Break in period, highway or city or both

Oct 22, 2004 | 02:53 PM

gmdebruyn

Thread Starter

Super Member

Joined: Oct 2004

Posts: 603

Likes: 0

From: Bay Area, CA

2005 E55, 2010 ML350

Break in period, highway or city or both

I want to break in my E55 in the best way possible, and obviously get her to 1000 miles sooner than later so I can open her up on the road. But I want to do it in the right way.

I assume highway miles are much nicer on the car than city miles, so I thought I'd plan a road trip when I picked her up. 1000 miles, well about 800 to LA and back and then do 200 miles in and around town. Is that the best way to do it, or just let the car break in as I drive her now and then as I usually would with a regular car?

Any recommendations would be very much appreciated.

Thanks,
Gareth

Oct 22, 2004 | 05:38 PM

Hal H

Senior Member

Joined: Nov 2001

Posts: 291

Likes: 0

From: Portland, OR

2001 CLK320

just drive as you normally would to build up the break in miles.

For the first 1,000 miles:

- don't use cruise control on highway drives (vary engine load and RPM)
- don't manually shift the transmission
- no full throttle kick downs
- don't accelerate using more than 2/3 of the rev range.

After the initial break in, gradually increase the way you would usually drive.
MB engines take a long time to break in, power and milage will increase over time. Do the proper break in and you'll also have very low oil consumption over the life of the engine.

Reply Subscribe