Don't forget to break in your Prius C!

how to do this? for any new engine?

you mean drive it very hard for 1000 mile?

 

Do NOT push it hard (gun the engine) for the first thousand miles (and avoid hard braking as much as is safely possible).

 

Good advice for after the first thousand miles too!

 

Flooring it is not nearly as bad as maintaining constant RPM with a new engine. The best way to get the rings to seal is to bring the RPM up. Then, let your foot off the accelerator, so the engine goes into a vacuum as the RPM goes down. Rinse and repeat.

 

as man said.

Actually flooring is good way to ensure proper ring seal, but it needs to be done with proper care, short runs on warmed up engine and with sufficient time in-between to give it time to cool down. Start with a few tires at 50% WOT, cool down, then repeat at 75% and 100%.

The rings in modern engines are designed to spin; keeping constant RPM may cut groves in cylinder bores. Babying engine during break in period may cause rings not to seal well (later probably not the case with modern machining tolerances)

 

We purchased our than new Prius in May of 2009. Drove from Seaside to Reno Nevada first trip. Constant highway speed 60-75
mpg.

68,000 miles on our Prius now. STill runs great with last fill up at
52.6 mpg calculated, hwy driving.

Engine is tight, at 10,000 mile oil change, nearly 4 quarts
of oil drains out, and I only fill up with 4 quarts when
I change so not to overfill....

alfon

 

Everyone may have there own take on it, but Im going to do how I did my Yaris which has 204K+ miles and not leaking or burning one ounce of oil. Is just drive easy first 600 miles, avoid constant highway driving and then I introduced constant driving after 600 miles, but no hard accelerations or anything and after 1,000 miles all is game

I just got my C last night and I work 60 miles north all interstate so at least the next 3 days I am going to take the state route that runs along the interstate, should produce better mileage as those roads are less hilly then the interstate and lower speed limit, but its raining today so ... Im sure that will drag mileage down. day two with my new Prius C

 

Please keep us updated on your mpg, on the intersate
and secondary roads.

 

With a hybrid, I am not so sure that maintaining a steady speed during the first 1000 miles is as detrimental as in just a combustion vehicle, since the the engine will by its nature shut off and shut on as it adjusts to road conditions. I suppose driving for an hour down a highway on flat surface might negate this somewhat.

 

Constant vehicle speed with Toyota HSD still produces widely varying engine speed on any sort of hilly terrain.

 

^That's also what I was attempting to state.

 

^That's happens when there is a significant time delay from when I open the tab until I get a chance to read it and respond.

 

I don't see anything in the owner's manual regarding break-in. Apparently, Toyota doesn't feel the engine needs any special treatment...or I missed it in the manual.

 

despite what is stated they dont require much at all for break in.

I drive normal to fast, and in 200 mile the rings seated up nicely and I recieved the 3-4 extra mpg

toyota puts that on there as a catch all but we never ever get a prius in the shop for mechaincal issues even semi related to this from abuse.

Its a non issue, other then waiting a few hundred miles for fuel MPG to increase.

 

Thanks. Case closed, for me. I'm confident that that the Toyota engineers that spend years testing new vehicles know what they are doing.

On my experience, my 2004 Corolla which now has 191,000 miles and has never burned oil was never "broken in" when I bought it new. I drove it normally, just like I would drive any other day. I did not "floor it" nor did I baby it. I just drove normally. Now, 191K miles later, it's still going great and burns no oil. I tend to think that if you buy a Toyota, you can do a lot to it and it will still run great. I've talked with several mechanics that have reaffirmed my experience.

Now having said that, I would definitely advise against "flooring" a new car, slamming on the brakes, or doing anything aggressive.

How many salesmen did a 0-60 during test drives before I got my car?
By the way, I floored it myself when I test drove it. It's still running great today.

 

It has to do with the spark plug timing and valve timing, I think. For example, my Corolla has an overdrive off button, and everyday on my way to work, there's this one incline I go up when it feels like the car downshifted, but then I click the overdrive off and it downshifts - evidence that the car did not downshift automatically, but rather the valve and spark plug timing appears to have been altered by the computer. With the Prius not having gears, I'm sure there's a lot of this going on.

Anyone else have a comment on this?