hi everyone, just wanted to see if everyone always warms up and down there turbo's. I own a fabia vrs and love it, but sometimes i do drive it briskly before the turbo has warmed up. Does anybody have a rough idea how long it takes for the turbo to warm up and warm down on the fabia? Cheers

A friend of mine (Not just a "guesser" but someone who is involved in engines/turbos/tuning to a much higher level and higher performance than our little fabia vRS and far higher level than I understand) gave me some advice about my turbo:

He has said to me, just take it steady for the first and last few miles of the journey, low revs, bellow turbo range if you can as all turbo's need cooling as they spin at very fast speeds and the temperatures involved are very large.

He gave me this advice after I blew my turbo in Fabia vRS and another in an Octavia:

The turbo went in my fabia after a fast run, lots of turbo range overtakes and then parked it for five before my other half drove it, on my other half at low speed and revs the turbo blew. I have been told by the dealer that it was a fauly seal and has happened to a lot to other people, but, you never know, was it a cooling issue?!?!

The second was an octavia that Is regulaly used, strained, and rarely cooled properly, that went up in a cloud of smoke! Ooops, about 30k on the clock, but must stress that that vehicle, due to the nature of its use, gets used hard by very different driving styles and I am of the opinion that its not built for the abuse its going to get.

Hope this helps,

look after your little turbo, cos its a great car!

I will try and look after mine as well from now!

Kiss of death, but keeping it below 3k until the engine temp shows 90 and leaving it idling for a few seconds before switching off has been fine for me for the last 68,000 miles. The car is very rarely off-boost, and in my experience of reliability assessment, a device that is in regular, extended use will tend to be more reliable than on that is constantly being stopped and started (I know the turbo turns all the time, but the vanes will be jiggling back and forth constantly if you're on/off boost all the time, which can't be good for the mechanism...)

I realise this is far less than other people do, but then things like Transits get ragged from the moment they're started and turned off the moment they stop (if not before!) and you'd expect to see hard shoulders littered with them if they were as fragile as some people suggest! I have posted this article numerous times before in answer to questions like yours, and although the turbo on the Fabia isn't water cooled AFAIK, the significance of the quality and sophistication of the oil should not be under-rated!

thanks guys thats really helpful, i only drive 7 miles to work so i'm going to try and not run on boost during this time. I.ve got a mate who runs a rover 200 turbo and he has to constantly warm up and cool down his turbo!

haha yeah my mate has the 200 turbo and he drives like a pussy most of the time, rovers seem to take forever to warm up

I'm sorry but that statement about the turbo spinning at 150,000 rpm after the engine has been switched off is utter b0llocks, having worked with turbo's a fair bit the turbo will stop spinning almost instantly, how can a turbo continue producing boost and spinning when there is no drive provided by the exhaust gas?

Also, driving slower and letting it idle for a few seconds will make almost no difference in temperature at all, it might bring it down from the point where its glowing after a hard run but realistically its still going to be bloody hot especially given the ambient temp in the engine bay around the turbine housing and the fact the cast metal looses heat so slowly. Just my opinion but i may be proved entirely wrong!

my dad used to drive the series one rs turbo and he was told to always let it warm up before giving it a hard time (but then thats always been a rule with any engine ive had) and also to drive the last few miles home at a more casual pace. then let the engine idle for a minute or so before switching off.

we recently put my other halfs turbo on the rollers to map it after a new zorst and although i know turbos glow red hot, ive never really seen one up close at the front of the engine like in the vectra. my word! i was amazed, watching the super heated metal get redder and redder until the whole thing was glowing away! and this is with two aircon units pumping cold air out and another fan plus it was a cold day and the bonnet was open! it really is amazing how much these turbos and manifolds cope with and atfer seeing that i always make sure it gets chance to cool before switching off.

i also saw a nice vid from a friend car where he got a flame comig from within the tubular manifolds. something to do with not quite heat wrapping all of it, certainly made quite a sight!

thanks guys thats really helpful, i only drive 7 miles to work so i'm going to try and not run on boost during this time.

This was the reason I SOLD mine (Ibiza TDi)

I was not doing the miles and when winter came along I was at work and the car was not even warm before I was turning the engine off!!

Saying that I did always leave for a minuet or so after a hard blast

I'm sorry but that statement about the turbo spinning at 150,000 rpm after the engine has been switched off is utter b0llocks, having worked with turbo's a fair bit the turbo will stop spinning almost instantly, how can a turbo continue producing boost and spinning when there is no drive provided by the exhaust gas?

Also, driving slower and letting it idle for a few seconds will make almost no difference in temperature at all, it might bring it down from the point where its glowing after a hard run but realistically its still going to be bloody hot especially given the ambient temp in the engine bay around the turbine housing and the fact the cast metal looses heat so slowly. Just my opinion but i may be proved entirely wrong!

i'd agree with the top statement mate, after all you can hear the turbo spooling up, so why cant you when the engine is off? clearly the exhaust gases have stopped, so would have the turbo.

and your last statement is also true, it dosent make a huge difference, as the temps are massive, but letting the turbo calm down a bit and have some cooler oil going through it while its not spinning madly has to be better than just simply stopping the engine straight away surely?

my dad used to drive the series one rs turbo and he was told to always let it warm up before giving it a hard time (but then thats always been a rule with any engine ive had) and also to drive the last few miles home at a more casual pace. then let the engine idle for a minute or so before switching off.

I think in those days it was needed due to not so good oil, it was always a rule with RST's. I saw my mates animal RST's turbo glowing once it was quite impressive although we had just been off the clock at the time.

Damn that thing was evil.....The only car I've ever left the floor in, he used to scare the living 5hitout of me in that all the time. Ahhhh those were the days no cameras, driving like a tuat at the way.

