Hi All, I got my new Prius on Sunday and drove for 200 miles the same day without following the break-in rules (no hard acceleration, no constant speeds, no hard braking etc). I drove at almost constant speeds, even used cruise control at times and also accelerated hard up a hill for a few seconds when I switched from eco to power mode as eco was struggling to get me up a straight hill climb. Since yesterday I have covered around 90 miles following the break-in rules. I guess I have screwed the break in haven't I. What will be the consequences of my actions? As a side, my UK mpg is 60 as per computer and 50 as per my own calculations. Regards, Anand
So you will only get 100,000 miles without an issue as opposed to 200,000. I wouldn't worry about it too much. The engines are much better made these days and I believe they also run them in at the factory for a period of time. No worries.
Rules are meant to be broken. I believe I broke the rough-in rule plenty of times cause I drive exclusively in PWR mode and use CC all the time even in city driving, right from the get go. I don't see my Prius ICE having been harmed anyway for the fact that it's giving me 55 mpg average still.
cars are made better these days. that rule was designed to keep your gas mileage up... rough break in gives the metal less time to adjust to it's new life... i had a rough break in... 113 miles of not following the rules. (the drive home) i always get 5 mpg or so less than everyone else now. shrug... hypermile numbers are hard to achieve. it's said hard break-ins wreck the cams... (tiny bit less efficient) honestly... that cam is really hard.. and if i wore it wrong.... it's still doing really well. (better than the other cars around me on a daily drive) i'm more worried that i've towed with the car multiple times. (yet not worried at all) u shouldn't be all that worried... unless you're a mpg freak...... then you just ruined your chances at the mpg cup.
I am not a mileage freak especially as I am coming from a Merc GL 420CDI (and a BMW 330D just before that) so a poor "prius" mileage would be very good milegae for me I just want a smooth running and trouble free engine over everything else.
Hi Anand, The rule about constant speed is a misnomer for the Prius. Its a carry-over from standard cars. The Prius engine is all over the RPM map when the car is at constant speed, most places. Which is what you want for engine break-in. Now if you were on dead-flat Kansas/Oklahoma roads, the engine might run at a constant RPM, under cruise control on a highway but most every place else, the engine is going to be varying in speed. As long as you did not do prolonged high power you should be OK. Your hill climb might be such, its not clear how long it was. Mechanics say that high RPM is OK, as long as its momentary in a new engine.
I picked up my 2010 Prius 3 weekends ago and am already at 2300 miles. I bought it to drive. Someone else said it - even when on cruise control the engine rpm is all over the map as it gears down to climb a hill or shuts off down a hill. In the old days a car would have special break-in oil that would be changed out within a short time. The original oil in the Prius isn't due to be changed for 10,000 miles which I'd interpret as Toyota having a lot of confidence that the engine doesn't change much during break-in. I put 1100 miles/week on my car because of my long commute. I don't plan on doing anything at all to the Prius other than change oil, filters, and tires for the first 100k miles. I might even skip the 120k spark plug change if it isn't something I can easily do myself.
The place where I stay in UK, it is hard to find a level road, it is mostly up and down. I was not getting enough power in Eco mode to climb a steep hill and I switched to PWR mode and the Prius just took off. I slowed down soon and I think max power was applied for 40 to 50 seconds at the most.
Apologies for that but I don't think there is another term for break-in. Maybe I should have perhaps included "(not robbery)" in the description for people who do not know "break-in" or to simply avoid confusion. Anyways I don't think it is now possible to change the description of the post.
This is a misconception. Your Prius has full power available in all modes, assuming you are willing to press the accelerator. Power mode changes the mapping of the accelerator pedal, so it takes less pressure to feel the power, but it produces no more power. Tom
