Hi all,
I am taking delivery of a new E550 (black on black, P2, sport) next week!

This is my first brand new car, so I was wondering if anyone has any advice on the Dos and Don'ts during the break-in period. Like what is considered the "break-in" period... 1,000mi, 1,500mi, 2,000mi

I know to be "gentle" and not to drive at a constant speed for to long to work through all the gears evenly. Also, from what I have read, I should not exceed 50% throttle for the first 1,000 mi, and then gradually work my way up to 100% over the next 500 mi or so, but I really have no clue.

I am picking up direct from the factory and will drive about 200 miles to get back home on day 1.

Any advice is appreciated. I will be sure to post pictures as soon as possible.

Thanks!

 

treat the car the way its meant to be treaed. its not a acura or a honda. motor is already broken in from factory. with my 2010 e550 coupe i took it easy for the first 1500km and the i started to drive it in sport more/manual. drive it like a benz and u will be fine. but dont take me wrong im at 3400kms and its taking a good share of beating. its a big motor it can handle it.

 

When you get it RTM. I have bought a new car every 2-3 years since 1998 and I always read the manual. It spells out how the car is to be treated and when its safe to beat on it. If your dealer is nice you could ask them for a W212 manual, or there must be somewhere to download a soft copy. Good luck and enjoy... and dont forget to post pics.

 

actually to tell you the truth what i really wanted was to do a oil change at 1000kms just for the hell of it. the service manager told me i would be wasting my money and to go drive it like its meant to. my car came with a manual, i can imagine yours did aswell

 

Thanks to all who replied... Much appreciated.
I will be sure to post some pics and let you all know how everything goes!

Cheers.

 

The break in @ factory is a misconception. Same is said about 911 engines, etc. They test the engine for flaws at the factories, not "break then in". Only racing teams actually break in their engines on a dyno, so they are race ready to just plop in the car.

 

For the first 1,000 miles keep the car in C mode and don't rev the engine more then 2/3 of the way (no more then 4,000 RPM). After you pass the 1,000 mile mark you can gradually start getting more and more agressive with the throttle and the revs and you can switch the car into S mode. Besides what I just wrote the manual also states not to keep the car at a constant speed while the engine is being broken in. That means try not to use the cruise control. Depending on your dealer you can take your car in between miles 1,000 and 3,000 for a complimentary inspection. They make sure there are no error codes being thrown by the computer and there are no seals leaking. An oil change would be nice to get all the metal shavings out of your oil but not every dealer offers that. Happy breaking in and make sure you post pictures of your new baby !

 

well my laft car was babied it was G35 coupe broke it in by the book, now this car i been raping it since day 1 i will see which method came out to be more reliable...

 

Lots of engine braking and varying of RPM's for the first couple thousand miles. This is more important than the amount of throttle applied. I wouldn't change the oil too early as MB often uses a special "break-in" oil at the factory that is intended to be run the full service interval.

None of our 3 MB's have ever required an oil topoff between 7500-10k mile oil changes, and other than a bit of black diesel soot from the cdi every now and then, none of the cars have ever let out a wisp of smoke.

 

It's all about getting your rings to seal into your bores. This is for Hondas, but it makes no difference since an engine is an engine: http://www.civinfo.com/wiki/index.php?title=Running_in

 

Thanks again for all the tips and advice!

And a special shout-out to Pottsy for the link... Very informative.

Can't wait to put all of this into practice!!!

Cheers!

 

Read the manual, it was written by, you know, they guys that designed, engineered and built your engine. Forget all the internet BS. Just follow what MB outlines for its own cars.

 

+1

 

When I used to build engines, I used to see the effects of good and bad running in. Bores a bit glazed, bores very glazed, bores not glazed at all.

The manual is written in a non-scary way. No manufacturer wants to give you a complex procedure to follow - it's just not good PR.

If you follow the manual, you may do well and you might be fine. Let's have a look:

There is an inference here that you have to be careful with the engine (ie very light load at all times) rather than take care to follow a procedure. Scope for error (possibly by bad translation).

This is a woolly way of telling you what's best. You could interpret this as "drive on a light throttle at 1800 rpm for a few minutes, then at 2000 rpm with a light throttle for a few minutes" and so on. You will glaze your bores.

Or "flex the engine in the mid range, as you drive on a road that requires acceleration and deceleration". This is correct, and the high gas pressure in your cylinders as you accelerate will push the piston rings evenly into the bores (and the deceleration will bring the oil up for cleaning) and you will end up with a good seal.

