Friday of this week I bought my 4th Accord...the 2013 EX-L (I4 & CVT). So far, I have only praises for the car.

My question is...(oh I know I may get flamed for asking this)...I can't seem to locate any new car driving tips in any of the FIVE manuals that come with the car.

This is far from my first new car and I'm an avid user of synth motor oil bu I want to to break in the engine.

So...any suggestions for the first few miles?

Scott

 

Yeah, this is probably gonna get some discussion. We moderate the ugly flames, so no insults here.

There's one school of thought that you should try to exercise the whole range of RPM, don't just keep it at low RPM.

Another school of thought is to drive it HARD, because higher cylinder pressure helps press the rings harder against the cylinder wall so they seat better.

I'm a bit in both camps. After a few hundred miles (or maybe 1000) I'll make sure to use the whole tach. I'm afraid to really hammer it before a couple thousand miles. I've had engines that don't burn oil for 140k to 220k miles before I sold the cars.

Either way, I'd leave in the break-in oil until the maintenance-monitor says to change it.

 

Honda may not have included in the 2013 Accord manuals.

The following is for the 2012 Accord:

"Break-in Period
Help assure your vehicle’s future reliability and performance by paying extra attention to how you drive during the first 600 miles (1,000 km). During this period:

• Avoid full-throttle starts and rapid acceleration.
• Do not change the oil until the scheduled maintenance time.
• Avoid hard braking for the first 200 miles (300 km).
• Do not tow a trailer."

The reason for not changing the factory-fill engine oil until the recommended maintenance time is due to molybdenum (that’s “moly” for short), a special lubricant applied by the factory to critical engine
components during assembly. -- Just be sure to check the engine oil level and top off as necessary in the interim.