[determinism]

I hear many service managers for many different car makers say this whenever a customer complains of poor service. A friend of a friend said it was true for cars a decade ago and older but not anymore. I tried looking up this subject on the forum and couldn't find any posts related to my query. Thanks in advance for any help you may be able to provide.

[GTO]

Nothing to do with the service, but more to do with the car being 'run in' - related thread. Yes, your fuel economy will improve as you log on the km on your brand new car. There are a lot of components that need to be bedded in. In my experience, an engine starts coming into its own after 3,000 - 5,000 km and really gets into the groove past 10,000 km. How your engine feels at 20,000 km is pretty much how it'll be throughout its life if you maintain it well.

I consider the oil change at the 1st service to also be very important.

Forget just the engine, even your brand new tyres need some running-in.

[thoma]

And of course, the driver/user gets more accustomed with the behaviour of the car and it's controls as more miles are put on. Hence, they will be driving it more smoothly than initially which translates to slightly more efficiency.

[typlo]

I've personally driven 3 new cars and have been a part of the run-in and service process. I have noticed that each car feels different (obviously) when new and I am able to master a new car only after some 500-700 kilometres. My clutching and de-clutching action become smoother, I become accustomed to gear shifts and learn to gradually engage the clutch instead of a 'thud' action.

Of course, the engine is running in as well which basically means that newly machined parts are just beginning to getting used to reciprocating, heat & temperature and producing energy (the gentle run-in is partially important nowadays, your engine is running-in regardless of how you drive it, as long as you're putting miles on it). The mechanicals of the car are getting used to the motion as well.

I've seen the cars increase by upto 1-3 kmpl for petrol and 2-4 kmpl for diesel after you hit 1500-2500 kilometers which is a product of run-in and getting smooth with your actions. Do a gentle run-in with very occasional spurts of gas for best results, but a slight spirited run-in has little to do with the final FE of the car. You are bound to get a better gas mileage from the car only because you become familiar with your car, unless the car was abused all the time during its run-in period.

I suggest doing an oil change and all other fluid top-up at first service (the most important service of all) even if the manufacturer doesn't recommend it, just use common sense. For example, I ride a 150cc motorcycle and have cared for it since day 1 (cleaned and lubed the chain, replaced the engine oil regularly) and boy does it ride like a dream.

About the tyres: Nothing you can do. They're imperfectly manufactured and have a non-grippy film over them as a by-product of manufacturing. Let them ride around for 200-300 kms and you'll be set from the tyre POV.

[Ry_der]

AFAIK the 'Myth' is true for carbureted engines. The idling RPM of new vehicles is set to be on higher side( or not set at all). The Air/Fuel mixture is also kept richer for some reasons. After 1st or 2nd service, the engine gets fine tuned by the service engineer. Thus, the fuel economy improves. Dont know whether the case is same with FI engines or not ?

[_nitink_]

My two cousins bought an i20 CRDI and a Brezza on same dates almost an year ago. The i20 has 25000 kms on the odo and the Brezza has done around 14000kms. According to my cousin who has the i20, the FE increased after the 10k km service by around 1.5-2kmpl. According to the second cousin, the average FE has been same but the car delivera better FE on the highways. Both the cars have a similar usage pattern in similar traffic conditions. I don't know if the increase in FE is due to the fact that both of them became familiar with the cars or due to some other factors.
(Both of them are driving since more than 7-8 years and mostly drive diesel cars)

[determinism]

How bad is it for the engine run in/fuel economy if one has only driven their car in city traffic for the first 10k km at a maximum of 2000 rpm without varying their speeds/rpm much? I own a Ford Endy 3.2 and ask this because I'm unable to attain a FE of more than 6.5 kml when driving free spirited. Thanks for your inputs GTO, Typlo.

[_nitink_]

Originally Posted by determinism

How bad is it for the engine run in/fuel economy if one has only driven their car in city traffic for the first 10k km at a maximum of 2000 rpm without varying their speeds/rpm much? I own a Ford Endy 3.2 and ask this because I'm unable to attain a FE of more than 6.5 kml when driving free spirited. Thanks for your inputs GTO, Typlo.

