I was told by my dealer that new diesel engines do not require running in these days, although the manual says different.... I have been taking it easy so far (no thrashing the engine !) but was wondering if you have to be careful with the speed and braking for a while or not ?
And do you need to open it up every now and then to clean any crap out or not ?
Any advice is much appreciated ! Thanks !

Most if not all modern engines require little or no running in. Your brakes will be fine might take a bit (250miles) to get upto full power, but chancers are you will never notice, just drive the FL2 as normal as long as that is not bouncing it off the rev limiter and jamming on the brakes from high speed all will be fine. One tip use good fuel dont put supermarket crap in it, try useing Shell or shell Vpower or the same from Esso, Total etc

Hi Buck,

Please read this discussion and hopefully will enlighten you:

http://www.freel2.com/forum/post63199.html

R,
vibecy

Thanks for the advice !
So should you thrash the engine once in a while - does it help the engine ?

lmorris4975 wrote:

Most if not all modern engines require little or no running in. Your brakes will be fine might take a bit (250miles) to get upto full power, but chancers are you will never notice, just drive the FL2 as normal as long as that is not bouncing it off the rev limiter and jamming on the brakes from high speed all will be fine. One tip use good fuel dont put supermarket crap in it, try useing Shell or shell Vpower or the same from Esso, Total etc

As with any new brake linnings and discs that are new or have just been replaced there is a short run in time if you want to use this expression. Both disc and linnings need to bed in so as to get maximum braking pressure so take it easy on the brakes for the first 200 miles or so with lots of gentle braking rather then a few heavy ones unless you need to do an emergancy stop
As for engines, its true that they are made with much more high quality than previous years but i would still take it easy on the engine for a while that way you cant do much damage and on the plus side you wont burn as much diesel

Uncle Buck wrote:

So should you thrash the engine once in a while - does it help the engine ?

It helps cleaning all deposits of carbon residue from inside the engine, the exhaust manifold and turbo-charger that could lead, in time, to an early turbo-charger malfunction.
You know how it feels when a wheel is full of mud and therefore is out of balance. A lot of vibrations at speed.
The same happens with the turbine and the carbon deposits on its input impeller. An out of balance impeller will translate in vibration in turbine shaft which will lead, in time, to an excessive shaft play. An because the shaft is rotating on an "pressurized oil bearing", that oil, because of the shaft excessive play, will find its way into intake manifold and combustion chamber.
Also the vanes of the turbo's variable geometry could get stuck or move with difficulty because of the same carbon deposits. And a stuck variable geometry will cause a MIL condition and a "limp-home" mode. You don't want to know how much a turbo rebuilt will cost...

So, yes, once in a while (I do it at least once a week) give a few full throttle accelerations, until the red line - a so called "italian tune up" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_tuneup
You will see that on the first acceleration you'll see behind a big cloud of black smoke, but on the following ones you'll see that there is little or no smoke at all. That first cloud were the carbon deposits on the exhaust manifold.
Don't worry, the engine could take it. In fact the opacity and pollution (emission test) of a diesel engine is measured at its max power RPM, which in the case of FL2 is 4000 RPM. So the engines are built to run at that speed without problems.
But safety first - do it on a free road, without traffic!

christo the lord wrote:

lmorris4975 wrote:

Most if not all modern engines require little or no running in. Your brakes will be fine might take a bit (250miles) to get upto full power, but chancers are you will never notice, just drive the FL2 as normal as long as that is not bouncing it off the rev limiter and jamming on the brakes from high speed all will be fine. One tip use good fuel dont put supermarket crap in it, try useing Shell or shell Vpower or the same from Esso, Total etc

i thought that supermarket fuel was the same nowadays is it still not as good as the likes of bp ect

[quote="christo the lord"]

lmorris4975 wrote:

i thought that supermarket fuel was the same nowadays is it still not as good as the likes of bp ect

thanks mate Chris Binns

Thanks Alex - excellent response as always !!

Another urban Myth about supermarkets using different fuel than petrol stations (as if petrol stations would price match Tescos if they were putting more expensive additives in) They are all refined and supplied from the very same giant tanks in the refineries only the "super" diesel has additives-"put a tiger in ya tank" !!!

[quote="npinks"]

christo the lord wrote:

lmorris4975 wrote:

i thought that supermarket fuel was the same nowadays is it still not as good as the likes of bp ect

Your partly right, the diesel is the same, but it's the additives they put in it that are different.

I would think BP etc will put the better/expensive ones in compared to Tesco etc

Hi the diesel is not the same supermarkets use 50 RON, SHELL and BP use 55 RON might not sound much but with the additives it makes for a cleaner burn, less carbon build up in the engine and no black smoke out of the rear, and when you think it only cost about £3.50 more to use V Power than supermarket poo per full tank its well worth the extra. i can never figure out why people spend £1000's on a car and then put cheap crap oil in the engine and poo fuel in the tank, with engine oil and fuel you get what you pay for!

[quote="lmorris4975"]

npinks wrote:

christo the lord wrote:

lmorris4975 wrote:

i thought that supermarket fuel was the same nowadays is it still not as good as the likes of bp ect

Your partly right, the diesel is the same, but it's the additives they put in it that are different.

I would think BP etc will put the better/expensive ones in compared to Tesco etc

Hi the diesel is not the same supermarkets use 50 RON, SHELL and BP use 55 RON might not sound much but with the additives it makes for a cleaner burn, less carbon build up in the engine and no black smoke out of the rear, and when you think it only cost about £3.50 more to use V Power than supermarket poo per full tank its well worth the extra. i can never figure out why people spend £1000's on a car and then put cheap crap oil in the engine and poo fuel in the tank, with engine oil and fuel you get what you pay for!

There are several good fuel additives on the market which you can add yourself to help desolve carbon deposites such as redex. You can pick it up from most car stores such as halfords but make sure you get the one for deisel not petrol unless yours is a petrol engine.