Full throttle for short bursts will be fine - in fact it will be good (really pushes the rings into the bores). They did it at the factory before the car was QA passed, they did it during the PDI road test - and so you can do it too. But do it in the middle of the rev range and only on a fully warmed up engine. I suspect that this item is here, to avoid complication about revs. Some drivers can not separate the concept of full throttle and high revs. A blanket ban also stops full throttle on a cold engine, which is really bad.

Think - an E250 CDI will have a higher gas pressure at half throttle than an E200 CDI at full throttle (same engine innards). So if it's fine for one, then why not the other.

Good, safe advice, just in case you have a way-out-of-tolerance rotating part in there. There's a chance that avoiding high rpm will allow the part to become in-tolerance without it failing and the manufacturer having to face a nasty warranty claim.

Good time for what? A nice lap of the 'ring? I suspect it means "no high rpm" but haven't they just covered that?

As above - avoid max rpm (for the hard of thinking). We get the message.

So, if you happened to interpret the instructions correctly, you will have good bores. But if you treat the car with velvet gloves, then you will have glazed bores. No problem - just slightly poorer power, economy and oil consumption. If one bore glazes more than the others, then smoothness will suffer too. Nothing to write home about - but there's no need for it.

When I was building race engines though, it was critical.

End of internet BS. Maybe if I showed you face to face, then the same advice would not be BS.

PS - people have argued about the Mototune advice. This advice is good - but applies to old fashioned honing. Modern car manufacturers use a slightly more cunning honing form, and so it is not so important to get this done in the first few miles - you have a little longer.

 

Pottsy, thanks for the comprehensive response. This is the exact reason I started this thread... To get everyone's past experiences and tips. The manual verbiage is very vague and can be interpreted many different ways.

So, those of you who are reading this thread for the first time, please do not post "read the manual." No s**t!? I think we are all bright enough to understand that you should take the time to read through the important sections of the manual.

In my opinion, this forum is intended to go beyond what MB publishes and get real advice from people with real-world experience. I have learned a lot from everyone's posts here, and, like most of you, I take what I read with a grain of salt, because everyone's experiences are different. But that what makes it work... Knowledge sharing... Not just regurgitating what is written in the manual.

So, now that I am off my soap box, thank you again (everyone) for your contributions and to those of you who continue to contribute.

Cheers!

 

jbean, no problem. A lot of people get a bit confused about running in, and think it's something to do with wearing smooth metal rotating parts, which should be done carefully and slowly (like a polishing action). Of course, there are no metal to metal contacts - and if there were they wouldn't last long! It's made worse by use of the word "tight" when describing a new engine, again very misleading.

Imagine we rewrite the owners manual, to tell the owner what to do. I shall include some potential owner responses.

For the first thousand miles, the engine piston rings should be seated into the bores evenly. This is done by bursts of high gas pressure in the bores.

What?

Warm the engine up completely by driving it normally.

How do I know when the engine is warm - is it when the water needle is at the top? (No!) What is normal?

Give the car bursts of acceleration, and hold it in that gear as you let the car slow down.

I crashed because the new tyres had no grip / I went too fast and you told me to / the road was wet and I skidded off / there was a car in front and you didn't tell me to look out. I am going to sue you.

Avoid light throttle constant speed cruising.

I just spent $x,000 on a new MB and I can't go and see my brother who lives 500 miles away?

See the problem?

 

Just Reading

 

just drive the damn car! this is not a Ferrari - and if anything goes wrong, you have warranty

 

http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

something to think about

 

You are picking it up from the factory? Why not ask them how to break it in? They should know how to break in their own product. Straight from the horses mouth. No internet BS.

 

I remember this guideline from my CLK 550 manual and specifically looked for it in the E manual. I did not see it, did you read it or assuming it from another model?

 

Yes, of course I will... In fact there is a representative who is supposed to go over the entire car with me in detail. This will be one of the questions I ask and will be sure to let you all know what the "horse" said.

I just wanted to hear what other people's experiences are and hear their "advice." This is my very first new car and I will be driving it from mile 0, so I am new at this and just want to gather as much information as I can, internalize it, listen to what MB has to say, and make some educated decisions. I've never been one for only listening and following 1 source of information... But that's just me.

Thanks!

 

If you ask at the pick up, surely the employee will be obliged (for many reasons) to simply reproduce the wording of the manual.

Norb, what exactly do you opine is BS?

 

Just found some more Internet BS (norb, don't bother reading it).

As usual, the advice is to do bursts of full throttle at mid revs to get the rings to seal. But there is an explanation for no continuous high revs - overheating of the honing (I had never though of that).

http://www.ntnoa.org/enginebreakin.htm

 

Yea take it as 100% reliable, since its on the internet.

Factory=Fact
Internet=BS