Breaking In A New Nissan Micra SV

Hello folks, I just purchased a Nissan Micra SV 2019. I know the manual recommends a gradual break in until 2000 kms, meaning no hard quick breaking, not keeping the speed too constant slow or fast, and no racing the engine I am curious as to people's experiences, meaning those that followed the break in instructions vs those that did not. Did you break in your Micra by the book or did you drive it like you stole it. How long have you had your car, and did you experience any issues that you chalk up to not properly breaking it in.

This car is so much fun to drive faster rather than slower, I can seriously see how someone would be tempted to not follow the regular break in instructions.

My car did its first 2000km with cruise control set at 90, and every on/off ramp taken at full bull. Also, the 10km test drive led to my salesman saying "Never seen somebody drive a stick shift so... well. How do you do that three pedal thing?"

Break in has gone the way of the dodo. Rings and gaskets are set these days with zero tolerance. Varying speeds and keeping it calm is to allow things to seat and settle. These days, that's a thousandth of an inch, not 3mm.

EVERY car ever sold has a dozen km of hardcore abuse on it. All I did was short shift for the first bit. Full beans, but kept it under 4500rpm.

I have no ticks or clacks, and am getting 7l/100 in -20C conditions, most days the car only starts blowing hot 20km into my 55km commute. My 3cyl Mirage is barely getting much better (6.1).

Closing in on 4000km, had it for a month and a bit.

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Originally Posted by nickels

My car did its first 2000km with cruise control set at 90, and every on/off ramp taken at full bull. Also, the 10km test drive led to my salesman saying "Never seen somebody drive a stick shift so... well. How do you do that three pedal thing?"

Break in has gone the way of the dodo. Rings and gaskets are set these days with zero tolerance. Varying speeds and keeping it calm is to allow things to seat and settle. These days, that's a thousandth of an inch, not 3mm.

EVERY car ever sold has a dozen km of hardcore abuse on it. All I did was short shift for the first bit. Full beans, but kept it under 4500rpm.

I have no ticks or clacks, and am getting 7l/100 in -20C conditions, most days the car only starts blowing hot 20km into my 55km commute. My 3cyl Mirage is barely getting much better (6.1).

Closing in on 4000km, had it for a month and a bit.

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Thanks so much for sharing your experience. That is good to hear.

I started driving it hard from the start(quick acceleration, driving it at 60 km and not varying the speed, not breaking as slowly as smoothly as I should) when I got it as it was so much fun to drive and I kept forgetting that this was not my Mazda3 Speed. I pretty much did the opposite of what the manual recommended. I was doing that for a week since getting it. Them I read about the possibility of engine issues down the road if the car was not properly broken in from the start. I read about another member who had excessive oil consumption issue and engine problems on his Micra SR at 30000KM and it made it wonder if that may have been due to not properly breaking the vehicle in from the start. Googling proper break in for new cars is as confusing. I figured drivers' real life experiences of break in or no break in and issues they had down the line was probably the best gauge of the issue. The good thing about my car is that I got the extended warranty and I have a cousin who works in parts and who can get me a huge discount on parts and labour should I experience non-warranty issues or issues that arise after my warranty expires. Honestly, I may not even have the car that long. I am literally test driving this car for 3 years and I will judge at the end of those three years, whether i like the car enough to keep it indefinitely, trade it in, or sell it privately. Three years is the time as I figure I will still be able to get some of my money out of it and it will have all service records, and an extended warranty to boot, so those should strong selling features.

Here is a link to an Australian channel that I found good as he gives reasons to follow certain procedures.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNto8uWiYtw&t=14s

I followed the break-in procedure. It was basically just driving normally while keeping in mind to give the engine a variety of RPMs.

Here's the thing OP. These days, if you break it in wrong, it'll probably have an issue under warranty. If you break it in good enough, itll live forever.

Since I know my car and am more in tune with it than most, it will, like my Jeep, get an EXTREME once over at 58,000km. If I hear something amiss, I start a work order. Then if it goes boom at 67,000km, I can get warranty coverage because I brought it up under warranty.

The Mirage is covered for 160,000km (thanks Mitsubishi!) so I ratbagged the hell out of it from day one (not that you can drive 75hp any other way)

I followed the chrysler model for break in, given it was a non-test driven car when I got it. Their white papers don't care much about seals and seats, but properly case hardening surfaces. So it's more to do with heat cycling than RPM, but yeah, got the car, oil change, 1000K of cycling with no highway, oil change + chemlube. Use as normal.

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Originally Posted by tomcj2

Here is a link to an Australian channel that I found good as he gives reasons to follow certain procedures.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNto8uWiYtw&t=14s

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Thanks for sharing that is an excellent video. I started following much of what he said. And now I am seeking traffic congestion instead of trying to avoid it, just to help with the break in. And no surprise, the minute I eased off and started slowly accelerating in normal traffic, some idiots started tailgating me.

That makes a lot of sense. I have learned the value of extended warranties and so got the extended 7 year 120000 km warranty. When I had my Mazda3 speed here were a couple of issues that arose while the car was still under the extended warranty. Had I not opted to get the extended warranty, I would have paid way more than what the up front costs of getting the extended warranty costed me. It's one of the reasons I decided to get rid of my Mazda. I couldn't envision paying an arm and a leg for speciality parts and repairs if things went when the car's extended warranty expired. Just before I got rid of it, my amplifier went and a replacement amplifier was $1100. An after market amplifier would have costed me $1300, so no cost savings there.

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Originally Posted by Azmodon

I followed the chrysler model for break in, given it was a non-test driven car when I got it. Their white papers don't care much about seals and seats, but properly case hardening surfaces. So it's more to do with heat cycling than RPM, but yeah, got the car, oil change, 1000K of cycling with no highway, oil change + chemlube. Use as normal.

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Thanks I am pretty much going with the 2000 km cycling with no highway and oil change once the car hits 2000km