Petrol heads a question

[sandsnakes]

Hi Chaps,

I am looking for information about how long car engines are tested before the car is sold to the public. I am interest in cars in the show room, not test beds and design prototypes. Having said that how long do they run an engine for before it is released for general sale?

What better place to ask than BCUK...where resides a worldwide cross section of the font of all knowlege.
:You_Rock_
Links would be most useful.

Sandsnakes

 

[markie*mark0]

In essence the factory test that everything works, engine revs through the full range, changes into every gear, brakes ABS etc etc all work.

But they will not run an engine in. The engine will have very fine "bedding" in oil when its first sold, this is to help the pistons bed with the barrels and they reccomend a run in period for X amount of miles, then to change the oil to a regular viscosity.

 

[ex-member BareThrills]

Engines are generally not broken in at the factory. Some manufacturers electrically crank them to test everything works but what you see on the clock is usually the extent of engine run time. I know this is the case for VW and Porche. They will be driven off the track and thats pretty much it

 

[santaman2000]

Engines are generally not broken in at the factory. Some manufacturers electrically crank them to test everything works but what you see on the clock is usually the extent of engine run time. I know this is the case for VW and Porche. They will be driven off the track and thats pretty much it

Yep. When I bought my Jeep (almost 20 years ago) I was the first one to test drive it and it had less than 2 miles on it. That included driving it on and off the delivery truck and positioning it on the dealer's lot.

 

[ex-member Raikey]

engineering nowadays dictate little or no running in period is needed,

lubricant technology has come on leaps and bounds and machining proceses have removed irregular tolerances that used to exist in mass produced stuff,

volume manufacturers as such wont spend money doing so if its not needed,

the engine in a showroom car has probably only been used to roll it along the final stages of production and onto the QC where owt silly would be captured,

i think this is the same even with the higher end marques to a point.

 

[ex-member BareThrills]

I think Ferrari still test engines as they are cast from aluminium and can be fragile if there are flaws in the casting process. ill just pop out to the garage and check.......not

 

[crosslandkelly]

I think that new engine designs used to be tested for 500 hours before going into production. But these days it's probably done on a computer model.

 

[johnnytheboy]

Why are you interested in this sandsnakes?? just curious

Most engines are standardised, i.e one engine can be in allot of different models and manufacturers, so the designs tend to be tried and tested! the old fiat 1.9tdi diesel was in vauxhalls and saabs for years!

 

[pastymuncher]

If they survive the journey from the end of the production line to the car park then they'll probably last a good while. Never saw so many written off new cars as I saw in the Volvo factory in Sittard Holland.

 

[joejoe]

depends bently pull one engine out and run it for 9 hours at full rev. ps must get out more`

 

[Andy BB]

All the manufacturers test new engines pretty much to destruction to identify potential flaws. However, the end product tends to be factory fresh.

 

[cbr6fs]

That's a impossible question to answer as it will vary enormously not only manufacturer to manufacturer, but also from model to model, as some higher brand models will get different engines and different testing than models lower down the scale.

The vast vast amount of manufacturers Dyno test the cars before they leave the factory to test the drive train and power outputs.

Some like Ferrari are Dyno tested AND driven around the track to test everything is working.

 

[sandsnakes]

My curiosity is based around some 'soak test' data i was promised. I was trying to establish a kind of average of how long new tech was tested for and also the time it was run for before sale.

I got a technical report which basically said.. yeah we built it, we ran it for a couple of hours, whats your problem!?

 

[Fat Rog]

My curiosity is based around some 'soak test' data i was promised. I was trying to establish a kind of average of how long new tech was tested for and also the time it was run for before sale.

I got a technical report which basically said.. yeah we built it, we ran it for a couple of hours, whats your problem!?

Sounds about right. With some companies if it ain't covered by their FAQ's forget it, you'd get more sense out of a slug. A few years back we got a new brand new car, it had only 3 miles on the clock. From the production line to the compound might be a mile and a half and from the compound to the trailer might be another mile and a half. So I'm guessing that it wasn't run for more than a few minutes before I picked it up from the dealers. But the manufacturer will have tested that type of engine to near destruction or to absolute destruction before starting a production run. Then they will pick engines off the line at random and put them through the same tests to ensure consistency. The big manufacturers like Ford and Vauxhall make so many that, to test every single engine beyond a basic run test is not feasable. I watched a documentary a few years ago about Honda bikes (at least I think it was Honda, could've been Suzuki but defo a Jap company). Every bike off the line is put on the dyno and taken through the gears to maximum revs and back down again before being crated up for distribution. The whole process takes less than a minute, which is precisely how long it takes for the next bike to come off the line.

 

[MertzMan]

The mileage is reset on the odo by the dealer if it is less than 8 miles if i remember correctly.

 

[santaman2000]

The mileage is reset on the odo by the dealer if it is less than 8 miles if i remember correctly.

That's illegal here (odometer tampering) and I would have thought it was there as well.

 

[cbr6fs]

My curiosity is based around some 'soak test' data i was promised. I was trying to establish a kind of average of how long new tech was tested for and also the time it was run for before sale.

I got a technical report which basically said.. yeah we built it, we ran it for a couple of hours, whats your problem!?

A lot depends on the technology involved and the company.
Most companies that have a motorsport division use motorsport as a test bed for new technology, from really basic stuff like rear view mirrors to stuff like crumple zones were "borrowed"from motorsport.

A surprising amount of technology has been carried over from aircraft engineering, but still it was often motorsport that initially adapted aircraft technology.
Materials we often use on cars these days that were adapted from aircraft, tested in racing cars then passed down to highway cars like the various alloys, aluminium, carbon fibre, titanium etc etc (we'll forget about magnesium for now togo.


Disc and ABS brakes, modern independent suspension layout, Forced induction from Superchargers and turbo's, transmissions especially the modern dual clutch DSG types, Aerodynamics, weigh distribution, even tyres have moved on dramatically over the last 20 years mostly due to new designs being tested in motorsport.

 

[pastymuncher]

If your talking R&D then the testing is huge but that is to eliminate production line testing as much as possible.
I worked for a company that developed new technology for major motor manufacturers, and the testing programmes were exhaustive on prototypes let alone the pre production items. Also the oil companies test their products in the vehicles as well, there are fleets of cars driving around the country day in day out just to get real world results on the engines and lubricants.
Honda in Swindon have their own test track on site not to mention the environmental test cells etc.
All these measures are put in place to minimise production times whilst maintaining quality i.e find the problems before you start production

 

[sandsnakes]

Thanks chaps, very informative.

 

[Lyope]

I still don't understand the question. Do you mean how long does an R&D engine get run for - or how long does each production engine get run for as it rolls off the line and goes through QC?

When I worked in an automotive factory, the lads on the line put a couple of litres of fuel in the engine, popped the vehicle onto a rolling road and took it through its paces. Couple of miles, max. Then at the other end, there was PDI and delivery mileage.

Whereas if you're talking R&D, then engines get run to destruction regularly. That's the point of R&D. Build it, break it, build it better.