VW Tiguan - engine run in time

[leefaz1797]

Just ordered a new VW Tiguan today, can anybody confirm the engine run in time before i am able to tow. The salesman told me that there was no need for any run in time and i would be able to tow immediately as VW run all of their engines on a rolling road and redo the oil before they are sold.

As i couldnt get my hand on the handbook i was hoping somebody would be able to verify this, otherwise i maybe doing a lot of driving around before we are off to France at the end of the month!!!

 

[jongeorge1]

i used to work for vw and the saleman was right they do not need running in but they do use a lot of oil in the first 20,000 miles.

you can only use the long life oil as any other oil will increase your fuel use.

shop around for the oil as they differ in price and can be as much as

 

[seth1]

Lee,best thing to do is thrash the ring out of it from day one,but dont leave it ticking over or maul it on climbs.

 

[otherclive]

With my Sorento the handbook recommended when first twoing don't exceed 50mph for the first 500 miles but also keep the engine from labouring or over-revving. Ie between 1500 and 3000 rpm. Howver when solo I also believe in Seths advice by ensring that the engine gets red-lined once a trip when it is warmed up. I once bought a car that had had one very careful owner who had never stretched it and the engine seized when I revved it one day. The recon centre showed me the lip at the top of the cylinder which had caused ring failure.

On oil prices I find that the local farmers shops often sell branded oils at prices well below the halfords prices. Se my comments on this forum on the question about Freelander Oil. Both my local farmers shops sell oil suitable for VAG cars..Total and Q8.

Regards

Other Clive

 

[Mikey1]

You only have to use the longfife oil if you wish to continue with the longlife serving intervals,using "normal" oil which is cheaper means your service intervals will be around 12,500 miles instead of possibly 12,500 + depending on how the car is used?

The longlife oil is a very hard oil

 

[xtrailman]

Lee

The Honest john site has a guide to running in. Personally i think its a bit OTT. But it's worth reading just for another point of view.

Nissan recommend 500 miles before towing, sounds sensible to me, as you are not just running in the engine, but the tyres, brakes, etc.

My audi (vag group) came with a "running in oil" as mentioned this did use a litre of oil in the first year, (8k)upto the first service, after that it never used any.

It seems strange to me comments such as they are already run in, my audi wasn't run in till around 7.5k miles, that was petrol. The nissan xtrail diesel was run in at around 9k miles.

Personally i wouldn't thrash it, but i'm mechanically sympathetic, i've always found that in normal driving running in, the red line is occasionally approached, just by a fast standing start getting into traffic.

 

[seth1]

I respect peoples views and rightly so,after spending 20k on a car to have mechanical sympathy is understandable.But what exactly is getting run in,the days of big end and main bearings being pre finished have gone,bearing scrapers are not used on modern engines anymore.The whole point of having a maximum engine speed is to use it,if required that is.

As ive said before i regularly see rebuilt engines on the dyno,ran at four different speeds and parameters measured,incedently on older engines governor overrun is enabled to test they dont go past their max speed.

Out in the field overhaul kits are fitted,but no dynos are available,these engines run more or less flat out from day one.give no trouble at all.Their given chance to warm properly,cool properly,and service schedules stuck to.

 

[WatsonJohnG]

The VW Beetle used to come with no need to run in the engine but instructions to drive staedily without revving or harsh driving to let the brakes.clutch etc bed in so the Nissan 500 miles steady sounds good advice

I an surprised at the oil use quoted for VW as I have had 4 Nissan XTs over a 7+ year period and never needed to top up the oil yet--yes I do check !!

 

[Mikey1]

I had a 05 plated Audi 2.0 Tdi from new and put in 3 lts in its first 10k miles after that 1 lt between servicing,i was told this is normal.

 

[WatsonJohnG]

Maybe the Audi engine was more efficient and less water vapour etc got into the engine oil as a product of combustion

I always change my oil every 6000 miles

 

[xtrailman]

My neighbour had a petrol audi 2ltfs (i think it was tfs), he constantly complained about the amount off oil the engine consumed, so much so that he had to carry a bottle of oil, just so he wasn't caught out. The car was soon replaced.

I think it is important not to take the term "running in" to literally, perhaps another term would be best, but i can't think of one.

At any rate, no way is a engine fully run in until it has thousands of miles on it, or is it just my imagination, that the fuel consumption has dropped, while the performance has increased?

 

[WatsonJohnG]

Diesel engines certainly seem to get better after 10000 miles+