Even with the limited knowledge of the technical aspects of the car, I am sure that this is not good for your car. The car's engine undergoes maximum wear and tear while driving through the stop and go traffic. This will also cause damage to the gear shifting mechanism of the car.
Apart from this, if you drive in city but the traffic is not very dense, make your turbo do some hard work occasionally. I drove my new Aspire in a very relaxed way for the first 2500 kms. My running is also 70% inside city and I make sure that I floor the accelerator every 4-5 days.
I think those with better knowledge can contribute better on this.

[typlo]

Originally Posted by determinism

How bad is it for the engine run in/fuel economy if one has only driven their car in city traffic for the first 10k km at a maximum of 2000 rpm without varying their speeds/rpm much? I own a Ford Endy 3.2 and ask this because I'm unable to attain a FE of more than 6.5 kml when driving free spirited. Thanks for your inputs GTO, Typlo.

Not bad at all! You are indeed inadvertently varying the RPMs in your city driving conditions. You're required to accelerate, brake and swerve in the city traffic. That is good enough for the break-in period of the engine. Don't worry about it too much. (Do note that there isn't any 'correct RPM' at which you're supposed to do the break-in, just take it light for a couple hundred to a thousand kms).

You did not mention your transmission variant of the car. 6.5 kmpl is good enough and would be what I'd expect if driving your car in city traffic with an automatic transmission (maybe 7.5 with a light foot? But where's the fun in that?) My family had a 1st gen Mahindra Scorpio once which was good for just 9 kmpl even with a much smaller displacement and manual gearbox.

I'd still suggest you to learn basic maintenance of your car and double-check the work done by service centres for best performance and FE (also, try topping up the diesel from a COCO gas station and measure the FE by tank to tank method if you're worried).

EDIT: The only wear you might be adding to your vehicle is clutch/torque converter wear. Honestly, don't bother with it since it is really little (Don't do a burnout though).

[determinism]

Originally Posted by typlo

Not bad at all! You are indeed inadvertently varying the RPMs in your city driving conditions. You're required to accelerate, brake and swerve in the city traffic. That is good enough for the break-in period of the engine. Don't worry about it too much. (Do note that there isn't any 'correct RPM' at which you're supposed to do the break-in, just take it light for a couple hundred to a thousand kms).

You did not mention your transmission variant of the car. 6.5 kmpl is good enough and would be what I'd expect if driving your car in city traffic with an automatic transmission (maybe 7.5 with a light foot? But where's the fun in that?) My family had a 1st gen Mahindra Scorpio once which was good for just 9 kmpl even with a much smaller displacement and manual gearbox.

I'd still suggest you to learn basic maintenance of your car and double-check the work done by service centres for best performance and FE (also, try topping up the diesel from a COCO gas station and measure the FE by tank to tank method if you're worried).

Have the AT variant. and yes, getting 7.5 kmpl with gentle driving. When I got the car I was prepared for 6.5 kmpl. Have no intention of driving gently for FE Just a bit concerned because most Endy 3.2 AT owners seem to be getting between 8-8.5 kmpl when driving normally which I wasn't getting.

Thanks for the maintenance tip. Will be watchful when I take the car out for service. Been using COCO gas station from day 1 and relying only on tankful to tankful method Thanks for your help.

[typlo]

Originally Posted by determinism

Have the AT variant. and yes, getting 7.5 kmpl with gentle driving. When I got the car I was prepared for 6.5 kmpl. Have no intention of driving gently for FE Just a bit concerned because most Endy 3.2 AT owners seem to be getting between 8-8.5 kmpl when driving normally which I wasn't getting.

Don't mind them. People say whatever they want to.

Don't lug the engine and you'll be happier than ever. People lug the engine and complain about lacking the initial pickup too

[saket77]

GTO nailed it perfectly in the first reply itself. Nothing to do with service, just the miles that the car logs. The tighter factory clearances of almost every moving part reach the optimal clearance levels after about 5K kms and hence the car is more 'free' so as to say. With the clearance levels now set right, the fuel efficiency automatically increases, along with acceleration performance. Applicable to both carbureted and MPFI engines.

Using the word service, is more like a convention where the old carbureted engines were tuned from initially rich factory - set mixture to a leaner mix once the car had completed it's 'run-in' period. This was done during the service for the older cars and hence its now a part of our vocab rather than the fact currently applicable to modern MPFI engines, which tune themselves in real-time.

Regards,
Saket.

[Thermodynamics]

I share my vehicle fuel efficiency (Brezza) as of date.



The running in period is coming to an end. Although the FE did not noticeably improve, I feel the engine behaves lot sweeter.