DPorcella

Hi, new on both forums (6speed also) and love all you guys. I've spent many useful (and countless entertaining) hours reading the forums and looking at your cars. Beautiful!

So, to get to the point, I'm awaiting delivery of a 997.2 cabrio and acting like a kid waiting for Santa. Due to the Panamera changeover, the world economy, and maybe that train wreck, or a combination of factors, build and delivery dates keep getting more distant. But the time is not wasted! My order salesperson was able to change a couple of options for me, and now I want to know what I need to know about the new car on the first day.

I hear that alignment / camber / toe are often bad on a newly delivered Pcar. Do I take it straight to an alignment place or just ruin the first set of rears because I want to drive it?

Battery tender necessary. Check.

*ENGINE BREAK-IN on these cars is a mystery to me, especially given the synthetic oil. I've been a motorcyclist and the rule of drive it like you stole it from the very first minute seems to make best sense to me. I've read a couple threads on this. Does anyone have an opinion on break-in that they DIDN'T post?*

ANYTHING ELSE?
Thanks for your time and advice!

ADias

Drive a couple of thousand miles and ask your dealer to check the alignment.

Follow User Manual break-in guidance. Do not as a rule exceed 4-5kRPM steadily before 2k miles, except occasionally, progressively, hitting 5-6kRPM and then backing off WITH the engine oil at op temp.

DPorcella

Thanks for the advice on alignment and break-in. I'm going wiggy waiting for delivery day!

sharkster

won't be long now! And yes check the alignment out because once in a while they show up wonky!

russo

Definitely go easy during the break-in period, with occasional forays into the 5-6k rpm. Alignment, unless you are going to track competitively, shouldn't be a concern, unless you notice unusual tire wear or pulling to one side when releasing the steering while driving. Provide us with more details on the options and color of your vehicle.

mdrums

You can drive the car without messy up the tires. My alignment was out of spec but you could not really tell it just driving on the street. I had mine realigned at my Porsche independant race shop to perfection. I almost followed the break in but it is hard to keep the car under 4200rpms and trying to merge into traffic. I did lots of accell and de-accell and ran the rpm's all over the place, never cruising at 1 single rpm number.

Edgy01

My car drove precisely the way it did in Europe,--no misalignment from the trip over. BUT, you need to have it checked WITHIN 2000 miles of delivery or they will no longer do it for free.

Zuffenhausen told me to keep it under 5000 rpm for 2000 miles,--which is what I did. Most of the "break in" is for the suspension parts to learn to work together, and for the driver to get accustomed to the car. The engine is already broken in.

ADias

If the engine comes broken in... why keep it under 5kRPM?

I do agree that it's the whole car not just the engine that needs to be broken in. And that implies no steady state cruising at high speed on the autobhan (should something be off suspension-wise or elsewhere), thus implying not running high RPMs. I think that's why they say no more than 4kRPM for 2000 miles.

I do think though that a moderate engine break-in is a good thing in any case, as I do not believe the engine is broken-in from the factory. Heck, these engines continue to change and continue to open up all the way to 10k or even 20k miles. Drive moderately with varying RPMs. Not an easy thing to do for 2000 miles especially if those miles are long road miles. I also think that the engine should be moderately exercised with short romps progressively higher for very short periods of time with the oil at proper operating temp.

MLindgren

Why does your suspension care what RPMs your motor is spinning. Never heard of this before.

ADias

If you are driving 5kRPM in 6th gear on the autobahn you are driving at a pretty good clip (160/170MPH?). If something breaks in the suspension... you do care about going at 5kRPM, that's why.

mstams

Not keeping the same RPMs... Does this include idling?

Reason I ask is that I have picked up my new car, but I am not planning to drive it until my driveway curb is replaced (too high).

I was thinking I should run it at least once a week just idling the engine.

Any thoughts?

f4 plt

Yes to a certain degree the engine is broken in, and yes the suspension may need massaging, but part of the brake-in and the recommendation to vary RPM is to break-in the transmission and rear end ( trans-axle) I followed the break-in to the letter in my GT3 but was not so good with the Cayman S. So far I'm somewhere in between with the '09 Carrera S. I have not exceeded 5000K yet, but i have touched it. I make sure I have oil temp in the operating range before I do anything other than very mild acceleration. I'm over 500 miles now and I will exercise the RPM's a little more as the mileage increases. the important thing is to make sure you have oil temp before working the engine too eagerly. That said the cars were built to be driven and driven hard. I follow the same rule of nothing above mild on my '83 Sc until I get oil temp and with over 130,000 miles on the original engine and many of those on the track she is still running great and producing factory HP.

DPorcella

(Original poster). Interesting discussion. My yet to arrive car is a modest 997.2 cabrio with few options except natural leather, heated seats, sport steering wheel, and sport exhaust. Trying to keep it simple, and I won't track it. Just always wanted a 911. . .

One reason I asked about break-in is because a service guy who shall remain nameless said to me, "YOU DIDN'T HEAR IT FROM ME, BUT you should drive it like you stole it, in order to properly seal the piston rings."

This is a very controversial subject in the motorcycling world, and the major proponent of the non-owner's manual break-in has made lots of believers with this article: http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm.

However, I'm aware that a 911 isn't a motorcycle. It is, however, a high-performance vehicle, and some of the same principles apply. I guess it's still a controversial subject!

ADias

This fellow is talking about ring setting and he says he does it in the first 20 miles. I think that is done in the factory either on a bench or on the Autobahn.

I think that there's more to break-in engine and otherwise, than ring setting. As I said before proper controlled visits to 6kRPM make for a good free-revving engine. I do not like to temp cycle during break-in. Avoid short trips, especially in cold days.

DPorcella

Again, thanks for the advice! I don't want to harm the new baby.