Running In Tips
Discussion
yes but don't drive at a constant rev rate 3000
or the engine will still wear
mix the driving up - dont worry if you exceed 3000 revs whilst accelerating but only by 400-500
(no standing starts) - yes the ecu does record some data - but only maximum revs made and average revs
no big deal - plus I think you can blank it's memory anyway by disconnecting the battery
or the engine will still wear
mix the driving up - dont worry if you exceed 3000 revs whilst accelerating but only by 400-500
(no standing starts) - yes the ecu does record some data - but only maximum revs made and average revs
no big deal - plus I think you can blank it's memory anyway by disconnecting the battery
I asked my dealer for a look at the printout. It records the top five speed, the top five engine temps, top five RPM, Time in hh:mm:ss in 500rpm bands from 0 to 7000. Top five 0-100kph, top 5 0-160kph, and top five throttle opening (you are have to keep below half throttle for the first 600, then only up to 3/4 for short periods until the service). Hope this helps.
Picking mine up on Wednesday :-) Type 72 . . .
I was told under 4,000 for 1,000, the car will have a coating oil in (can't remember what it's called) and you will have to take the car back for an oil change at 1,000 miles when the real synth oil will be put in, good idea to get the dealer to fix any bugs at this time as well !
There after another 500 - 1000 at between 4000 - 5000.
Then . . . . :-)
I picked up my S2 at the beginning of November - Now it's a month later and I've done the 1000 miles...
Running it in was a nightmare at times for the first 600 miles - Keeping it under 3000 means no faster than 62mph on the motorway, which is no fun at all. I only made one short motorway trip, and that was enough!
I figured that driving it to work and back was going to take far too long (only about 4 miles each way) so ended up going on random journeys just to rack the miles up - Sticking to the A roads was ok, and if you choose to go somewhere like Minehead at the weekend, you'll find that there's enough traffic in front of you that you can't really hoon it too fast anyway...
4500 revs is MUCH easier to live with - I went to the west coast of Wales last weekend, and was able to do 95 while keeping it under 4500. It's like driving a different car after you breach 3000!
My local dealer said one of the more important things was not to rant the engine while cold - not a problem while keeping it under 3000 anyway, but after 600 miles it's a good idea to wait until the temperature readout has appeared before taking it above 3000. Apparently the ECU readout also stores the lowest temperatures at various rev bands.
I've now done about 1060 miles, and have the car booked in for the first service on Monday - Can't wait! Aside from a few rattles and squeaks, I'm delighted with the car, and am surprised at the fun I'm having even at 4500 revs!
I went over the limits more than once, especially when the Skoda doing 50mph in front of me decided he didn't want to let me overtake after I drew level with him on a single carriageway... B**tard!
Gargamel said: yes but don't drive at a constant rev rate 3000
or the engine will still wear
This is, perhaps, the most important thing to take away from this thread, you must not drive the car at constant engine revs for prolonged periods during running in . . . so motorway cruising is a no-no.
Change gears, change speed, whatever . . . it's all about how you condition the piston bores and this is related to temperature, and the engine speed relates to temperature . . . you must vary this.
Agree on the pain of running in, that first 1000 miles for me only took a weekend but it was still a pain in the neck . . . you'll find that the engine gets much looser up to 10,000 miles, and stabilises after that . . .
Fd
Hi kennedy,
driving in is not just the engine ! Be aware of the brakes too. The first 500 km's you have to say no breaks at all, especially when you come out of a family car with servo assisted brakes. None of this in the elise ! so be aware of that. Also your brake performance will depend on how you drive the first 1500 km's. The advice I got from my dealer was to brake very gentle the first 500 km's. As you can't drive hard because of the rev limit it's fairly easy. After that period you can start braking a bit harder and longer. From 1000 km's on you can do a high speed brake cyclus. Import is to do a full stop and keep on braking very hard for about 30-60 seconds. It seems that the brakepads become harder and weare less if you do so.
So if you do it this way you will have an elise with a good brakeperformance allthough you will have to push hard to have a good decelaration for ever! But the info returned into the brakepedal is incredible. so you don't need ABS, you feel it yourself and play with it !
driving in is not just the engine ! Be aware of the brakes too. The first 500 km's you have to say no breaks at all, especially when you come out of a family car with servo assisted brakes. None of this in the elise ! so be aware of that. Also your brake performance will depend on how you drive the first 1500 km's. The advice I got from my dealer was to brake very gentle the first 500 km's. As you can't drive hard because of the rev limit it's fairly easy. After that period you can start braking a bit harder and longer. From 1000 km's on you can do a high speed brake cyclus. Import is to do a full stop and keep on braking very hard for about 30-60 seconds. It seems that the brakepads become harder and weare less if you do so.
