Italian tuneup

[jakesmith]

Just took my mate's F10 528i auto out for a drive, and once it was all warmed up I did a bit of testing on the kickdown & various sport modes.

He seemed to think that this is bad for the car and shouldn't be done, he says that even in auto mode he doesn't use kickdown and changes up at 5000 RPM. Obviously it's his car his rules and that's fair enough but my point was that the engine and autobox are designed to rev up to their redline, the autobox will protect the engine from overrevs, and it is good for & extends the life of an engine to be fully stretched sometimes, cleaning out injectors, removing carbon buildups etc - I accept not all the time. This isn't a moral question on 'was my friend justified in not wanting me to rag his car', just a question that we will come back to and review responses on later, on whether this style of acceleratin alone (not heavy breaking & hard cornering) is good or bad for the engine

[kambites]

I suspect it makes very little difference either way.

[TVaRt]

I dont get why people think using the full power band is bad for the engine!? Rev limiters are set at a very safe level, bouncing off he limiter is not great all the time. Dread to think if he ever bought a Type R VTEC engined car! He would never actually use the engine as designed!

[98elise]

kambites said:

I suspect it makes very little difference either way.

Agreed. While it was certainly the case a few decades a go, its not needed now.

In the 80's my mother always said her car ran a bit smoother after I'd been using it for a few days

[SV8Predator]

jakesmith said:

and once it was all warmed up I did a bit of testing on the kickdown & various sport modes.

Did he ask you to do this? Were you "testing" for a specific reason, or just thrashing the car to upset your mate?

Do you do this to your own car all the time?

[Lozw86]

I have the same engine and gearbox in a 3 series and do it quite regularly

[98elise]

TVaRt said:

I dont get why people think using the full power band is bad for the engine!? Rev limiters are set at a very safe level, bouncing off he limiter is not great all the time. Dread to think if he ever bought a Type R VTEC engined car! He would never actually use the engine as designed!

Using the full rev range will use more fuel and will wear the engine slightly quicker so there is a justification for not wanting to use the full range.

Its not actually bad for the engine though, ie its not going to kill it in the short term.

[RobinBanks]

It won't make a blind bit of difference in terms of wear and tear.

Just drive it how he wants you to, since it's his car rather than yours.