I’m a ‘Break-in Period Violator’!!

I’m so pissed off I totally dropped the ball on the break-in period, and the worst part is that I’m good at babying any vehicle. I have obeyed the no hard throttling rule (I actually always drive slow anyway), I did ok with varying speeds (I did 110 miles around town before I left on this 300 mile trip somewhere, first 120 miles of the trip I did no highways and I endured going through neighborhoods and hitting red lights/stop signs, everything was perfect…now here’s where things went downhill! (to be more accurate here’s where things went UPHILL)

Now I’m about 230 miles on odometer and here’s where the ‘Avoid Highways’ setting on my app hurt me more than it helped, CRINGE in order to avoid highways it started taking me over steep mountains!!! I was freaking, you should avoid anything tough on the engine including towing and steep hill climbing!! I did this up & down process for like 60 miles before thinking of something that I wish I thought of right away, I pulled over and disabled the No Highway setting and sure enough the inclines weren’t as bad as the No Highway route. It was also after midnight so it wasn’t even a big deal for me to drive in the slow lane fluctuating between 40-55, and occasionally pull onto the shoulder and rest stops to mimic red lights. The highway had very few vehicles, and multiple lanes, with huge shoulders to accommodate trucks. Damn I wish I just bagged the trip altogether until I was at 1000 miles. My OCD is very upset today lol.

 

Your OCD failed you again when you posted this in the 6th Gen forum

Your vehicle is fine.

 

I’m a friggin train wreck!! Lol although I wonder if 6th gen break-in period rules are the same (maybe not as bad since turbo engines do better in high elevations).

However, if a mod wants to move this over the the 5Th Generation section that would work!

 

“Break-in Period Violator” doesn’t really roll off the tongue, I was trying to think of what they would call me in a Seinfeld episode. Maybe they’d say “This man is a Break in Breaker!!”

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBBUQJKTaiM

 

I violated the "no hard braking" rule on the second day, when some clown ran a stop sign at a highway intersection. In over 15k miles, it's still my only hard braking event.

 

Don’t be so hard on yourself, I’d say you’re already way ahead of the curve in care.

 

Sounds like he read the manual, so ahead of 95% of all car owners, I'd wager.

 

In my opinion you overthink this situation. Do you think when ISIS got the brand new Toyota pickups they worried about break in period? No. They installed the machine gun stand on the bed and let’s go. Probably didn’t even change the oil after 500 miles. Same with the other Persian Gulf countries. They buy the car and on day 1 they take it to the desert to have some fun on the dunes.

 

Talk to any farmer or contractor, they will tell you to break it in how you would normally drive it. They don't wait before hooking up a trailer and putting it to work, and still live to tell the story lol.

 

I need help, I have no clue what I’m doing! I have just been dropping my transmission shifter straight back, and it is in ECO mode a lot. Is that wrong (especially in hilly areas)? Is my default drive mode supposed to be to not only drop it back into ‘D’ but to then also move it over to to the left (leaving it where the’S’ is between the + and -)??


Am I trying to tackle mountains in 5th gear?? I never used paddle shifters before, and I still didn’t use them I only moved the shifter over to in between the shifter…and there were my higher RPMs and S4’ that I’m almost never seeing (I’m seeing WAY too much ECO mode).

The Toyota salespersons acted like an expert, and “Showed me” the ropes, and he just had me drop it straight back, and said “Oh and going left is just if you wanna manually shift.” I do not wanna manually shift it’s an automatic I want it to do it AUTOMATICALLY lol, but the way that the RPMs stay low and ECO mode stays on so often while going up steep hills makes me think that maybe I’m supposed to flip it over to the left between the + and - ??

Now I hope that I wasn’t hurting anything by climbing steep hills in 5th gear (ECO mode), but at least I’ve been doing it slow. I’m pulled over and I refuse to start driving again till someone straightens me out lol. Nice, I have Doritos in the backseat lol.

 

Using S mode isn't critical in that scenario, but it can help if the transmission is hunting. If the hill is steep enough you might not be getting past 4th gear anyway.

 

If I flip the shifter left the dashboard goes from saying ‘D’ (which doesn’t really help, it doesn’t specify which gear) to saying ‘S4’ and the RPMs go up (and ECO is never lit when it’s to the left). It’s really the way that other cars are blowing past me that makes me think I was doing something wrong, because it seems like I can’t match their speed even if I wanted to. Hmm so maybe a lot of people are using their shifters.

 

Lol after yelling at myself that maybe I’ve been in the wrong position I then said that to myself “But it’s an automatic, don’t I just freaking put it in ‘D’ and go??”

 

The 4R does not excel at going uphill fast. Yes, you can downshift and push the RPMs for a little more speed, but unless it's hunting, I just let anyone past who wants to get by and enjoy the ride.

 

Ok thanks. Yeah I’d rather do that too. I just wanted to make sure that I wasn’t doing something wrong

 

Ok so ‘D’ uses all 5 speeds, and ECO means that it’s in 5th gear. And when you flip the shifter to the left it maxes out at 4th gear (which is why I never see ECO when I’m shifted over to S4.

 

Oh, well then that’s good!

 

Lol this is probably dead on. So I actually started pressing on the pedal a bit more and BAM, there were my gear shifts and RPM bumps. So basically I was SO obsessed with being overly gentle (for the break-in) that I wasn’t even pressing down on the pedal like a normal person.

 

It'll shift to 4th gear when you move the lever to the left, S-mode. Bump it forward and it will shift into 5S.

 

The best break-in is to drive it like you stole it.

 

The break in procedure does not mention avoid mountains

 

And I thought I was OCD! It will be ok man, breath in, breath out…

The 4runner transmission is about as sophisticated as any 5 speed automatic from 20 years ago. Which is to say, it’s not (because it actually is a transmission from 20 years ago lol).

But it does have some “features” that give the impression of sophistication. For example, many people think it has an ECO mode. It’s not a mode. It’s just literally a light that comes on when the engine isn’t generating much power. That’s it.

The “S” mode gives the impression of it being a manual shifting “sport” mode. On other cars, maybe that’s what it’s for. But on the 4runner, it’s to “Select” a maximum gear. The Select mode also will cause the torque converter lock-up to happen quicker when 4th and 5th gear are selected, which helps keep the transmission cooler when towing.

You also mentioned being worried about climbing steep hills in 5th gear. I assure you, the 4runner isn’t capable of climbing steep hills in 5th It probably dropped down to 4th without you noticing.

 

Mountain driving probably exposed the drivetrain to the most diverse set of stresses. Uphill downhill, and you can change gears to affect the rpm range and load your drivetrain operates in

 

Just drive. Floor it! Burnout!

 

Wait, that’s bad??? I’m a friggin head case over this hilly roadtrip lol, I wish I just waited until I had 1000 miles in.

 

It’s good for break in.

 

You are fine. Do an oil change at 1000 miles and you are golden. If you love your rig a lot, pour a quart or two of fresh oil on top to flush all the old oil out.

 

I came from the sports car world. The rig was brand new off the lot and I was driving it like I was out to win the Dakar... Funny, my engine is just fine.

Don't worry about it.

Most people don't follow any break in instructions on new vehicles. Keep the oil changes at 5-6k and use factory filters. You've got a million mile engine bud.