I suppose letting it cool ain't gonna do any harm really is it.

I've done nearly 50 k in my octy and only ever really let it cool if I've been kicking the crap out of it tbh..... Touch wood it's fine.

Given that modern multigrades run more or less constant centistokes across the temperature range, why should you need to warm the engine up (unless it's sounding slightly tappetty, in which case it won't delive full power anyway)?

Also, since we're talking TDs, they start boosting at about 1500rpm or so. It's probably impossible to avoid revving above that unless you don't exceed 45mph!

I've done nearly 50 k in my octy and only ever really let it cool if I've been kicking the crap out of it tbh..... Touch wood it's fine.

lol great quote there

I'm sorry but that statement about the turbo spinning at 150,000 rpm after the engine has been switched off is utter b0llocks, having worked with turbo's a fair bit the turbo will stop spinning almost instantly, how can a turbo continue producing boost and spinning when there is no drive provided by the exhaust gas?

I think that's the misconception of the person asking the question rather than the one giving the answer, so I wasn't putting that forward as a statement of fact. And while the whole issue of the turbo spinning on or not has been discussed in terms of turbo lag, it's important to remember that while the inertia of the turbine should be as low as possible to minimise the resistance to spooling up, there is also very little friction making it slow down. If it helps, imagine a bicycle wheel. You can get it up to a few dozen rpm pretty quickly and with little effort, however it will continue to spin on for quite some time after you stop applying power. Without an actual brake, the momentum in the turbine will take a significant mount of time to dissipate. And since a turbo is a kind of centrifugal pump, it will happily turn even though there is no fluid (exhaust gas / inlet air)to move

Also, driving slower and letting it idle for a few seconds will make almost no difference in temperature at all, it might bring it down from the point where its glowing after a hard run but realistically its still going to be bloody hot especially given the ambient temp in the engine bay around the turbine housing and the fact the cast metal looses heat so slowly. Just my opinion but i may be proved entirely wrong!

True, but at least (as has already been said, I think) it will allow some cooler oil to run into the fluid bearing, which is where most of the temperature concerns are, rather than the turbo body... And if it makes that little a difference, surely sitting there for five minutes with the engine on is even more of a fool's errand???

I think that's the misconception of the person asking the question rather than the one giving the answer, so I wasn't putting that forward as a statement of fact. And while the whole issue of the turbo spinning on or not has been discussed in terms of turbo lag, it's important to remember that while the inertia of the turbine should be as low as possible to minimise the resistance to spooling up, there is also very little friction making it slow down. If it helps, imagine a bicycle wheel. You can get it up to a few dozen rpm pretty quickly and with little effort, however it will continue to spin on for quite some time after you stop applying power. Without an actual brake, the momentum in the turbine will take a significant mount of time to dissipate. And since a turbo is a kind of centrifugal pump, it will happily turn even though there is no fluid (exhaust gas / inlet air)to move

The majority of turbo bearings are fluid as you said so the turbine shaft floats on a layer of oil, if the engine stops so does the flow of oil so the friction will be greatly increased, also there is the friction acting on the compressor wheel as it moves air about. YouTube - Turbo Spool watch the last few seconds of that video, the turbo stops almost instantly. I have seen it happen in person many many times, they just don't continue to spin. Even ball bearing turbo's don't continue spinning that much longer.

Right you are: in which case, is there any point in doing anything to look after your turbo?

I would say the real turbo killer is producing high boost. When a turbo is spinning at 100,000/150,000 rpm the inertia in the rotating components is huge. I have been to the holset plant and seen what happens when a compressor wheel breaks free, its lethal. Even though everything on the turbo is balanced at manufacture, wear and tear will eventually cause small imbalances that are magnified many many times when its going at full chat!

I have also seen the inside of a turbo from an engine that has ran almost constantly at full engine load for 4 weeks with the turbo glowing 90% of the time, and being shut down with no cooling for checks. It all looked fine, no carbon deposits on the shaft or unusual wear.

One of the hardest duty cycles for a diesel engine and its turbo is a bus. Constantly stopping and starting with the driver accelerating hard after every stop means the turbo is working hard almost constantly, it just kills them off.

Edited 28 August, 200817 yr by apinner

so from the responses so far, would i be right in assuming it doesn't make much difference if any at all to warming up and cooling down the turbo? Thanks to all of you by the way its a very interesting read!

As you say Alex. I've only ever once seen/heard a turbo wheel failure, on a Leyland National (2 IIRC), and the blades were very audible jamming between the piston and the head.

I've seen several blown oil seals, resulting in "visibility 0" smoke screens and an oil consumption of several pints per mile!! :eek:

No i would say that warming the engine before you give it some beans is probably wise, and as long as you don't have the car bouncing of the rev limiter as you park up and instantly switch the engine off your pretty safe to be honest.

No i would say that warming the engine before you give it some beans is probably wise, and as long as you don't have the car bouncing of the rev limiter as you park up and instantly switch the engine off your pretty safe to be honest.

I think that just about covers it nicely:thumbup:

I also remember seeing these a while back, give you an idea of what happens when turbine wheel breaks loose.

I also think this thing would give jason and shify a run for their money! Home of the World's First 7 Second Diesel Dragster

The smoke on that is awesome .....lol

I have always warmed and cooled the turbo,on my previous mk1 and now on the mk2. This also gives time for the engine itself to get up to temperature, oil etc. Helps in winter too, when cold, driving a cold car will mean the windscreen freezes up without the help of the warmers...

Billy

My daily trip now takes 7 minutes, it's not warmed up before I turn it off.

Can't be good for the car? :(

My daily trip now takes 7 minutes, it's not warmed up before I turn it off.

Can't be good for the car? :(

Just give it a serious blast at the weekend mate