Hi Gang,

I got my MT Base Fit in Mid-July and love it. I'm a bit concerned, however, as I did something that some people are advising against. After about 200 miles, I took my first road-trip. This road trip involved driving about 800 miles at highway speeds. Because the owner's manual said to drive moderately, I kept the car at at a constant pace- almost exactly 60 MPH for most of the highway time. ( On one occasion during this time, I plowed it up to 80 for about a minute to overtake a line of Semis.)

What some people are saying is that this more or less constant speed might not be the proper way to break in a car. Is this true?

 

It's true that varied loading during break-in is beneficial to many aspects of the engine, but I would bet money that that 200 miles before the road trip probably did it. With current manufacturing techniques, molybdenum rings, lubrication tech and such the critical part of break-in is probably done the moment you roll off the dealer lot.

That said, not romping on it until the break-in period is over is probably a good idea. But in general, it's a Honda. It'll be fine. I took a road trip first thing with my fit (20 miles on the odo.), I've sprayed nitrous, I've backfired and blown up my intake manifold, I've beat the tar out of it, and I've been nice to it. It's been 39,000 miles and I'm about to turbocharge my little L15, and I have no doubts about the motor. It pulls stronger than ever.

So relax and go drive your fit!

 

Not ideal but far from harmful to the motor. You probably passed and slowed, stopped for fuel ect.
I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

 

Thanks. I feel better.

 

Unless you were doing burntouts during the trip I wouldn't worry.

 

dont worry! it's gonna be fine

 

If the dealer let someone test drive it before you took it home, they probably did more damage than your road trip. First thing people want to do when they test drive something with a small engine is floor it.

 

Happily, since I bought my Fit on order (had to wait six weeks for it) I was the first and only person to drive it. (Well, it did have 6 miles on the Odometer when I got it. I wonder what that maniac did. :-) )

 

Ya i was thinking about this when i test drove a fit that had 20 miles on it and the first thing i did was floor it up to 50 MPH ... When i actually do get _my_ fit it wont be one thats been test driven before, it will be reserved and right off the truck for me

 

My salesguy encouraged me to red-line the test-drive. I feel kind of bad, because that was going to be someone else's car that same day.

 

It's a Honda, which means it was made by the world's premier engine manufacturer, they make F1 engines, jet engines, robots, lawnmowers, jetskis, boat engines, and damn good automobile engines. Most people don't break in their engines properly.. I'm sure that there isn't much damage you as a consumer could do to it as long as you use common sense, i mean you could have been bouncing off the rev limiter in 1st the whole trip and it probably still would have been fine... like this dude seems to be doing --->>>>