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

You need to warm up your engine before you thrash it, to give the oil the best chance of protecting against engine wear. Good modern oils have reduced this effect, but you should still do it to safeguard your engines life. This is regardless of a turbo being present or not, so you don't need to warm a turbo car more compared to a NA car. Engines always need warming.

But you will need to cool a turbo'd car more than a NA one. If you've been ragging it, and then you quickly pull over and key off, you will increase the chances of a 'hot shutdown' (as said, the carbonisation of oil on the shaft and bearing surfaces). Just letting the engine idle for a couple of minutes after a hard run will help prevent against this. The turbo is considerably hotter than the rest of the engine, so by letting it idle you will be pumping relatively cooler oil through the turbo and helping to reduce turbo temperatures. This is less important with water cooled bearing housings (such as the one in the Mk1 Octy vRS). As obviously after you key off after a hard run, the coolant system continues to run and the fan cools the coolant, which cools the turbo. Reducing the chances of hot shutdown.

When a turbo fails, it's almost never it's own fault.

I did not know that.

Are you sure about that :confused:

If your right and the thermostat ever failed in the closed position then the engine could get fried to a crisp with the coolant temp gauge showing stone cold

Surely Skoda aint that silly

Turns out I was wrong (again!) The sensor is on the "hot" side of the 'stat after all - so apologies for that! It is on a bit of a dead-leg though, which I think explains the way it works in terms of what shows on the gauge. The failure mode is right, though (or in the case of the housing on the MPi, that fails so that the 'stat is open...)

Turns out I was wrong (again!) The sensor is on the "hot" side of the 'stat after all - so apologies for that! It is on a bit of a dead-leg though, which I think explains the way it works in terms of what shows on the gauge. The failure mode is right, though (or in the case of the housing on the MPi, that fails so that the 'stat is open...)

I finally looked at my Haynes last night, and think this is right.

On some models the sender is on the head, and on others it's on a deadhead off the engine side of the stat housing (so will probably tend to read low when the stat's closed and there's no flow past the deadhead).

To the original question: "Does anybody have a rough idea how long it takes for the turbo to warm up and warm down on the fabia?"

I would have to answer: I allow the oil to flow through all of the engine (and the turbo). ( I did not mention oil heating up as the viscocity of the oil is pretty low and hence doesn't need thinning, but that will depend on what you use)

Cooling down, the last 5 minutes before I arrive home, I calm down, to allow less hot oil to get to the bearing, but more importantly, to allow the coolant to get the heat away from the Turbo. Standing still while keeping the engine is in my opinion not the best way (being pedantic here), whereas if you drive at >30 mph, you obviously allow cooler air on the engine components, and the fact the engine is running means both oil and water get pumped around.

How long depends entirely on what oil you are using and how spirited your run was

Plus of course, half the turbo sits in the exhaust system. The problem isn't the turbo spinning, it's that the oil left in the turbo can get cooked onto the bearing surfaces.

You hit the nail on the head there

...to allow the coolant to get the heat away from the Turbo...

Notwithstanding the fact that the turbo on the Fabia isn't watercooled!

(I made that assumption too, at first...)

Notwithstanding the fact that the turbo on the Fabia isn't watercooled!

(I made that assumption too, at first...)

OTOH oil is also a coolant, particularly in "air"-cooled engines (slightly o/t, but relevant to the subject of engine cooling).

Notwithstanding the fact that the turbo on the Fabia isn't watercooled!

(I made that assumption too, at first...)

thanks for that info