Hello, My fabia estate 1.4 tdi 80 is on order and I was wondering what advice people have been given on how to run the engine in? As this is my first new car I have no idea about the procedure. Any help and advice would be great. Thank you!!!

Keep revs below 3500 and do not exceed 60mph for the first 1000 miles. No over reving and just take things steady is about it in a nutshell. There is more complex advise in teh owners hand book but it is not always an easy read.

Best to make sure you hit 3000 rpm on a regular basis during the first 1000miles and thereafter progress by 500rpm each 1000 miles untill you reach 4500rpm then ensure that you hit 4500rpm at least a couple of times a week from then on. You can comfortably exceed 60mph during first 1000 miles!

You could safely do 70-80mph with no bother as 1,000 revs is about 28mph in 5th gear but don't labour it and vary your speed from time to time.

I read the same thing on Honest John. People may or may not agree with this but here's the article. Bear in mind a PD diesel doesn't rev as high as most modern ones!

Honestjohn: Frequently Asked Questions

This topic was covered in a different thread (please see above).

Hi Jaxx, there's some good advice from the blokes on here. Just remember...the speed you drive at is not quite so important as the load on the engine and revs you are using at any one time. Make sure you don't plonk it around at low revs too much, and don't rev it too hard with big bootfuls of throttle. Try to drive it "normally" with the above points in mind and you won't go wrong...but do read the owners manual...it has some good running in advice. I've covered 230 miles in my new Fabia TDI PD 80 Estate and it is rapidly becoming more powerful as the miles go on. ENJOY!!

To estateman, would "normal" mean trying to keep the revs between 1500 - 3000? You wrote about not labouring the engine... Does the engine labour when using under a certain amount of revs??? Someone put above that there is a complicated explanation in the manual but I was hoping for something in laymans terms. I've never owned a diesel so it's very new to me!

just drive it normal, this was advice i got from a skoda mechanic, the engines have already been ragged to f--- around the factory at the transporter, docks and even pdi. any damage done would have been done in the first few miles.

Hello Jaxx,

Yes...just keep the revs in the intermediate bracket of say 1750 to 2500rpm for the first 500miles but do get her upto 3000rpm quite often when hot to excercise her. You need a little metal to metal contact in the bores on the high spots to wear her in. That's important. And don't worry...you won't damager her. The engines are very robust and not easily damaged unless you go stupid with your foot hard down repeatedly. But for the best result keep to what the manual says. Diesels take longer to run in properly and you must give them plenty of work to do in the initial first 500miles or they never run in properly.