3 things my mechanic said will help a turbo last longer

[Hall]

I know I frequently refer to "what does the owners manual say ?" but in this case, it's really an honest question. I do remember decades ago when Chrysler was putting turbos in everything (and slapping "Shelby" stickers on cars) and they did say in the manuals to let them idle to cool down the turbos. I even think they had stickers inside the car (maybe on the instrument panel or something) saying the same. Today though, I don't think it's as applicable (can't hurt either though). On my wife's Fusion, and someone above already mentioned this, when you shut the car off, something continues running and I'm 99% confident it's related to the turbo. The owners manual says nothing about idling cool-down periods either.

 

[ATex7239]

He is probably correct...

Also Me: Running Motorcraft synblend to 7,500 while shutting the turbo’ed engine off the second it’s parked

 

[Pelican]

Always use full synthetic, never go longer than 5K miles on an oil change, and let the engine idle for 10 seconds before shutting it down...have you heard similar?

Yes indeed and I've heard one better, don't go on the turbo till the whole block is nice and warm.
That was with old technology, not to shut down was because of turbo lubrication, I've heard that the new gen turbo don't depend on the engine oil to lubricate so that may not be applicable now.

 

[Jimmy_Russells]

I see far more turbo damage from morons jumping into equipment at work (not theirs, of course) and going full tilt when the thing is stone cold. Seems to affect turbos a lot more than engines.

 

[Jetronic]

I have heard idle down as well. But when I shut down the wife's Kona, I hear what sounds like an electric motor running for about 30 seconds. I was assuming this was running coolant around in the engine to help cool the turbo.

None of the konas I worked on had that.

 

[wpod]

I say yes to the first 2, but at least my opinion on the third, you need to make that longer IF you were aggressive with the throttle before shut down. If you were driving like Grandpa then it is ok. If you came off the hwy/towing/ or just raced a WRX, there is a sliding scale to that time.

The conventional wisdom I have heard is 'idle" doesn't pump enough oil /water past the turbo to amount to much heat carry-off. Especially oil, as your turbo shaft bearing is susceptible to " Coking"( depositing HARD burnt up byproducts from burnt oil) with extreme heat and low oil flow. From my research you need to hold the throttle at 1,500 rpm where oil pressure/flow and water pressure /flow has at least doubled+ to get the heat carry-off a chance to do it's job.

I have spirited drives into work and depending on if a was just aggressive driving or did a 3 gear run with a WRX at 6:00 AM, just before driving into the parking lot of work. I had a guy from work ask me, "why are you driving around the parking lot 5-6 time before you park?" Or I pass the parking lot and drive down the road and turn around to give the oil and water flow time to shed the heat from the turbo. There are times where I am thinking and forgot to do a driving cool down and know I have a semi- hot turbo I will sit in the car at 1,500 rpm and have the heater on full hot/fan high for 1-2 minutes to shed heat.

If I am driving normally, will just turn it off and let my ester Redline and water in the turbo take the heat as that is why I use Redline to take some worse case scenarios of heat I give my car. With all my experience at work with PAO and POE rotory compressor oil, I don't trust any PAO in a high heat scenario, where POE just walks through the heat with no varnishing, where the PAO would be full of varnish.

Redlines additive package leaves lots of deposits if over heated.

 

[grampi]

Yeah I heard those 20 years ago.

1. Use the recommended oil
2. stick to the schedule.
3. Don't floor it into your parking space.

Same for every car, really.

Number's 1 and 2 may not necessarily be true. It's possible a blend could be recommended, but I would stick with full syn. Also, it's possible the recommended change interval could be 7500 or more, but I would stick to 5K...

 

[grampi]

Good

Now Turbo motors have a feature that run the system to cool down the turbos after you shut off the motor. Has your mechanic worked on one and seen these systems?

Good question, IDK...

 

[RooflessVW]

Number's 1 and 2 may not necessarily be true. It's possible a blend could be recommended, but I would stick with full syn. Also, it's possible the recommended change interval could be 7500 or more, but I would stick to 5K...

If that's what you need for piece of mind.

 

[Propflux01]

None of the konas I worked on had that.

Well, mine does. Sounds just like a small electric motor, high pitch whirr

 

[Mainia]

Redlines additive package leaves lots of deposits if over heated.

According to Piotr Tester Youtube blow torch test?

 

[Mainia]

None of the konas I worked on had that.

Oh that sound is there. Many people in the Kona forms have brought that up. I always though it was a high pressure fuel system bleed off process.

 

[Andrew1972]

Always use full synthetic, never go longer than 5K miles on an oil change, and let the engine idle for 10 seconds before shutting it down...have you heard similar?

My wife had a 2005 Subaru Legacy GT wagon with turbo. She changed oil every 4K miles with conventional oil, never idled the motor on purpose before shutting down.

She sold with 240k on factory turbo which was working fine.

 

[JHZR2]

Coking was an issue back in the day. It still can be but oils have gotten better and cooling in turbos has improved. It’s not a good idea to shut down rapidly from a heavily loaded state.

I’ve had turbos that are well over 200k miles and barely show any signs of oil seepage, and make their design pressure without issue.

 

[LowMilesLesabre]

My older turbo cars (6 of them, if you’re counting, with 8 turbos among them) have none of the “cool” down systems.

But all get quality synthetic oil. All get driven gently at first on cold start. All get driven slowly before shut down.

All have their original turbo(s).

One is about to hit 280,000 miles. A couple others are over 200,000 miles.

Your mechanic is basically right: good oil. Gentle at first. Let it spool down and cool.

 

[LowMilesLesabre]

Wow. Those are impressive mileage numbers for any car and especially Turbo charged models!

 

[ammolab]

My 2000 Audi S4 V6 twin turbo had an electric after-run water pump to cool those turbos, great!
Not so great… they put that pump UNDER the intake manifold.
Even less great, those pumps all FAILED and Leaked!

 

[Jetronic]

Oh that sound is there. Many people in the Kona forms have brought that up. I always though it was a high pressure fuel system bleed off process.

Yes the sound is there, but none have an electric waterpump. well, the electric konas do of course...

 

[alcyon]

Well my anti heatsoak system has one fan sucking cool air from underneath to blow it over the turbos, and 2 fans for evacuating the hot air out of the engine bay. All this moving air in the engine bay really helps bring down under hood temps after shutdown.

 

[DwightFrye]

Generally that is good advice. As much as I would like to run 7500 mile OCI's in my Mazda CX 5 turbo I do limit it to 5000 miles and use Mobil 1 EP. I also drive the last mile to my house after getting off the highway very casually and figure that is good for the cool down. I also drive gently for that first mile which helps bring the oil and coolant temperature up.

Another consideration is GDI engines combined with a turbo, I think it is good practice to stick with top tier fuels and run a bottle of Techron or the Redline cleaner through the tank about 500 miles prior to an oil change.