996 Break In Period

I have had my car since Sept (2003 Cab) and havent hit 1200 miles yet and havent been over 4000 rpms. The manual specifically states to keep it under 4,000 rpms but at the rate I drive it, it will be another year before I am able to really drive and have fun with it. Any comments about the Porsche Manual that strongly suggests I drive this thing like its a sacred cow for 2 years? Comments much appreciated in advance. Don, aka Cabman

The manual says keep it under 4000 rpm's for 1000 miles. If you haven't put 1,000 miles on it since September, that means you haven't even driven it for 35 miles a week. Good golly, man... get on it! Once you get 1,000 miles, I say let 'er rip. Enjoy it and quit treating it like a sacred cow! - Bill

Bill: Sorry to dispute you but,, I am now looking at my 911 owners manual on page 14 and it states: "Despite the most modern, high-precsion manufacturing methods, it cannot be completely avoided that the moving parts have to wear in with each other. This wearing-in occurs mainly in the first 2,000 miles" "Therefore" take longer trips avoid frequent cold starts avoid full throttle starts and abrupt starts "DO NOT EXCEED MAXIMUM ENGINE SPEED OF 4,200 RPM (REVOLUTIONS PER MINUTE)" I rest my case... I want to follow the manual to the letter and the dealer who I called last week reinforced this guideline.... I really dont want to cause any harm to this masterpiece of an engine so I will probably baby it for another year and keep it under 4000 rpms as Porsche recommends. There has to be a reason for them to tell 2003 996 owners this. Thanks for your follow up.

The manual lies

It does.

Why do you say that???? Porsche would have no reason to lie about that. Just to follow up, on Monday, I will call all the local dealers here in the DC area and speak with the service pros. I may email Porsche and ask them also but, if they meant to state for the first 1,000 miles they wouldnt have stated "for the first 2,000 miles". I wish you were right, I would take the cab out right now and redline it,, something I have been waiting to do since Sept 03... And something I am not planning to do until prob next yr at this time... But, I hope you guys are right!!!!! Thanks both of you guys,, Don aka Cabman (cautious owner)

Can't you just go for a weekend road trip, or a least a couple of nice long Saturday drives? The weather's getting nice -- put the top down and just get out there for a while, and you'll be past 2k in no time.

I travel a lot during the summer months and dont have much chance to drive it,,, but,, a few long trips may solve the problems. My main question in this thread is,,, Why does Porsche have such a stringent 2,000 miles requirement on its 2003 996's when its apparent from Bill, his 996 was in break in for only 1,000 miles per his manual. Does this extra 1,000 miles of break in help with the engine not leaking oil down the road? Just wondering why they added 1,000 miles to the breakin,,, There is a reason I am sure and I hope to find it out.

I have an 04 and it also says 2000 miles. However, mine has seen redline a couple of times, and certainly it saw redline during the test drive; salesman didn't say anything. Anyway, I drive mine between 3000 and 4000 RPM most of the time so I figure it will be broken by 1000 miles YMMV...

Pete: Since you have a beautiful Anniversary C2,, dont you want to be 100 percent sure before you exceed the 4000 rpms instead of "figuring" its ok to break the guidelines. We do have a lot invested in these toys and I would think we would want to insure they stay in the best health. Just being the advocate here. I may change my thinking if I get a comfort level on this. Thanks, Don PS, does YMMV mean,, your mileage may vary by chance? I have seen that term in another chat venue!

I've posted this before but I'll add it to this conversation as well. I would say that you use common sense when getting a new car. I drove my car home from Boston to NY and the whole trip was almost 300 miles. I kept the car below 4K all the way home. I kept it really tame for at least 1,000 miles. I slowly started to move the needle up on the tach, only after the car was fully warmed up and at operating temperature. I would never jump on the clutch or downshift really aggressively. I strongly believe the best practice is to let the car come to normal idle before moving it. Keep the RPMs between 3-4K until the car hits 180 degrees operating temperature. Then you can push the car up a bit, and when the car is fully warmed up you can certainly hit 6K RPM. This to me is common sense, if you want to take your car out of your garage and jump on the clutch and redline it down your street then of course you're begging for problems. I believe these manuals are written for people that can't apply common sense to what they do... in Porsche's eyes it's better to mandate then leave it up to owners. Drive your car, enjoy it... you're really missing out on the exact reason you purchased the car. Peace, Rob

