New 2012 A4 S-Line
 

Hello,

I had a question about my new car that i just purchased on Thursday, i've read on a couple of posts that i should not exceed 200rpms for the first 1500 kms..is that true? Also if you guys had any tips on how to break in the engine properly, i would greatly appreciated your feedback.

Cheers

Re: New 2012 A4 S-Line
 

200rpms is below idle. 2000rpm is barely above idle.

Take it easy, just drive it the way you would but avoid beating on it until you're more comfortable with the car.

Re: New 2012 A4 S-Line
 

Were you driving down the Gardiner Yesterday around 4:30pm? I saw what looked like a brand new Ibis S-line behind a Blacked out Avant.

Re: New 2012 A4 S-Line
 

I am fussy about how I break in new cars, and have heard all sorts of opinions. What I do is drive moderately for the first 300 kms…..avoiding full-throttle and also avoid lagging into the low rpms too much….keep in the right gear to drive within the middle rpm range, but varying the rpms. A lot of highway driving when breaking in a car I feel is not good, as the engine is just working in a very narrow band. After 300 km, I will perform a few very slow acceleration exercises running the engine to redline, as I said, very slowly….as at this time I feel the engine needs to stretch a bit. Do not maintain red-line once reached…and go there slowly (hit some side street so you are able to do this). I then will do this every 100KM until I have around 600km on the car. At this time, I will take it to a place where I can do a full throttle run. And then. Just drive as normal.

Also, do not forget the brakes, and unless in a case of emergency, do not brake hard for the first 300km.

This has always worked for me, but am sure you will receive many opinions.

Best

Re: New 2012 A4 S-Line
 

The Audi manual states that you should not use more then 2/3 throttle for the first 1000 km and not to travel at top speed for the next 500 km. I just followed what the manual said. Kept it under 4k rpm (still plenty good!) until I was past 1000km and then drove normally.

I'm at 7000+kms now including a 2600km road trip to Seattle and I haven't had any issues nor does it seem to be eating oil.

Re: New 2012 A4 S-Line
 

As I mentioned, there are many opinions regarding break-in, and am sure Audi has conservative guidelines regarding what is printed in a manual, for obvious reasons. I only speak from my past breaking in cars which were performance cars, as the S4, as my experience for the past 3 decades has been performance cars. Also, I would not recommend any one drive their car at TOP speed. When I say a full throttle run, that can just be 1/8th mile foot to the floor. Again, break-in is of many opinions, and you could spend hours searching this, so whatever makes you feel comfortable is the best.

Re: New 2012 A4 S-Line
 

I've tried to keep it under 3000rpm, steady acceleration, only at 800km.. my plan is to drive like that until 1500km