this is my first time postin' i've been reading the posts and i enjoyed all your race stories! anyways, i have about 4000 miles on my 2000 se. the problem is that i don't think i broke it in properly. i drove to san francisco from los angeles and back twice before i got 3000 miles on it so.. i hope you people can understand why i had a VERY HARD time trying to keep it under 70 or 60 or whatever the break in speed is.. at first i slipped to 90 without knowing it.. and then to 100.. and then after about 1000 miles i thought.. awe.. what the hell and reached my top speed of 140 (endless open road + desert setting + 3 hours to go, shoot i couldn't help myself)... i've reached and coasted at a 100 a few times in my first 500 miles... i've beaten every car that even thought about challenging my car.. except for a firebird that flew by me when i was at 130.. (that was embarrassing.. cuz he was just PLAYIN' with me) ANYWAYS life has been good until JUST RECENTLY.. when i felt my engine get a tad bit heavy.. and i felt a small struggle.. a cough here and a cough there. it takes a bit longer to warm up my engine and it's a bit louder than i remember it. i'm no mechanic but i'm pretty sure it's because i abused the engine... doh. is there anyway i can make it up to my car?? like give him some premium something so it can get better again???

 

Heres the easy solution--

Dump it at the dealer and say, "Fix!"

Also, you should be feeding your Max a diet of Premium unleaded all the time anyway. It shouldnt be a special treat!

 

first check the obvious, like bad gas. Chances are you have a 100K engine instead of a 200K engine at worst. I would doubt you killed it with 4K miles. they are alittle tougher than that, or salespeople would kill them on their infamous test drives. I was very kind to mine and really I still am quite nice to it.

You could have a low idle or a bad sensor.

 

without running premium, then you might just end up being the poster boy for engine abuse. (ok, notice I said 'doggin', not normal use.. I think we all agree that hammering an engine with out proper octane is pretty bad for it, dont want to start another octane debate.) if you tell them you've been running lower octane, they can deny you warranty work.

 

I seriously doubt your "improper" breakin will cause you any problems.