Running in a new STI
 

I'll be taking ownership of a new 2016 STI in a week or so and I was wondering about running it in. From what I have read it's best to stay below 4,000rpm for the first 1,000 miles (1,600 km) and to avoid stressing the engine too much by being in too high a gear.

I'll be using it as a daily driver for a couple of weeks before taking a trip back to the UK to visit family and friends. This will hopefully knock most of the miles/kilometers off in a short time - it's about 360miles from home to the UK, and is 4hrs motorway to Calais/Dunkirk, and then a couple more from Dover.

From the US owners manual, as I can't find a UK one anywhere online it says:

The performance and long life of your vehicle are dependent on how you handle and care for your vehicle while it is new. Follow these instructions during the first 1,000 miles (1,600 km):

. Do not race the engine. And do not allow engine speed to exceed 4,000 rpm
except in an emergency.
. Do not drive at one constant engine or vehicle speed for a long time, either fast or slow.
. Avoid starting suddenly and rapid acceleration, except in an emergency.
. Avoid hard braking, except in an emergency

The second one concerns me as that's more or less what will happen on my drive back to the UK. I currently own a 2003 WRX and this is exactly the same trip I made when I got that from new, I had it a few days then drove it to the UK but the above recommendations were not known to me then - 13yrs & 86,000km later I don't think it did it any harm.

Any advice, or am I worrying too much about it and just do the trip normally avoiding any harsh driving?

running in
 

in my sti 3000 rpm in 6th gear is 90 mph 4000rpm is an indicated 110 so varied speed is do able . I think they tell you not to slow quickly is because the hot oil slops to the front of sump missing oil pick up so starves crank, rods , etc from lube

id be to scared to drive it aswell after reading that.. just get in and enjoy it, just wouldnt cain the life out of it straight away...:yeah: if all else fails its brand new it will have warrenty surely.

Recommended engine break in procedures vary greatly depending on who you speak to, some swear by the slow break in others recommend lots of over run and engine braking to bed the rings some no boost, some moderate boost and others just drive it like to stole it from the off!

Follow the manufactures guidelines and do an early good quality oil change and you should be fine. Make sure you warm the car up properly - this takes longer than you think, oil temps take at least twice as long as water and mine doesn't reach 80 until at least 10 minutes into the journey.

Thanks for the tips. I think my normal driving style will do me, I'm not a racer but "appreciate" what an STI is all about, but I will be more wary of the extended warm-up which I hadn't considered.

I'll just take it easy and seeing as I have a contested speeding ticket (scamera in roadworks back in January) in Belgium I'll be sticking to their 120kph (75mph) or lower speed limits for most of the trip. Don't want to chance another.

Hi,sounds like your Subaru history is a mirror of mine. 2002 WRX 95,000kms (now sold) and I have also ordered a 2016 STi, although I still have to wait 10 weeks for delivery. I remember with my WRX I took it quite carefully for the first 1,600kms and the slowly increased revs over the next 500kms. Agree with Nick, make sure its warmed up before any hard driving. What clour did you go for?

Hey there. Yes very similar.

I went for a WR Pearl Blue, I did want a black or dary grey, but that was going to be a 6 month wait and and extra €1,000, and the blue one was sitting in Belgium, was the right spec (2016, Sport Premium) and I'm an impatient git ;-) I got to drive a 2015 week before last that a dealer on Belgium drove over for me to test and that was when I decided I had to have one.

I believe the most important thing is to warm the engine thoroughly every time, then try to observe the 4,000 rpm limit. When I bought mine (and later when I had the engine rebuilt) I had to drive from Tewkesbury to Eastbourne, mainly on motorways and dual carriageways. I just varied my speed and gear within the 4,000 rev limit. As a consequence my engine has never used any oil, other than the odd leak.

Enjoy your new motor!

Thanks again - I was also going to set the rev counter alert to something like 3,800 that way I at least have an audio queue as a reminder. I doubt I will remain at anything like a constant speed, so hopefully that will provide some variety - I think I will also stop for 10min every hour (mostly for my own good).

Still got it Phil?

Indeed I do Steve. Still enjoying the Merc though, even if it's currently in the garage with mysterious electrical gremlins which they seem at a loss to get to the bottom of.

Still, gives me the chance to drive the T25 :)

The merc has just had its first service. It had electrical gremlins too. The swipe facility on the touchpad stopped working, I keep getting a warning that my drivers side mirror indicator doesn't work but if I switch the car off it clears, and the fuel filler cap sometimes refuses to open. Be interesting to see I your are the same?.

Glad to hear the T25 is still with you. The Merc goes back at the end of the year ;)

Sorry to the OP for the thread Hyjack.....

Back to topic!

We had an issue with the motor in the fuel filler flap too, plus the lights on the door handles failed. The touchpad on my son's first car also failed (along with a lot of other things). The curr not problem is the screen failed, taking all the controls on the centre console with it, so no phone, radio, sat nav are temperature adjustment! Went in on Monday and still not back yet because they're having problems loading the software onto the new conect unit. Don't think we'll be keeping it past the life of its warranty!