Thanks Rob: I guess if that was the biggest problem I have ever had,, life in general would be a cake walk... In relation to all of life's curveballs and situations,, this break-in scenario is nothing and I will proceed with common sense. I hope to take it out tomorrow (weather permitting) and warm it up a bit and take it up to 6-7 K rpm just to get that rush that I havent experienced before in this car. My 993 (April 95 to March 98) had 272 hp but it was sweet when driven at the high rev end. Peace to you too,, Don

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Don, I am very curious to know the reasons why porsche raised there break-in period too. If you do get an answer from porsche please post it here. I did not follow the break-in on my 03 C4S, but took it easy for the first 2k miles which is the majority consensus here. If you could get an answer from porsche (not the local dealer, they have varying views) it will outweigh our collective common-sense consensus, so i'll encourage you to pursue this directly with porsche.

cabman-i can tell you that most of us don't wait 2,000 miles. after about 1,000 miles, i let my turbo rip. it would be interesting, though, if some of the people who have more expertise, like viken, would weigh in on this topic.

Doc, I agree and would like to hear from a real expert on why the change to 2,000 miles. When I picked my car up from HBL in Tysons Corner, Va, Pat Driscoll my salesperson went over the car for over an hour and specifically reminded me two or three times (and he is a seasoned sales person , porsche expert) not to exceed 4,000 rpms for 2,000 miles period... It's been a real drag driving this thing like my grandmom would drive it for all these months. I got blown away at a traffic light last week by a souped up VW Golf with a big borla exhaust,, it was a teen,, anyway,, I followed this car to its house and told the driver,, "you didnt beat me kid,, i am breaking this Porsche in and come back and see me then".. Well he laughed at me and said he beat me,,, Yeah Right.... When I took off from the light, I revved it up to 4,000 rpms and that was it,, he flew by me.... But, that 4 cyl VW , , come on,, no way... It's been a real exercise in restraint for me to keep the integrity of the guidelines.. Lets hope for an expert as Doc suggests... Frustrated in Va... Cabman

Don: Yes, YMMV does mean "your mileage may vary" and I used it to mean, I did it my way, and everyone else should do it there way. Frankly, if you are even slightly worried about this breakin issue, I'd say follow the manual to the letter and not exceed 4000RPM for 2000 miles. Porsche has to consider many driving styles when they make the 2000 mile recommendation. If you drive at an average of 2000 RPM it will take longer to break in the motor than if you drove at an average of 3500 RPM. So, no, I'm not too worried about doing the break in for only 1000 miles.

My last post was addressed to cabman and not to Don

Jeeva: I will find an answer to this next week. I will call Porsche if I have to and ask them why the change. I bet it has something to do with that oil seal leaking problem. Maybe slow footing the car for another 1,000 will cure that leak that eventually occured on earlier 996's. But, there must be merit in the change else they wouldnt have done it cause it ticks new owners off I am sure to baby the thing for so long. My Vettes never needed this much attention, think it was 750 or 1000 miles and that was it.... I will get to the bottom of this and hopefully from this post from some well known expert. Don aka Cabman

Cabman I can totally relate to your VW incident, as i had a similar experience with a maxima, i had temporary plates and still semi-breaking in (nothing over 5,000rpm) and i was fresh to the stick shift, and this guy in the maxima darted off from the lights and probably thought he beat a porsche as well. Guess what, now the C4S is well broken in, i am silky smooth with the stick shift, and here in dayton there are not too many cars that can beat this pinnacle of german engineering, but i've never drag raced with anybody, there simply is nothing to prove. I just enjoy the music, that is the engine note, and enjoy the car as it is meant to be. Sorry about getting the names mixed up on my earlier response, but try to get an answer to your question directly from porsche. good luck.

Jeeva: Thanks for sharing the story with me. I thought I was by myself on this embarassment. I was a bit ticked off and followed this car to its destination only to find two 20 yr old guys laughing thinking this VW beat a 911. I was tempted to let it go to redline but my mature alter-being said "NO" so I lost. I have never shared this story before tonight but it all came about because of the new guidelines. I just told my better half that we have to solve this problem and start driving this wonderful piece of machinery. The weather has been very sporatic around here,, just a few nice days from Nov to now. One of these days the rain will cease and the sun will come on out and warm us up. I really hate driving the thing with the top up and that why I probably dont drive it from Nov to April or May. My 993 was driven much more since it was more practical. Now that my friend has a Cab I will encourage him to start taking weekend jaunts with me to get some miles on our cars. But, until I hear for sure,, its still embarassment-breakin time for me until I put another 800 miles on this auto. At 35 miles per week,, thats only 23 more weeks to go... lol Nah,, I will make a concerted effort to get those miles on this... Any volunteers to help me???? LOL Don from Va aka Cabman

