[mact3333]

OK, after Randy posted that he was going to take smaller roads to vary the rpms for 1st 600 miles, I was wondering this.

Would you guys have a problem with just driving it from showroom floor and going straight to freeway and driving back home approx. 1000 miles. Sure I will try to vary the rpms abit but in reality, this prob will not be done much since it will be all freeway miles.

Do you think this will actually be harmful to the engine?. Or am I worrying too much?. Cause if majority wouldnt do this, I will prob have car shipped to me. Also, some of the passes might be abit slick/dangerous during winter.

 

[_JD_]

Would you guys have a problem with just driving it from showroom floor and going straight to freeway and driving back home approx. 1000 miles.

I heard the suggestion of taking each off ramp to vary the revs, but I'll bet if you took every third ramp it would be more practical. Sure would make for a long trip though.

 

[ConeFusion]

It's probably not the ideal way of breaking in the engine. But to some degree you can vary rpm's and engine load while driving on the highway. Use different gears and throttle positions. Accelerate, and slow down again. Maybe look for a few sideroads on the way, and drive on those for a while.

 

[Steve W]

I've been deliberately avoiding freeways during the break in for that reason. I've always understood that it's not just revs you should vary, you should engine break often to suck the oil up around the piston heads.

I'm not able to avoid them completely, but probably about 80% of my miles so far have been on twisties.

 

[Gromit]

If you change gears between 4th, 5th and 6th on the freeway, you'll be able to break it in at various rpms, and gears. Might not be ideal, but it'll beat cruising in the same gears at the same rpms.

I'm not 100% sure on the Elise's gear ratio's, but I suspect it's semi-comparable to my bug's (both 4 cyl. 6 speeds). In my bug, 4th goes between 40-60mph at 2500-4500rpms, and 6th can go up to 100 without going over 4500rpms. That leaves loads of play between 3 gears at freeway speeds.

 

[mact3333]

sounds reasonable...unless its snowing near CA/OR border, will probably just drive car back...can you imagine being in twisty snowy roads in Nov/Dec with Elise...horrific...

 

[NtflBlueLiz]

I went through that yesterday when I picked up my car. I don't think it is as big of an issue but just in case here is what I did for my 250 mile drive: I got off the interstate about 6 times along the route. While on the interstate I kept varying my speed from 60 to about 100 MPH and different gears at the same speeds i.e. kept the car at 60 in 4th than 5th than 6th and same procedure for different speeds. I stopped a couple of times once to pump gas and once to buy some food and let the car idle for a few seconds. Also whenever there was no one behind me in the freeway I let the speed drop down to about 40MPH and ran it in 6th for a little while to run the engine at slow RPMs, repeated the procedure in 5th, 4th, 3rd than accelerated briskly past the 4500 rpm to add some "short bursts of spirited driving" as the manual calls it untill I was up to around 100MPH again. Just be creative, make some stops, look for some points of interest on your way to stop and check out and you should be fine. Hope this helps!

 

[iwilson]

I would avoid dropping it into 6th at 40 or less. Very important to avoid bogging the engine down in to high a gear.