So if you do it this way you will have an elise with a good brakeperformance allthough you will have to push hard to have a good decelaration for ever! But the info returned into the brakepedal is incredible. so you don't need ABS, you feel it yourself and play with it !
bert said: Hi kennedy,
driving in is not just the engine ! Be aware of the brakes too. The first 500 km's you have to say no breaks at all, especially when you come out of a family car with servo assisted brakes. None of this in the elise ! so be aware of that. Also your brake performance will depend on how you drive the first 1500 km's. The advice I got from my dealer was to brake very gentle the first 500 km's. As you can't drive hard because of the rev limit it's fairly easy. After that period you can start braking a bit harder and longer. From 1000 km's on you can do a high speed brake cyclus. Import is to do a full stop and keep on braking very hard for about 30-60 seconds. It seems that the brakepads become harder and weare less if you do so.
So if you do it this way you will have an elise with a good brakeperformance allthough you will have to push hard to have a good decelaration for ever! But the info returned into the brakepedal is incredible. so you don't need ABS, you feel it yourself and play with it !
Interestingly I've seen comment from many, including Lotus technical people, that would suggest you should bed the brakes in quite quickly, certainly less than 100 miles, by using quite hard stops . . . I've seen similar comments from brake component manufacturers that suggest that excessively gentle bedding in for brakes can actually cause insoluble problems with the deposition of ceramic like materials in the top layer of the disk . . . especially with new pads on old disks . . .
This went against my experience when I first heard it, but it works . . .
Fd
Nick Adams from Lotus gave some advice on the Lotus Life BBS with reagrd to running in new brake discs/pads. I followed them to the letter and it got rid of the squealing right away
"With new pads and discs, or just new pads fitted run the car around for 10/20 miles using the brakes gently as normal to bed the two surfaces together. Once this has been done, check the surfaces of the discs and make sure here are no signs of any scoring or damage. Assuming all looks well take the car to an appropriate piece of quiet and straight, well sighted road and perform half a dozen medium pressure stops from 50 mph down to 20 mph to warm the brakes up. Avoid more than a minute between each stop so that the temperatures do not get a chance to deteriorate too much. Once the brakes are warm and the coast is clear, perform 2 or 3 hard stops from 70mph (where local laws allow!) to 20 mph, braking as hard as you can without locking up. Do not come to a halt between each stop, do them as fast as you can to get the brakes really hot. On the third stop come to a halt and keeping your foot on the brake press the brake pedal down as hard as you can and hold it there for at least a couple of minutes, don't apply the handbrake. This hurts if you are doing it right! This will bed the pistons, shims and pads together and will compress the pad material, giving a hard and repeatable pedal. Once the 2 minutes have passed, release the pedal and go for a short drive, using the brakes as normal to let everything return to normal temperatures. The brakes are now fully bedded in and ready for use in anger. Recompressing the pads once every few thousand miles to the above procedure will help keep the pedal firm, especially if you don't normally use the brakes hard."
"With new pads and discs, or just new pads fitted run the car around for 10/20 miles using the brakes gently as normal to bed the two surfaces together. Once this has been done, check the surfaces of the discs and make sure here are no signs of any scoring or damage. Assuming all looks well take the car to an appropriate piece of quiet and straight, well sighted road and perform half a dozen medium pressure stops from 50 mph down to 20 mph to warm the brakes up. Avoid more than a minute between each stop so that the temperatures do not get a chance to deteriorate too much. Once the brakes are warm and the coast is clear, perform 2 or 3 hard stops from 70mph (where local laws allow!) to 20 mph, braking as hard as you can without locking up. Do not come to a halt between each stop, do them as fast as you can to get the brakes really hot. On the third stop come to a halt and keeping your foot on the brake press the brake pedal down as hard as you can and hold it there for at least a couple of minutes, don't apply the handbrake. This hurts if you are doing it right! This will bed the pistons, shims and pads together and will compress the pad material, giving a hard and repeatable pedal. Once the 2 minutes have passed, release the pedal and go for a short drive, using the brakes as normal to let everything return to normal temperatures. The brakes are now fully bedded in and ready for use in anger. Recompressing the pads once every few thousand miles to the above procedure will help keep the pedal firm, especially if you don't normally use the brakes hard."
Gassing Station | Elise/Exige/Europa/340R | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff