasonable, safe, and do what’s comfortable for you. It won’t hurt to have a little fun with the throttle. Try to drive up some hills if there are routes that will provide this. It helps vary the load on the engine.

I varied rpm by gently speeding up a bit (rpm up, but not above 3,500-4,000), shifting up (rpm down), speeding up a bit more (rpm up), lifting off the accelerator a bit to slow down (rpm down, but not below about 2,500), shifting down (rpm up), over and over.

driving home from the dealership (and for the next couple hundred miles) I kept this pretty much constantly, never driving at the same speed and/or rpm for more than a minute or two.

rev matching is briefly increasing engine rpm (by "blipping" the throttle) while the clutch is disengaged during a downshift, to align (match) the engine's speed (rpm) with the rotational speed of the transmission input shaft in the lower gear

it makes downshifts smoother and less jerky (aka gentler) and helps reduce stress on the drive train.

So I’d say that it is and important part of the "drive easy and gently"

but auto (or manual) rev matching does not vary the rpm as you drive, only as you downshift.

I had rev match turned on until I got the throttle pedal relocating plate, as I couldn’t do heel toe with the OEM pedal positions

but now that I can heel toe, I turned rev matching off since I am so used to heel toe (over 40 years of exclusively driving manual cars)

though I no longer double clutch.

the reason I drive a manual is because I want to manually control the car, nothing automatic for me, I also never used cruise control...

if you are not very experienced with heel toe (or cannot heel toe with OEM pedal positions), just leave the rev match on, as I do not believe that it makes a difference if you manually rev match or if you let the computer do it for you.

note: some people will say just drive it normally (but not race) and keep rpm low. I keep my cars for a long time, my previous 07 FA5 had 182k when I purchased the FL5 (other cars in the household have 260k, 150k, 120k), I never had any major mechanical issues beyond normal wear and tear, though I cannot attribute this to my brake-in procedure, it sure does not hurt to drive easy and gently for the first few hundred miles.

Thank you, this is a lot of good info. Ive driven manual a number of years, though not lately, and was never taught or had even heard about heel-toe before recently. Its a skill Ill have to work to develop. I want to drive this the way it deserves to be driven!

Is there a preferred throttle relocation you'd recommend?

 

[floggindave]

Don’t stress, just drive it gently for the first 600 miles.

Personally I did an oil change at 600 miles / 1000km. I found some mysterious break in debris at that time. Car is fine at 30,000 km later

This is what I've always been taught. Do you change the filter also, or just the oil?

 

[ctechauto]

I've always been in the camp to break in engines hot and fast then change the oil and filter around 1k miles. Not egregiously aggressive but WOT pulls fairly regularly for the first ~1,000 miles especially with engine braking (helps seats the rings better). I've done UOAs for many cars this way and they are wearing better than most Blackstone has data for (although I also have specific OCIs and use Motul oil and Wix filters).

Not to mention our FL5 was the '25 R&D car for Cobb and was tuned at 800 miles and at 5k now.

 

[zumbooruk]

Thank you, this is a lot of good info. Ive driven manual a number of years, though not lately, and was never taught or had even heard about heel-toe before recently. Its a skill Ill have to work to develop. I want to drive this the way it deserves to be driven!

Is there a preferred throttle relocation you'd recommend?

I believe this is the only one:

https://acuityinstruments.com/products/acuity-pedal-spacer-for-the-lhd-10th-gen-civic

it has three positions, I tried all three.

obviously, the last position I tried was the perfect position, I believe it was "C"

one other was much worse than OEM position, and the third was sorta workable.

several thread on heel toe:

https://www.civicxi.com/forum/threads/how-to-heel-toe-with-big-feet.57620/

https://www.civicxi.com/forum/threads/advice-on-driving-the-type-r.57002/post-945271

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