Shillens

I just got my RS4 on Sunday-Daytona/Black/CT. I can't help but drive it hard (but not revving past 6000). WHAT'S THE BEST WAY TO BREAK IT IN?

Everything written about this car is true. Instant grins!!! Traded in the A8L, one of my favorite cars. I still have an '02 GT2. Have previously owned SL55 and M3. This RS4 has quickly risen to one of my favorites.

BTW, at the dealer was a used Silver Avus RS4 at 4400 miles. I drove it and noticed clutch was lighter, shifter lighter and smoother..a bit quicker. The dealer said the broken in car is faster.

Reggie

worst is just plain hwy miles at the same speed.

ohbw

I'm not an expert on the topic but I shared this link with my old man, who's older than Methusaleh, a lifelong gearhead (fighter pilot in two wars), and an aerobatic performer at a high level. He's pretty serious about subjects like this because he flies low, fast, upside down, and right over people's heads a lot. He said when he rebuilds his engines, he makes three brief ground runs to insure that they're oil tight and temp-happy, then takes off and flogs them as hard as oil and cylinder temps allow. He says his results are uniform: lots of power and very low oil use.

A significant ancillary benefit of subscribing to this view is that you get to whale on your RS4 early and often. Color me envious.<ul><li><a href="http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm">vigorously</a></li></ul>

RI A6

The owner's manual contains some hard RPM and throttle position limits up to 1200 miles. (6000 rpm up to 600 miles, 7000 rpm up to 1200 miles, no full throttle until 1200 miles, and then only occasionally until 1500 miles) Within those limits the engine can still be wrung out pretty hard. (Torque peaks at 5500 rpm.) This type of engine, with Alusil cylinder walls, needs to have some serious power applied to the rings in hard acceleration and deceleration, in order to properly seat the rings in their grooves and against the cylinder walls. Deceleration using compression breaking is extremely helpful during the process, since it reverses the loads on the pistons and rings and allows all surfaces to wear-in well.

WOT is also very bad for this engine when it's not broken in. Mixture enrichment during WOT will blow-by into the oil and contaminate it. I generally recommend 3/4 throttle maximum until 1200 miles.

Remember, also, that this engine, by design, is not fully broken in until between 7K and 10K miles, due to the hard silicon cylinder walls.

I will point out that maximum piston ring forces occur at maximum engine torque, which is about 5500 rpm. This falls within even the early &lt; 600 mile break-in RPM limit. You just aren't supposed to go to full throttle yet ... but, nothing in the manual says you can't get damn close.

The key is to run the engine up hard, to maximize the ring/cylinder wall forces under acceleration, and then to allow the engine to use full compression breaking, to reverse those forces. This allows the rings to fully wear into the piston grooves and to lap themselves against the cylinder walls. This is much easier to do when the engine is young. As it gets older, deposits in the ring grooves can prevent full seating.

I broke in my engine fast and hard, within the RPM and throttle guidelines in the manual, with 2nd and 3rd gear hard acceleration and engine compression deceleration, after complete engine warmup, followed by cooldown, constant cruising in 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th gears, and then repeating the hard acceleration. I did this every time I took the car out during the break in period, to seat the rings and wear-in the cylinder walls, which are hard silicon. At 1800 miles I changed the oil and filter.

Here are my oil consumption results:

1.5 Qts/1800 miles -- factory oil

Zero Qts/(1800 to 5000 miles) -- Elf Excellium LDX 5W-40

Zero Qts/(5000 to 6400 miles) -- Motul E-tech 8100 0W-40

Using an aggressive break-in regime will reduce oil consumption over the life of the engine, and increase maximum power output. I have had no oil consumption since changing out the factory oil at 1800 miles.

BTW, unless you over rev the engine, the most violent time your engine ever sees is those first few seconds after cold start. This is when wear is at it's highest. This is also why you want to start her, and drive her away, so that the engine and oil can warm as quickly as possible. Racing engines have dry sump heaters and pumps to bring the oil up to operating temperature and pressure prior to starting.

DrGP

Alusil piston liners. Agressive is good. Flogging is not!

Shillens

RI RS4...Great info and it makes perfect sense! Everyone should read your post.

I drove hard tonight...too much fun. Broke 200 miles today. Sounds like I should be driving hard from one light to the next, downshifting at each red light.

How well is your RS4 performing at 1800 miles?

DrCondor

wait a year to assess satisfaction of new owners (had early build B5S4, and have early build B6S4...neither with issues).

RI A6

This engine just gets stronger and stronger.