Picking up new Auto Jimny Run in period

Hi,
I hopefully will be picking up a new Jimny early next week and have a trip planned early next month down to Brisbane from central Queensland, ( about 600km each way) all the run in advice says dont stick to the same speed for long periods but thats kind of the nature of the highways here, we will break up the journey a bit but the first part will likely be over 500km then will be a few short trips and trails before we head back.

Is this likely to be bad for the new car ?

Modern cars are produced to such fine tolerance these days that running in periods are nothing like as long or indeed as vital as they were with old clunkers like the BMC a series. That's not saying be rough with it but equally there's no reason to baby it either.

Just to add you say the trip is a little while after collection so it's looking at a week plus of town driving first so that will help no end.

It will be absolutely fine. Imagine how many work/business/lease/hire vehicles go straight to work doing long trips from day one, and go one to clock up hundreds of thousands of miles. The vast majority of cars don't get "run-in" at all.

Chicken wrote:

Hi,
I hopefully will be picking up a new Jimny early next week and have a trip planned early next month down to Brisbane from central Queensland, ( about 600km each way) all the run in advice says dont stick to the same speed for long periods but thats kind of the nature of the highways here, we will break up the journey a bit but the first part will likely be over 500km then will be a few short trips and trails before we head back.

Is this likely to be bad for the new car ?

So, just don't stick to the same speed for long periods.  You can control the speed of the vehicle whilst on a long trip, even on a highway.  I've done pretty much what you're describing, pick up a new car on Wednesday and make a three hundred km trip on Friday, returning on Sunday,

If it doesn't say in the manual then the general advice is

- keep the revs below 3,000 for the first few hundred miles;
- increase the revs over a period of time;
- don't accelerate hard and don't brake hard either.

Usuaully they recommend journeys that get the engine up to temperature and not too long at first, then build up the distance/time running.

Remember the first service interval, often 500 miles, some vehicles get loads adjusted after 500 miles and others hardly anything.

Modern engines are much better and don't require the same running in as vehicles 30 years ago, however, thngs like brakes still do.

I've never bothered with any sort of run in period with my new Jimnys. I picked them up and they went straight onto the motorway at 70mph to do over 80 miles home. They are hardy engines and liked to be worked. So long as you're not redlining the rpm then I would say you're good to go. 

DrRobin wrote:

If it doesn't say in the manual then the general advice is

- keep the revs below 3,000 for the first few hundred miles;

 

Hard to do at highway speeds in a Jimny I imagine, especially a 4 speed auto.

I guess I will do a few runs to the beach and just take it easy as much as possible.

Ducked into the dealer this morning to see how things are going, its basically done, just waiting for underbody and engine bay rust protection.

I should have taken a few snaps looks pretty good on the ironman gvm upgrade 2 inch lift with 215/75/r15 Kumho AT52s, the ironman bullbar and snorkel.  

its addictive modding isnt it, still so many things I want to do, the long range tank will be useful here, the towbar, mostly for a decent recovery point on the back, underbody protection, probably starting with the radius arm points and a winch as to be fair will probably be going out solo for the most part.

Then you have to think of a name ??

The towbar isn't rated for recovery. Towing forces are much lower than recovery forces. If you do use it, make sure you take up all the slack before applying any force. Snatching with the towbar could easily lead to damage to the towbar or chassis.

Are you sure ? Im not going to use the tow ball, just the hitch where the tow ball goes you can usually put the pin through and use a soft shackle I thought that was generally considered a pretty good recovery point ?

He's absolutely spot on. The tow bar is designed to take a steady load applied relatively gently. The shock loading involved in a recovery is potentially huge even if done correctly with a suitable kinetic energy recovery rope. Using a normal snatch strap or worse a static extension strap is going to put way too much energy into the tow bar it's hardware and fixing points. Carefully using a winch to incrementally ease yourself backwards to safety is going to do the least damage but even then you are at risk of ripping it apart. The tow bar is designed for drawing a free moving object behind you not for dragging the vehicle backwards when up to it's axles in gloop or wedged on a stump or rock. Proper recovery points that apply force directly in line with the chassis and not offset causing a peeling motion are best especially used in tandem with a bridle.

My factory fit tow bar uses the same mounting points as the rear recovery points (it stops me mounting heavy duty rear recovery) and is heavy duty, but I take Lambert’s point.

I drilled and fitted two eye bolts close to the tow bar fixing and use a bridle so the load is as close to the chassis points as possible.

The tow bar is rated to 1,300kg, but that is in the centre, so must be higher at the chassis mount point.

I only intend to use the rear recovery points to tow my own Jimny if it gets stuck, like it was a couple of weeks ago, when someone used a winch on to my bridle, it came out no problem. I think it all depends on how likely it is you are going to be really stuck and perhaps you shouldn’t have chanced that big muddy pool?

I might tow a car in the snow and ice, but the load would be minimal then. If I was to recover someone else chances are you would use front recovery points, which I will fit as soon as they are back in stock.

Robin