I was driving home and thinking of this the other day and forgot to post til now. Let me know what you guys think of this theory.
I've heard the whole breakin vs gas mileage and performance issues. Some have said that your gas mileage suffers from a hard break in and thats part of the reason that one should break the car in gently. Well, my theory is that this is true, partially for this reason(ATX). i remember hearing the car has a shift memory based on driving habits. Well, if you break the car in hard, your car sets this shift memory and eventually allows the engine to rev higher before shifting because that is the memory that is set. So when you drive the car gently, this memory takes over and revs the engine high between shifts. I have noticed that this happens with my 3. I didnt exactly baby it while breaking it in. Now, even when I'm slowly accelerating, the car will tend to rev the RPM's quite high, which I'm pretty sure has a negative affect on gas mileage. So, if the shift memory could be reset, wouldn't that let me reset my shift memory to a more economical setting? Furthermore, does the shift memory get affected by the MT mode? If not, one could conceivably drive in Auto mode conservatively therefore setting the shift memory to a conservative mode saving gas, and if they want to drive agressively switch to Manual mode theoretically not affecting the "Conservative" shift memory?
Sorry so long. Curious what others think of this theory. I understand this is not the only reason for taking it easy during breakin.
I've heard the whole breakin vs gas mileage and performance issues. Some have said that your gas mileage suffers from a hard break in and thats part of the reason that one should break the car in gently. Well, my theory is that this is true, partially for this reason(ATX). i remember hearing the car has a shift memory based on driving habits. Well, if you break the car in hard, your car sets this shift memory and eventually allows the engine to rev higher before shifting because that is the memory that is set. So when you drive the car gently, this memory takes over and revs the engine high between shifts. I have noticed that this happens with my 3. I didnt exactly baby it while breaking it in. Now, even when I'm slowly accelerating, the car will tend to rev the RPM's quite high, which I'm pretty sure has a negative affect on gas mileage. So, if the shift memory could be reset, wouldn't that let me reset my shift memory to a more economical setting? Furthermore, does the shift memory get affected by the MT mode? If not, one could conceivably drive in Auto mode conservatively therefore setting the shift memory to a conservative mode saving gas, and if they want to drive agressively switch to Manual mode theoretically not affecting the "Conservative" shift memory?
Sorry so long. Curious what others think of this theory. I understand this is not the only reason for taking it easy during breakin.
