Pick up new WRX this week, do they need to be run in, or should I rag it from day 1?

Thanks

Jonesy

 

Two schools of thought on this.

The official one of running in is the one to go for as the car 'supposedley' (sp)? comes with running in oil that's changed at the 1000 mile service. Just keep the engine under 4000rpm but varied (ie no long cruises at 3k). Scoobs are notoriously tight for at least 5000 miles after which they really start to come alive and continue to get better with age/milage.

The other school of thought does make sense but not many scoob owners actually do it. It goes something like this: Rag the engine silly in the 1st 20-30 miles (after a good warm up as always of course..!) then change oil. The idea is that this creates a better piston ring seal and hence better compression= more power. It has to be done in the first few miles of an engines life whilst the liners still have honiing marks.

There is a web page somewhere outlining this in more detail.

A search on here will also bring up more info.

Needless to say I did it the traditional way, not enough bottle with my own car..!

 

Bingo! I believe some scooby engine experts contributed to the thread you mentioned in passing and cast serious doubt over the validity of the claims of that website.

Personally, I wouldn't dream of thrashing a new car. Run in it as per the instructions in the manual. At the end of the day Subaru built it, they're the people you shoould be listening to regarding running it in.

NS04