There was a series of postings on Pelicanparts.com about engine break-ins. Some folks claim to have evidence that you can drive a car through all the range of RPM's right out of the chute. Try a Search on that web site. 2000 miles seems pretty ridiculous to me. I would drive cautiously for 1000 miles and then change the oil. After that, I'd drive it however I felt. I had my 82 engine rebuilt recently. I drove it cautiously and then had the oil changed at 500 miles. You may find very small metal flakes in the oil screen. I assume the same for the new engines on the newer cars (not the thing about 500 miles, but the advice to change the oil after the break-in period, whatever it is). - Bill

Bill: Thats funny because the same salesman Pat Driscoll, the HBL Maven on Porsches told me I didnt have to change the oil for 15,000 miles or one year which ever comes first. At that rate I wasnt going to change my oil until next Sept 27th. But here you are recommending a different schedule. Again, why does Porsche say 15,000? My 993 stated 7,500 miles which seemed more normal to me. I added some oil at 600 miles and its fine now. My warranty will be fine with the 15,000 oil changes and that is important to me that I follow the manual. Don

This is always an interesting topic of discussion. I don't think we will fully understand Porsche's rational for its break-in period and why there is no break-in oil change (BMW had me change the oil and oil filter on my e46 M3 after its break-in period.). I thus asked the tech editor of a well respected US Porsche magazine and his opinion was that I should drive my car "normally" and not strictly adhere to the "rev limit". He also recommended changing the oil and oil filter at half the milage intervals that Porsche recommends. His recommendations passed my common sense test so I've gone on to enjoy my car without worrying about it too much. That said, I don't abuse my engine and get it up to proper operating temperature before any spirited driving. It would be nice to be privy to the data behind Porsche's break-in and first oil change recommendations.

Have an answer from Joel Reiser, the expert from the PCA on 996's. Here is what Joel had to say regarding this topic: Answer: As I understand it, some US Porsche enthusiasts were taking it too easy on the cars under break-in. So to ensure complete break-in, Porsche increased the length of the recommended timeframe in the US version of the manuals. Unfortunately this causes people to go even easier on the engine, furthering the problem. I would say to smoothly and firmly get after it a little at a time, after a full warmup each time, and it should be fine. The rest of the world seems to start doing that much sooner, during the break-in period before the first 1000 miles, say at around 1000 km (600 miles). Joel Reiser - PCA WebSite - 4/4/2004

Thanks for that cabman, i don't know whether the explanation makes any sense at all (it is obvious that incresing the break-in period wouldn't solve the issue of us drivers taking it too esay, dhuh!) but, the more important thing is we know now the rennlister's collective commonsense approach was correct. Great job Don.

Jeeva: The support from Porschelovers is great in general, always willing to help and give advice. I never got that feeling with my Vettes or Camaros. Just curious another topic: I am contemplating going to the Hershey Park Swap Event on April 24th (Sat) and wondering if anyone's going? It's probably a few hundred miles from here (northern Va) and I may make it happen if there are a bunch of folks driving up in a caravan. You going Jeeva? Anyone from my area going? If so, please let me know and we can plan on getting a group. I am sure there is another place on Rennlist to post these Caravans. Thanks to all for your support,, once again, common sense prevails. Don aka Cabman from Northern Virginia

Plane and simple you just gotta drive the car more, alot more. Drives to nowhere for no reason whatsoever. Get up an hour early and take a run, can't sleep take a run.... That said you are half way through the break in, it will do no harm to take it up to 5 or 6000 rpm for a short burst, go ahead it will not hurt the car. The euro break in is about half of what our cars , hmmm same car, that said in some forums there is talk that the 2k break in for US is also for the driver as well, since we do have such a sue happy society. The cars at PDE get no restrictions on rpm's, just out and onto the track. Just drive your car!!!!!

Actually, that is a very good point about the 2K being for the driver. I read somewhere about some insurance claim statistics, I don't recall exactly the stat, but it was something about 911's being the most common car to be crashed within a certain number of miles of ownership because people get into a corner to fast and do the lift throttle spin and crash. I suspect the insurance company lobbyists have something to do with the longer break-in for the US cars. I'm almost at a 1000, time to let 'er rip!!! BTW - Nice pic of your car in the Laguna Seca corkscrew; love that track!