Having said all that, it's a great car - when it's going!

[/thread hijack]

It's here.....
 

I got a call from the dealer today that my STI had arrived and "was looking good" :yeah:

Going to pay them a visit tomorrow morning before work and give it the once over before they take it to the Luxembourg SNCA (Société Nationale de Circulation Automobile) for its first registration. It's a busy time for new registrations as a lot of orders come in that were placed during the January auto-festival, so it might still be a week before I can officially take ownership :oldman:

Cool. Exiting stuff :doubleup:

Wish I had a call that mine had arrived ��

And here it is....
 

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/RO...=w1088-h816-no

I sat in it for a while, got to start it up as well. It has all the protection wrappings all over it still over course and just 6km on the clock - it will have some more added in the coming weeks, but hopefully not too many more before I get my hands on it.

Unfortunately the best date I could get for taking ownership is 29th April, at 10am (they'll register it the day before) - partly as Subaru haven't sent the garage all the paperwork and mainly because the registration centre is so damned busy.

Looks very nice. Does it come with all the options as standard.Here in France you buy it with all the options as standard (heated seats,electric sunroof, tinted rear windows,reversing camera,etc).Look forward to hearing your views once its your regular drive.

We get the Benelux models, which comprises of two, the Sport and Sport Premium and I got the latter:

Went to see the car again today, pick-up still booked for this Friday, and took a few more pics. Annoyingly it was raining and but now has its plates attached ready for registration this week.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/zP...=w1094-h812-no

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Ip...=w1094-h812-no

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/qh...=w1094-h812-no

I took a friend and we played around with the in-car systems and there's a fair bit to learn, so I'm glad it's been set to English.

The following few days especially at work are going to be very long I fear :waiting:

Looks good, bet ur itching to take it. What's the eyelet poking out of the rear bumper?

You bet :drive:

It's a tow-hook - they haven't removed it yet from its transportation from Belgium and if memory serves me they'll leave it with the car for future use (I think my MY03 still has one secreted somewhere). The whole car is apparently still in "transport mode", which is why I couldn't take it for drive yet :cry:

Thought it might be, looked a little drastic tho.

Yes, it unscrews and you put a plastic cap/plug over the hole. You'll see them on pretty much all modern cars - not to be confused with the two on the front bumper that are the headlight washers of course, you can just see the one for the front to the side of the indicator/fog light.

I always thought there wud b a built in eye behind rather than an attachable one. Never needed to pop one out.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Ho...Q=w772-h530-no

There are also several tie-down eye-hooks under the car for transportation.

Finally run-in
 

Just come back from the garage where at approximately 2,200km I had the oil changed - today was the earliest they could fit me in after returning from the UK last week.

For the princely sum of €172 they put in Total Evolution Fully Synthetic 0W30 (this is what they have written on the invoice), new filter, topped up the washer fluid and gave it a quick check over to be sure nothing was out of place.

Unfortunately the trip back to the office hasn't allowed me a real opportunity to push the car beyond 4k revs, so that pleasure is still to come.

Good job. Still build it up slowly, maybe taking it to 5k for the next 500 or so miles and gradually rather than nailing it to the red line. It really pays dividends if its properly run in :doubleup:

Thanks for the tip - I will adjust the rev limit reminder as well, but even 5k will probably be enough for me I suspect, I'm not an aggressive driver.

0-30w sounds a bit thin to me.

Me too.... Don't know what the book says for the newer cars though. Think ours were 5w30 in the book but that's not been near my car in 8 or 9 years :)

I'll check the owners manual and the sticker they put near the drivers door tomorrow and see what it says.

The Legacy is 0-30w but that's due to the timing chain. 10-40 or 10-50 is the usual recommendation for a fast road impreza.

The various versions of the 2016 WRX/WRX STI manuals, which includes US/Canada, Australia, Japan (English), Benelux (French) all say the standard oil for the STI should be 5W30, with use of 5W40 only for a short time and flushed out as soon as possible.

Having said that, when I hunted around looking for 0W30 many sites say it an alternative for 5W30 for lower temperature climates, but I didn't see anyone saying it would be bad for the car. The "0W" being more fluid and hence better lubricating on cold starts. The extremely important figure is the "30" and how it behaves when the engine is at normal temperature.

My feeling is that I don't think it's a problem, but I will contact the garage on Monday and just confirm things with them.

I was recommended to use Castrol Magnetic 5W40 in my old WRX. Never had any problems.

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...219a250a45.jpg

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

Need another update,please while I'am waiting for mine to arrive.

That reminds me, I must check the oil level - it's not easy for me as I live in an apartment block and I park underground on a car-lift so the front of the car faces the wall. As I need to do it when the car is cold I have wait and then carefully step in front of the car to access it - doesn't help that the lighting is not very good there either.

I'll try and gather some thoughts and post them in my main thread where I wrote my other stuff.