Running In

**garygttdi** · 10-05-2010,10:36 AM

OK I can hear everyone saying you do not need to run in settle the engines in these days, however feel at least for the first 1000 miles I should hold the revs down.
170bhp Tdi. The car feels very sluggish and not very economical at present although with only 250 miles on the clock putting that down to it all being very tight.

**vwcabriolet1971** · 10-05-2010,10:48 AM

Why not read the manual ,that VAG spent a small fortune on, to advise new owners how to run-in their cars ?

**garygttdi** · 10-05-2010,10:59 AM

Fair piont but if that were the case what would be the piont of the forum, its easier and often better to get real, life experinces. But thanks for being so friendly!

**bassmandan** · 10-05-2010,12:13 PM

Originally Posted by garygttdi

Fair piont but if that were the case what would be the piont of the forum, its easier and often better to get real, life experinces. But thanks for being so friendly!

I drove mine fairly gently for 500 miles, then was just a little bit careful til I got to 1000. After that I drove it, shall we say, somewhat harder

**andyCYM** · 10-05-2010,12:21 PM

Kept my GTD below 3000 revs and avoided full throttle for 1500 miles & then gradually increased revs / welly for next 500 miles or so.

Have now covered 5500 miles & engine is a peach. It hasn't used any oil which I think must mean it bedded in well.

Economy - first max out on the MFD 2 (99 hours running) showed average of 45.8mpg, pretty mixed use, average speed was 35mph.

Currently 45.6mpg on MFD 2 # 2, but I have started to enjoy the car - not much point in having all that torque if you don't use it...

**Keithuk** · 10-05-2010,01:04 PM

As vwcabriolet1971 says you can read the handbook.

As a general rule avoid full throttle for the first 1000 miles. Mine has done 1700 miles and the fuel consumption isn't very good (compared with VW spec) thats 43mpg tank to tank average. You can forget the memory 2 on the MFD thats bull. I've had it up to 5000 and a couple of occasions. The thing is to keep the engine spinning freely don't travel around at 1200rpm just to save fuel. These engines aren't that torquie. I do a lot of local commuting and at 30mph you can just get into 4th gear which is 1200rpm you have to do 50mph+ to use 6th. If it doesn't accelerate then your in a too higher gear.

Considering you've only done 250 miles you may have only used just under half a tank thats if you filled it when you had it?

Originally Posted by andyCYM

It hasn't used any oil which I think must mean it bedded in well.

Not necessarily, it may use oil as its bedding it because the cylinder bores aren't polished yet. Mine has used 250ml in 1500 miles.

I'm told that VW engines take a long time to bed in and loosen up, 20,000 miles+.

**KABKAT** · 10-05-2010,09:13 PM

My OH took delivery of her new 2.0Tdi 140ps SE 5dr on 1 April and now covered 1500 miles. We have found this car to be very perky from delivery and pulls like a train compared with our 1.6tdi Jetta (6000 miles) as you would expect!! I have avoided revving above 3k and labouring below 1200 rpm as said in a previous post. Averaging 52 mpg by my own calculations so overall quite pleased on that score.

**jamief** · 11-05-2010,10:49 AM

My TDI 140 is leased so I don't really care how it is run in, I've just been driving it normally (covered 500 miles so far).

**paul.mgrath** · 11-05-2010,01:03 PM

Mines done 10800 miles and used around 1 and a half dipsticks of oil so am guessing round about 1.5 litres which is a lot less than my mk5 GTTDI did which wasn't treated as gently early on. My mk5 went through a litre every 3000miles so i am comparitavely happy but that engine was not the common rail motor.

I kept the revs down on mine till about 1000 miles then started to 'explore the envelope'. Don't really find the use for more than 3000 rpm.

**percymon** · 11-05-2010,01:27 PM

On another forum there is a guy who supplies the pistone rings to VAG - he claims they need a lot of pressure early on to get them to bed in, and not to be light footed.

Maybe he's right, and maybe he wants to sell more rings !

Either way the running in period is for the whole drivetrain, from tryes, brakes, bearing, through gearbox to engine. My experience suggests you need 4-5k miles on before you start to get improved mpg and performance, and probably 10k before everything is optimal.